1. Guidelines for Reports Problem Solving with Constraints
CSCE421/821, Spring 2019
Berthe Y. Choueiry (Shu-we-ri)
Avery Hall, 360
Guidelines for reports

2. Guidelines for reports
Outline
Writing a critical summary
Committing to a project
Writing a progress report
About your final report
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
Guidelines for reports

4. Guidelines for reports
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
Guidelines for reports

5. Guidelines for reports
PART II: Your opinion
Novelty
Is the paper a ‘real’ advancement of the state of the art?
Type
Is it useful for the theory? for practice?
Applicability
Can you identify other uses of the proposed technique(s)?
Shortcomings
Do the authors identify acknowledge limitations?
Your opinion
Can you identify more? Anything wrong in approach? can you propose a fix?
Alert
Any issues swept-under-the-carpet?
Extensions
Can you identify other directions for future research?
Guidelines for reports

6. Guidelines for reports
Outline
Writing a critical summary
Committing to a project
Writing a progress report
About your final report
Guidelines for reports

7. Committing to a Project
By Friday,March 8, 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.
Guidelines for reports

8. Guidelines for reports
Outline
Writing a critical summary
Committing to a project
Writing a progress report
About your final report
Guidelines for reports

9. 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
Guidelines for reports

10. 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
Guidelines for reports

11. 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)?
Guidelines for reports

12. Guidelines for reports
Outline
Writing a critical summary
Committing to a project
Writing a progress report
About your final report
Guidelines for reports

13. 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
Guidelines for reports

14. 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
Guidelines for reports

15. 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 mistakes
The length of the report is not an issue. The shorter the better, but you should use any number of pages as you need.
Guidelines for reports