Rules for Students Taking CSc 7999
Selected Readings in Computer Science
Some
rules have been established in order to enforce a higher standard of quality.
First, and foremost, this course
requires a term project and report.
This may lead to a master's project for Engineering Sciences graduate
students. A written statement of
your intended research and project is required, and must be turned in within one
week after the semester commences in which you first sign up for CSc
7999. 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 your instructor's permission). This statement must also include your
email address so your instructor can get in touch with you if need be. You are expected to check your email
regularly to see if any messages have been sent to you.
You
must turn in a written report upon completion of the project. In addition, you may need to do a
demonstration of your project. Both the
final written report and the demonstration must be done by the last
class day of the semester in which you are enrolled in this course.
Second, if this professor is, or
will become, your major professor, you must indicate early on whom else you
want on your committee. This means
within the first semester that you start to work under this
professor. This, too, is not
contractual in that your committee can change, and the committee membership
will be negotiated between you and your major professor.
Third, there must be agreement
between you and your major professor at the time of your written statement on
the nature and scope of the project (or thesis) that you will do. This professor 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 fuzzy ones as applied to retrieval). This professor is also willing to consider
other related topics such as hypermedia, data mining, and web search
engines. You are expected to
concentrate on such topics if you plan to work under this professor.
In
terms of quality, there is the originality of your project to consider. You will need to do more than just a
standard database project, even if it is distributing to allow users to query a
database on another machine, even if adding a front end (GUI) and/or the
ability to access the database from the World Wide Web (WWW). Such projects now are at best worth a term
paper. If you insist on such a project,
you must select another professor, but this professor can be of some help in
finding such a professor. However, if
you can convince thisprofessor, and it will not be easy to do, that there is
something novel and original about your proposed project, and this must be more
than just a change of application, perhaps we can discuss and negotiate the
topic of your project.
Incidentally,
there are all sorts of wonderful ideas for projects (theses) running around
that this professor will accept easily.
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.
Fourth, you are required to contact
this professor at least once every other month once you
start to work under this professor to tell of your progress to date, and to
discuss any problems that you are experiencing (especially in terms of your
research and project) and/or any ideas for expanding or modifying your research
and project.
Fifth, you must follow the
Program guidelines for scheduling your final oral examination in which you will
defend your masters degree project (for Engineering Science graduate
students). This includes sending a
petition to the Graduate School for your final oral at least three weeks
in advance, after you find a time suitable to all members of your advisory
committee. (For Engineering Science
graduate students, don't forget that the Graduate Advisor in the Engineering
Science Program must sign your petition).
Your project report must be submitted to your advisory committee members
at least three days in advance of your examination. You can schedule the Computer Science
Department Conference Room (Coates 297) with Ms. Lynette Jackson in Coates 298
if you wish, but only if you do it early.
Failure to follow these guidelines will result in delaying your oral
examination.
Finally,
failure to adhere to all of the rules outlined above, as well as any rules of
the Department of Computer Science Department, the Graduate School, 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 me.
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