Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Guidelines for reports 1

Problem Solving with Constraints

CSCE496/896, Fall 2011www.cse.unl.edu/~choueiry/F11-496-896

Berthe Y. Choueiry (Shu-we-ri)Avery Hall, 360

cse496cp@cse.unl.edu Tel: +1(402)472-5444

Guidelines for Reports

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Guidelines for reports 2

Outline

• Writing a critical summary• Committing to a project• Writing a progress report• About your final report

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Guidelines for reports 3

Writing a Critical Summary

This generic template is provided as an aid but is not mandatory

– PART I: your understanding of the paper

– PART II: your opinion of the paper

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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PART I: The paper• What: Context of the paper

– problem the authors claim to address (i.e., motivation)– assumptions they make– solution they claim to provide

• How: Short Description of proposed technique– basic algorithmic steps– optimizations, if any– evaluation: empirical/theoretical

• Impact: Comparison to previous techniques– if provided, how? – can you identify/propose some other?

• What next: Directions for future research

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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PART II: Your opinion

• Is the paper a ‘real’ advancement of the state of the art?

• Is it useful for the theory? for practice?• Can you identify other uses of the proposed

technique(s)?• What are the shortcomings? • Can you identify more? can you propose a fix?• Any issues swept-under-the-carpet?• Can you identify other directions for future

research?

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Guidelines for reports 6

Outline

• Writing a critical summary• Committing to a project• Writing a progress report• About your final report

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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Committing to a Project• By Wednesday, March 9th, you must commit to a project• Submit to handin a short report (up to 1 page) stating:

– Project title, your name– A short justification for your choice– A clear work-plan listing main tasks, approximate dates, and

expected outcomes– A bibliography, if applicable– Clearly state whether you are collaborating with colleagues and/or

with a research assistant• One proposal per team is sufficient. Teams are reminded

that each member will have to provide a full evaluation of the performance of each other team member, listing both good and bad aspects. This is a requirement for collaboration.

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Guidelines for reports 8

Outline

• Writing a critical summary• Committing to a project• Writing a progress report• About your final report

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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Progress report: format

• In your report, you discuss your progress on the work-plan you had set to yourself in the proposal you submitted

• Be as concise as possible but do not be bothered by a limitation on the number of pages. Thus, there is no requirement concerning the number of pages (could take from 1 page to whatever is needed), shorter reports are welcome

• If you have finished your project, this could be your draft for your final report

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Progress report: content

• Document what you did so far• Comment on what you accomplished with

respect to what you promised you would• State whether you are early/late and why • Explain in case you have changed your

plans and explain why • Report any difficulties, breakthroughs • Discuss anything else you feel is

appropriate

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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Progress Report: Intent• Imagine you are a professional hired to carry out

some investigations for a client. The client is paying you for the number of hours and for the quality of service/result you are providing.

• It is time to re-evaluate the contract. You need to update your client on your progress.

• How would rate your performance? how much would you charge? are able to finish the task? – if so how and when? – if not, will you keep the contract? drop it (a penalty is

involved)?

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

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Outline

• Writing a critical summary• Committing to a project• Writing a progress report• About your final report

Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Your Final Report (1): Content• Given the variety of the projects, it is difficult to give general

guidelines on the content of the report• Please discuss them with me on an individual basis• Include

– What you accomplished– The problems you encountered– Your findings

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Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Final Report (2): Typical Structure• Title, Course Number, Your Name , Date• Abstract• Table of Contents. In LaTeX: \tableofcontents• Introduction, motivation, roadmap (Section 2, Section 3, etc.) • Contributions• Experiments

– Experiments set-up, data sets– Results– Discussions

• Conclusions & future work• Bibliography

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Problem Solving with Constraints, CSCE 4961/896

Final Report (3): Advice• Format: Use a one column format (not two columns)• Have as many figures as possible (including all those you are

going to use in your slides): a picture is worth a million word.. • Include all your pseudo code (if any)• In your figures/plots, do not rely on color but use different line styles• Also, you may want to check my Golden Check to avoid annoying

common mistakeshttp://csce.unl.edu/~choueiry/Advising/BeforeYouSubmitaReport.txt

• The length of the report is not an issue. The shorter the better, but you should use any number of pages as you need.

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