FAQ for CS886 1) How many minutes do I have for my paper presentation? 15 minutes. We warn you at 13 minutes and cut you off at 15. The timeslots are longer to allow for a few questions, transition to next speaker. 2) What is expected on the one-page summary of the First Half paper? At the top: your name, email and student ID; the title, authors and venue (where paper was presented) and year (and add the Topic and # of 886 list). Headings and bullet-style text only (do not use paragraphs). 3) Do I have to present/summarize the entire paper? No. You can present a subset of the paper's content, especially if this is a paper with a lot of depth and detail. 4) What if my paper seems somewhat light in content? You will need to demonstrate depth of understanding, so read as well some of the papers in the Reference list and integrate this into your presentation. 5) How do I make sure that everyone in the class has a copy of my one-page paper-summary handout? You will be asked to send to PhD assistant Gaurav and instructor by a certain deadline (likely very early morning the day that you are presenting). 6) How do I earn Class Participation grades? Attend all classes (but let us know if you have legitimate absence due to illness, etc.). Fill out a Feedback Sheet for those presentations where you are asked to do so (we will explain in class). Ask intelligent questions of presenters on days where you are invited to do so (we realize that not everyone will be able to). Participate in end of class discussion on the Group date (Nov 17) and the end-of-class date (Dec 1). Complete the Final Reflection sheet that will provided to all students, late November. 7) What is the deadline for completing my peer feedback sheets? While the deadline will be 12noon the following Monday, we urge you to be recording comments on sheets during class and immediately afterwards. Many of you will be ready to hand in your sheets 20 minutes after class ends. The sheets will explicitly ask for very brief feedback on specific questions only; send directly to instructor (cc Gaurav). (Note that feedback sheets are not shared with peers; they are used by instructor to acknowledge your class participation). 8) Do I get to select my preferred paper and timeslot for my two paper presentations? You get to tell us your paper preferences on a sheet due no later than Sep 13 6am for First Half and no later than Oct 4 6am for Second Half. The window to tell us Second Half preferences OPENS just after class Sep 29. You can indicate certain constraints/preferences for timeslots but for the most part, students will be asked to choose a timeslot that has not yet been chosen, when their name is called, from a random ordering of students. At the moment we plan to use a small slice of time during class Sep 15 and Oct 6, to settle the first and second presentation schedules. 9) When do I learn my grades for paper presentations? Only after all paper presentations for that Half are over. One-page summary grades only provided after all summaries have been submitted and assessed. All students receive a feedback sheet on their talk or summary not long after these have been completed. 10) When do I learn my grades for Groupwork? We will aim to decide all of this about one week after the Groupwork class. 11) When is my individual Groupwork sheet due? We ask you to complete the sheet in class in a 25 minute timeframe. 12) When do I learn my grade for Final Project? Close to the day that we shut down for Christmas break. Feedback sheet with grade will be forwarded to the student. 13) How many minutes do I have for final project presentation? 10 minutes; if class size remains large, these all need to be pre-recorded and provided to Gaurav the evening before class. 14) When do I learn my grade for project presentation? This may end up coming to you with the handback of the final project. Feedback sheets will come not long after your date of presentation. Extra evening sessions to discuss any possible feedback may be set up the evenings after presentations, if the class size is large. 15) If have no AI background, will I really be ok? I do a very high level introduction to AI in the first class. We are suggesting that those without AI background get a hold of an AI textbook and consult it in order to learn more about some of the key concepts of AI, so that you are well-positioned to succeed with your paper presentations and your final project.