CS 297: Complex Systems

Coursework

• Summary: From a student's viewpoint, this course has four major components:
  • Presentation (40 points). You will present a group of papers, drawing the best elements from each paper into a well-rounded 45-minute presentation.
  • Discussion (15 points). You will participate in discussing papers in class.
  • Homeworks (20 points). There will be two or three minor programming assignments. These are intended to get you prepared for your final project.
  • Final project(35 points) You will pick a topic to work on for your final project, which will be due towards the end of the semester. You will also briefly present your project to the class.

• Presentations:
  • You will present a collection of papers under one theme or group, as arranged in this list of papers.
  • We will cover two groups per class.
  • You should not simply dump the paper's contents onto powerpoint slides and talk through them, but should instead explain the papers' contents. Points will be awarded for effectivness in presentation, creativity and willingness to "go the extra mile" in explaining.
  • What to present:
    • Present the key ideas in each group of papers, including a clear definition of the problem being solved, what approach is used, and what results were obtained. Also tell us why the papers are unique and different from related papers.
    • Mathematics. In this class, some papers have been selected for their mathematical contribution. In these cases, please walk us through some of the key ideas as best as you can. You can do this by going through the steps in the main theorem. In other papers (such as the Barkai paper), simply present the models in detail (perhaps in more detail than in the paper), without proof. Generally, it's more important that we understand mathematical formulation than the solution technique.
    • You might need to read through some of the cited papers in a paper to get appropriate background.
  • If you are using Powerpoint, then make sure you bring your Powerpoint to the classroom before class starts so that you can have your presentation up (using the PC in the classroom).
  • See this for tips on how to give presentations.

• Discussion:
  • Each presentation will be followed by a short 10-15 discussion, conducted and led by students. You will sign up as "lead discusser" for one presentation other than your own presentation. You will also sign up as "discusser" for three additional presentations (not counting your own presentation or the one you've selected as "lead discusser").
  • To be a lead discusser, you will need to read all papers in the given group, and meet the presenter before the class. For a "discusser", you'll need to read at least one paper thoroughly, and be somewhat familiar (get the gist) with the others.

• Due dates:
  • Jan 21, 6pm: Paper selections, lead/group discusser selections.
  • Jan 31, 6pm: Assignment 1
  • Feb 21, 6pm: Assignment 2
  • Mar 5: Project ideas
  • Apr 3: 1st draft of project report: 4 pages covering abstract, problem description, references, anticipated results.
  • Apr 24: final draft of project report: 6 pages max.