CS-800: Spring 2010 Documents and Announcements

Welcome to a new semester of exciting research seminars! Please read this information carefully, as several things have changed (in particular, item 6 below!).

1. Orientation meeting. This class is listed as meeting on Friday 1:30-4:10 in the Art and Design Building 2026. However, this is only a GMU formality. We shall only meet once - this Friday, January 29. The purpose of this meeting is to introduce ourselves, to explain how this course works, and to answer all your questions. The meeting will start at 1:30 and will last about 30 minutes. Please make every effort to attend. (I will admit at being somewhat impatient in answering questions later in the course on subjects that had been been fully explained in a course's introductory session.)

2. CS-800 is a required course. The Computer Science Department considers attending research seminars an important part of your doctoral studies, and it thus requires every PhD student to attend research seminars, by enrolling in its colloquium course, CS-800, for two semesters.

3. Required number of seminars. CS-800 is a 1 credit-hour course, and thus requires you to attend a 1 hour seminar each week, for a total of 14 research seminars. The seminars are in a wide range of subjects, and are usually offered in the middle of the day (the starting hour is usually between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm). The frequency is not regular: in some weeks there may be 2 or even 3 offerings, whereas in other weeks there may be no seminars at all. But overall, there should be sufficient offerings to meet the minimum requirement. Making allowances for two occasions in which a student will not be able to attend for personal reasons, I have set the number of required seminars for Spring 2010 at twelve (12).

4. Eligible seminars. This is a computer science course, and only computer science seminars are eligible. Seminars offered by other departments generally are not acceptable, and exceptions should be authorized in advance. In general, the eligible seminars will be given by accomplished researchers (i.e., seminars given by graduate students are usually not eligible).

5. Procedure. You should print the attendance form linked below. During the course of the semester you will receive periodic notifications of upcoming seminars. Each notice will include the name of a faculty member who is hosting the seminar. If you choose to attend, you should present the attendance form at the end of the seminar to this faculty member for a signature. At the end of the semester, I will collect the attendance sheets.

6. Reports. At the end of the semester, in addition to the attendance sheet, each student must submit brief reports on four (4) of the seminars attended. Each report should be between 300 and 500 words. It should summarize the subject of the seminar in no more than 100 words. The rest should be personal review: What were the strong and/or weak points of the research and the presentation; how in your opinion it could be applied; how it could be expanded; etc. Reports must be typed and written in a professional style.

7. Start early. Because of the irregular frequency of seminar offerings, you are strongly encouraged to start attending seminars as early as possible, so that you will not find yourself in shortage of seminars at the end of the semester!

8. Web calendar. The CS web site maintains a calendar of events and seminars, which may be consulted for upcoming events.

9. Web site. In this page you will find additional announcements, the attendance form, and a list of all the seminars that have been approved so far.

10. email. I will be sending my messages to the GMU address that you were assigned. It is your responsibility to check this mailbox periodically, and to ensure that mail is not rejected due to exceeded quotas.

Notices

1. Attendance form

2. Here is the current list of qualifying seminars for Spring 2010.