Course Project

The course is heavily project-based. Please see the project overview, expectations, and suggested topics in this document.

Checkpoints

All deadlines are at 5:59 PM PT.

  • Checkpoint 0: A one-page project abstract (form, deadline: Friday, September 4). The one-pager should include:
    • A 200–300 word project abstract
    • Planned midpoint deliverables
    • Planned final deliverables
    • Team members and external collaborators (if any)
    • Only one submission per team is needed. If a team submits more than once, the most recent submission will be used.
    • Students are highly encouraged to consult with the instructor during office hours immediately after class on September 1 and September 3.
  • Checkpoint 1: Midpoint presentation (October 15 or October 20) and report (October 22).
    • The midpoint presentation is 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of Q&A.
    • Suggested structure:
      • First 5 minutes: Introduce the context, including the problem you are solving and the relevant prior work. Provide enough detail for the audience to understand what is missing from prior approaches and why your problem matters.
      • Remaining 5 minutes: Present your key feasibility results. The evidence should be informative enough for the audience to judge whether the proposed ideas are promising.
    • Detailed evaluation criteria are available in the grading rubrics. Presentation slots have been posted on Slack.
    • Midpoint report
      • Format: Use the unmodified COLM template (find the latex template here).
      • Up to 4 pages, not including references. You are welcome to include an Appendix with no page limit, but the evaluation will primarily be based on the main content.
      • Your proposal must have the following sections: Abstract, Introduction, Related work, Proposed approach, Preliminary results, Plans for the rest of the semester, Contribution statement (thus far, and plans going forward), and References.
  • Checkpoint 2: Final presentation (November 12 to November 24).
    • Each team has 25 minutes total: 18 minutes for the presentation and 7 minutes for Q&A.
    • Presentation assignments have been posted on Slack.
    • Detailed guidelines and rubrics are TBA.
  • Checkpoint 3: Final report (deadline Monday, December 14).
    • Format: Use the unmodified COLM template. Find the latex template here.
    • Up to 8 pages, not including references. You are welcome to include an Appendix with no page limit, but the evaluation will primarily be based on the main paper.
    • The final paper should be comparable in quality to a conference submission.

After the semester, you are strongly encouraged to submit your work to a conference, such as ICML (deadline in January), ACL (deadline in January), or COLM (deadline in March). If you plan to pursue submission, please coordinate with the instructor regarding further revisions, venue selection, and submission plans.