CS561.
Advanced Topics in Database Systems
Course grades are divided as follows:
Items |
Percentage |
Presentation (1) |
15%
|
Quizzes (2)
|
15%
|
Projects (3)
|
30%
|
Homeworks (3)
|
20%
|
Final Exam/Project
|
20%
|
Due Dates
- Homeworks & Projects: They will have their due date announced when a homework or project is released.
- One-day late submission is accepted with 10% off the max grade.
- Two-day late submission is accepted with 20% off the max grade.
- Beyond that, no late submission is accepted.
- Quizzes
- Each quiz will be 15-20 mins at the beginning of class.
- The instructor will specify the scope of each quiz.
- Projects
- As mentioned above, projects have the same rules as homeworks with the exeception that projects will be done in teams of two.
- Students will have sometime (2 Weeks) to select their own
parteners in the projects. Otherwise, the instructor will form the
teams.
Presentations, Reviews & Participation
- The course will be a seminar-type course where we cover several
research papers. The instructor will present material covering some
papers and book chapters.
- Each student will also present 1 presentation in the second half of the course. It is
encouraged for students to select papers of interest to them, and
possibly related to the project they plan to work on. Otherwise, papers
will be assigned by the instructor.
- There are several possible areas with a suggested list of papers can be found here.
- Presenter should cover the assigned paper as well as any basic background needed for the presentation.
- Presentation should be around 60 mins. The remaining 15-20 mins will be used for discussion.
- Presentations have 15% of the total grade. So, the presenter is
expected to spend enough time creating a good presentation with well
coverage of material. The quality of the slides, the oral presentation,
and the understanding of the content will be all taken into account for
the grade.
- Hints for Good Presentation:
- Each presentation should have 2-3 slides as a background, 2-3
slides as a motivation, 1-2 slides as a problem statement, and then the
details of the paper.
- Practice your presentation, know what you want to say in each slide.
- More tips can be found here.
- When a research paper is presented, all students, other than the presenter, need to read the paper. The whole class should engage in discussing the
presented paper, e.g., what are the strong points, what needs to be
addressed further, what are the weak points, and possible extensions.
- The presented paper will be available to all students at least one week before the presentation.
- The course quizzes will be on the papers covered by students.
Therefore, it is important that all students read each paper and
make sure they understand the presentation.
Final Exam/Project
The course will include either a Final
Exam or a Final Project. The instructor with the students will decide
on that near the start of the second half of the course.