CS 748: Project Proposal

Over half your credit in this course will come from your research project. Your first task is to prepare a proposal that describes your plans for the project. You will submit a proposal document and subsequently a short video presentation: each is worth 5 marks.

It is expected that a significant portion of your reading, thinking, and planning will be done by the time of proposal submission. The proposal should guide the steps you take while executing the project. Of course, while actually working on the project, you might encounter surprises that make the plan untenable or less relevant. If so, it is perfectly fine to replan and change direction. What is not acceptable is to start out with poor planning.

The proposal document is to be about 2–3 pages long (including references). As a first order of business, make sure it lists the names and roll numbers of all the members of your team. Make sure that at least one team member uploads the proposal document to Moodle by the submission deadline. If we receive multiple submissions from the same team, we will pick any one for evaluation.

Your proposal must present a clear description of the problem you intend to tackle, highlight the novelty of the proposed work, provide specific details of the investigations you will undertake (such as implementing algorithms A, B, and C and measuring quantities X, Y, and Z), describe expected outcomes and their significance. Reference related work to present the overall context of your investigation, and to pinpoint the novelty of your proposed approach. Don't hesitate to provide any additional information that is relevant to your project. Check language and spelling: both content and presentation will be taken into account for evaluation.

Submit your proposal document to Moodle as a single pdf file by 11.55 p.m., Sunday, January 24. Your submission will not be evaluated (and will be given a score of zero) if it is not received by the deadline. You cannot change teams after submitting the proposal. If you are not listed as a team member in any of the proposals received by the deadline, you will not be allowed to make a submission for the course project.

Your proposal presentation (video) is expected to be 5–7 minutes long. Provide a clear and precise description of your problem and explain the novelty and significance of your proposed work. Include figures and animations wherever relevant. Your video is due for submission 11.55 p.m., Sunday, January 31 (a week from when the document is due). We will ask you to upload the video to the cloud and provide us a link; specific instructions will be provided closer to the submission deadline. Your video will be shared with all the students of the class: it is a substitute for the "class presentation" you would have made in a regular semester!