Resources for Students:
Students may find the Writing Center and
the Speaking Center very useful for this course:
From Writing Center website: Suggestions and feedback on all kinds of writing, from course papers to creative pieces and multimedia projects.
You can obtain feedback via individual appointments, online submissions
or weekly appointments (for weekly appointments, space is limited so
sign up NOW if you are interested).
From Speaking Center website: We work with a range of students
from many disciplines on such issues as: effective participation in
class discussions, crafting and delivering oral presentations,
understanding unfamiliar cultural references, interview skills,
creative performances, and speech anxiety.
Additional Mini-Project Information-- note you may work in groups on any or all of the below.
Your mini-project can be
- Theoretical. For example, you can explain why the original proof of the 4-color theorem was incorrect by exanding upon Graph Coloring, Stephen Grady.
- Computational. For example, write a program to assign professors to classes or to assign students to groups, etc.
- Modeling
- Define the problem
- State the problem as a graph theory problem. What do the vertices represent? What do the edges represent? How can you solve the graph theory problem? How can you translate this solution to solve your real-life problem?
- Give an upperbound on the computational complexity for determining the solution.
Additional Mini-Project Deadlines-- note you may work in groups on any or all of the below.
Academic Abstract + General Audience Abstract (Due March 28 via ICON). See ICON
assignment for more info.
Poster (due Monday April 22th):
Please turn in a paper copy using normal letter size paper (just a single 11 x 8.5in page). If
you
have difficulty printing it, you can also upload it to ICON, but make sure it is readable when printed on normal letter size paper. Note a poster should have more pictures than words. Do not include your abstract on your poster.
Formatting should be similar to the guideline and samples below (but use larger font than 2nd example):
From ICRU: Thoughts and Tips on How to Make
a Research/Creative Poster
Sample Poster Template
Posters will be graded based on:
- Looks: Is your poster nicely organized and readable? Do you have nice figures to illustrate your points?
- Content: Did you clearly define the problem?
- Content: Did you clearly state how graph theory can be used to solve your problem?
- What do the vertices represent? What do the edges represent?
- Is your problem related to a topic we have discussed in class?
- How does the graph theory solution relate back to your original problem?
- Illustrating with a simple example may be helpful.
Mini-Project Write-up (due Friday May 3th): 5 - 10 pages single spaced (including figures and references) Using sections can be very helpful for organization and readability. One possible section breakdown is:
- Abstract.
- Introduction: Briefly introduce the problem, techniques, and outline the paper. Try to use as few technical
terms as possible (or reference section where defined).
- State the problem. What is it you would like to model? What question(s) are you trying to answer?
- State the problem as a graph theory problem. What do the vertices represent? What do the edges represent? How can you solve the graph theory problem? Illustrating with examples, can be very helpful.
- Give an upperbound on the computational complexity for determining the solution. Note this upper bound need not be rigorous, but you should explain how you determined the upper bound.
- How can you translate the graph theory solution(s) to solve your real-life problem?
- Conclusion. Briefly summarize the main points.
- Acknowledgement
- You should acknowledge anyone who has provided decent feedback (for example, from the writing center or anyone who gives you ideas or feedback that you use in your mini-project).
- Author contribution
- You can omit this section if you are the sole author of your mini-project. But if you are working in a group, you need to
summarize who contributed what to the paper (who designed, computed, analyzed, wrote, etc.).
- Funding sources and conflicts of interest
- For most of you this will be: None.
- But if your paper is related to coursework in other courses, research, or work outside of class, then this should be acknowledged. In particular, turning in the same (or similar paper) in more than one course is plagiarism (yes, plagiarizing yourself is plagiarism). If you do have a potential conflict, please e-mail me (note conflicts are likely fine for this course as long as you acknowledge it ahead of time and a sufficient amount of your work is independent).
- References
- This is a very important part of your paper. It lets the reader know where to find additional
information. One is also required to reference other people's ideas, analysis, conclusions, figures, etc (even if
modified, reworded, or redrawn).
Using other people's work without acknowledgment constitutes plagerism. For figures,
one may also need to obtain copyright permission if you submit your paper for publication, and redrawing a figure may be
discouraged or not allowed. Since this is a mini-project, you can reference wikipedia (and any other source you use). For real research, you should acknowledge the original source (which is generally not wikipedia).
Mini-Project Outside Presentation:
Researchers present their work at conferences. You should too. Find one that interests you and submit an abstract for either a talk or a poster.
Travel funds may be available to cover your travel costs if you present at a non-UI conference. You may present your work at a research conference, an undergraduate research conference, seminar, record a video podcast etc., either off-campus or on.
An alternative option is to prepare a talk and get
feedback at the speaking
center.
You may want to reserve a time before they fill up.
Please upload a description of your presentation to ICON including where/when you presented as well as your slide(s) or poster. You may include a summary of feedback that you received.
You can also earn points by summarizing a talk/paper, etc., if you are unable to schedule an outside presentation.
Places to present are listed below. Note these are places for undergrads to present research, class projects, etc.
Some conference at (or related to) UI -
Three Minute Research Story Competition, Wednesday, March 13, 2019, 3:30-5:00 pm at the Main Library. (Deadline Wednesday, March 6, 2019) -- this likely required the least amount of work. You could even win an award -- it is a lot easier to explain a graph theory project in 3 minutes than a formal research project.
13th Annual
SURF -- Wednesday, April 17th, 2018, 4:30-6:30PM on the second floor of the UCC. SURF registration open Monday, March 4, 2019 through Friday, March 29, 2019.
One can also give a seminar at UI or a public talk.
Some conferences outside of UI:
Funding to travel to conferences is often available by applying to the conference organizers. UI also has funds available: