Assignments > Abstracts
The majority of the course revolves around research papers that we will discuss and present. In each "Paper presentation" session in the schedule, we will treat two such papers. For each of these sessions, you are expected to thoroughly read both corresponding papers (say, papers X and Y), to write a summary and assessment for one of them (say, paper X), and to write down critical questions for both.
To prevent all students from choosing the same paper X, we will always distribute X and Y evenly over the group. This year, I've split the class into two groups sorted by last name:
- Group A (A to M) will write abstracts for papers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13
- Group B (N to Z) will write abstracts for papers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14.
Ingredients of an abstract
Your abstract should contain the following components:
- Your own name and student number.
- Information (X): The title and authors of paper X.
- Summary (X): A short summary (at most 7 sentences) of paper X in your own words.
- Assessment (X): A critical assessment (at least half a page) of paper X. What are the advantages, shortcomings, and/or innovative elements of the presented method? How complete is the paper (e.g., are the experiments set up correctly, and would someone be able to implement the algorithm based on the text alone)? How does it compare against papers we have seen earlier in the course?
- Questions (X): Three relevant questions about paper X that you can ask during the presentation.
- Questions (Y): Three relevant questions about paper Y that you can ask during the presentation.
Everything related to paper X should fit on one page (A4). Your can put your three questions for paper Y on a separate page.
How to submit?
I've created a Blackboard assignment for each presentation session. Use these to upload your abstract, as a PDF file, at least 15 minutes before the presentation starts on the appropriate day. For example, the assignment "Abstracts 1+2" is meant for handing in your abstract of papers 1 and 2, where either of them plays the role of X.
The deadline (also on Blackboard) is always 15 minutes before the starting time of the corresponding class session. Make sure to have your own abstract at hand during the session itself, e.g. by storing/accessing the PDF on your phone, or (if all else fails) by printing your abstract on paper.
There's one exception: on the day of your own presentation, you don't have to write a full abstract (because you will have studied your own paper anyway) and additional questions.
Hints
Here are some tips to improve your abstracts even more:
- Please take care not to be overly negative.
- See the presentation on experimental research to see some common errors. It lists many things that can go wrong in an experimental setup and during the experiments.
- For tips on correct usage of English, take a look at this presentation: I'm a bit in the war - on writing bad English. Also, consider reading the document on Dutch speakers.
- In a way, you will act as a critical reviewer similarly to those for high-end journals and conferences. This paper is an interesting read about the review process at SIGGRAPH, for instance.
Grading
Each individual abstract will be graded by the lecturer on a scale from 0 to 10, based on the thoroughness of your work. The critical assessment has the highest importance for your grade.
Because there are 6 of these paper assessments, the maximum total score is 60, and your final grade for the abstracts will be the sum of all grades divided by 6 (to end up in a 0-10 scale).