Paper presentations

In the second half of the course, groups of three or four students will lead a 35 minute presentation and lesson about a book chapter or published research paper related to the algorithm design strategy covered in the previous week. Note that the goal of the presentation is to help the class understand the technical content of the paper or chapter in the context of the week’s lecture topic. You do not need to cover the entire paper. Instead, find some part or parts of the paper that you think the class will be able to understand and find interesting.

The presenters must arrange a meeting with during the week before their presentation to go over a draft of the presentation.

A schedule of presenters is available on Canvas.

During presentations, all non-presenting students should have all electronics closed and give the presenters their full attention. I will remove participation points if students in audience are looking at laptops or phones.

Grades are out of 10 points as follows. If the post-presentation reflections indicate that all group members did not contribute an equal amount, a multiplier (< 1) may be applied to some group members’ scores.

  • 2 points for the draft of leading the class during the meeting with Lucy
  • 1 point for including a clear statement of the algorithmic problem that the paper solves or addresses
  • 1 point for clearly connecting to the algorithm design strategy discussed in the previous week
  • 2 points for clearly teaching a technical part of the paper to the class
  • 2 points for leading an interactive activity that helps the other students understand, build on, or otherwise engage with the technical content of the paper
  • 1 point for presenting something else about the paper (open problems, a real-world application of the paper’s results, something about the history of the problem, etc.)
  • 1 point for thoughtfully completing the post-presentation reflection

Each Friday, class will proceed as follows:

  • 9:00-9:05: course announcements (if needed)
  • by 9:05: presentation begins
  • by 9:40: presentation ends
  • 9:40-9:50: time for presenters to complete post-presentation reflection and other students to complete feedback survey

For non-presenters, note that your feedback survey participation is part of your participation score for the course.