Rules for Undergraduate Students Regarding CSc 4999 (3999) Advanced

Independent Undergraduate Research (Independent Undergraduate Research)

Some rules have been established in order to enforce a higher standard of quality in these courses.

First, and foremost, after you initially sign up for CSc 4999 (3999), a written statement of your intended research and term project is needed, to be turned in within three weeks after the semester in which you are taking CSc 4999 (3999) under me commences. This statement can be a short (a page or less) statement, and it is not a contract in that it can be expanded, modified, and changed over time (with the instructor's permission). This statement must also include your email address so the instructor can get in touch with you if need be; and you are expected to check your email regularly to see if you have been sent any messages.

Second, in terms of quality, there is the originality of your term project. This instructor is interested in fuzzy sets, in information retrieval (especially textual, but am willing to consider images and other media), in genetic algorithms (especially as applied to retrieval), and in rough sets (especially when fuzzy and as applied to retrieval). This instructor is also willing to consider other related topics such as hypermedia, data mining, and web search engines. While this instructor is hopeful that you will concentrate on such topics; this issue of your project can be discussed and negotiated, at least to some extent.

Incidentally, there are all sorts of wonderful ideas for projects running around that this instructor will easily accept. These include making a database out of some very large text files for use in information retrieval or modifying some fuzzy clustering algorithms to work on such files; visualization for retrieval systems; adding intelligence (e.g., data mining via rough sets) for retrieval based on knowledge of the users; data encryption or data compression; neural nets for retrieval; natural language processing for indexing and/or query processing; retrieval applied to software reuse; web retrieval and applying bibliometric laws to retrieval.

Third, you are required to contact your instructor at least once every month during the semester, and to tell me of your progress to date. You should also be prepared to discuss any problems that you are experiencing (especially in terms of your research and term project) and/or any ideas for expanding or modifying your research and term project.

Fourth, when your research and term project is completed, you must turn in a written report. In addition, you may need to do a demonstration of your project. Both the demonstration, if needed, and the final report are due by the last day of classes in the semester in which you are taking this course.

Finally, failure to adhere to all of the rules outlined above, as well as any rules of the Department of Computer Science, the College of Basic Sciences, and LSU, can have serious adverse effects upon your final grade in this course.

If you have any questions or concerns over this matter, please feel free to contact your instructor.

Donald H. Kraft | Professor

Department of Computer Science | Phone: (225) 578-2253

298 Coates Hall | Fax: (225) 578-1465

Louisiana State University | Email: kraft@bit.csc.lsu.edu

Baton Rouge, LA 70803-4020 USA | URL: http://bit.csc.lsu.edu/~kraft