CMU 07-400, Spring 2024

Welcome to 07-400: Research Practicum in Computer Science!

This Spring course is the second part of a two-course sequence that is designed to help prepare students to invent the future state-of-the-art in the field of computer science. Building directly upon 07-300 (the prerequisite for this course), students will conduct a semester-long independent research project, under the guidance of both the course staff and a faculty project mentor. The course does not meet for lecture or recitations. Instead, the students will spend their time working on their research projects, and will also meet with course staff on a bi-weekly basis to discuss their progress. Students will prepare a written report and a poster presentation at the end of the semester to describe what they have accomplished.

The vast majority of the student’s time in this course will be spent working on their research project, in collaboration with their project mentor(s). In addition, students will also do the following:

• Regular meetings with your project mentor(s): Students should meet regularly (ideally once a week) with their project mentors to discuss their project.
• Approximately bi-weekly status update meetings: Each student will also meet with the course instructor on a regular basis to discuss their research progress. Prior to each meeting, the student will write up a brief milestone report and submit it to Gradescope
• Poster presentation: Each student will present their project during the Meeting of the Minds poster session on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 (tentative). Note that the registration deadline is earlier (exact date TBD). For more details on Meeting of the Minds, see http://www.cmu.edu/uro/MoM.
• Written report: Each student will write up a technical report (in the form of a research paper) to describe their project and its results.

Lectures:

This class has no lectures. You should have regular meetings with your research mentor and we will meet bi-weekly with each student.

Grading:

Grades are based on five homework assignments and class participation:

• Research Project Accomplishments: 60%
• Regular Status Updates: 10%
• Poster Session: 15%
• Written Report: 15%

Late policy:

Each student has 5 late days that can be used throughout the semester. At most 2 days can be used for a single assignment. Late days cannot be used for the final poster submission.

Instructors

Name	Email	Office	Office Hours
Ruben Martins	rubenm AT andrew.cmu.edu	GHC 7129	By appointment via email