|
Fall
2021 Introduction
to Computer Science Research |
General Information
·
Instructor: Professor Tina Eliassi-Rad, Khoury College of Computer Sciences
·
Lectures: Mondays,
2:50 PM – 3:55 PM, Snell Library 123
·
Office hours: Mondays
&Thursdays, 4:45 PM – 5:30 PM, Online via Zoom
o
Also, available by
appointment. Email eliassi [at] ccs [dot] neu [dot] edu to setup appointment; begin the subject line with [fa21 cs3950].
·
Course website on
Canvas: https://northeastern.instructure.com/courses/86726
Overview
This 2-credit
undergraduate course introduces the scientific method and provides an overview
of research in computer science and related fields.
Format
Students will read papers and prepare annotated
bibliographies for selected publications. The annotated bibliographies must
be uploaded to Canvas
before class in PDF format. The students will also research a grand challenge
problem and prepare a presentation for class.
Prerequisites
CS 2500: Fundamentals of Computer Science 1.
Grading
·
Attendance
& participation 40%
· Homework assignments (30% = 3 * 10%)
·
Grand challenge research & presentation (30%)
Textbooks
This course does not have a designated
textbook. The readings are assigned in the syllabus (see below). You are
expected to have read the assigned material before each lecture.
Schedule (Evolving and Subject to Change)
Lec # |
Date |
Topic |
Readings & Notes |
1 |
Mon Sep 13 |
Overview & Logistics |
Ganesh Mani et al. Artificial
Intelligence’s Grand Challenges: Past, Present, and Future. AI
Magazine 42(1), pp. 61-75, 2021. Optional: National Academy of Engineering’s 2008 Grand Challenges for Engineering |
2 |
Mon Sep 20 |
Computer Science Research |
Peter J. Denning. Is Computer Science Science?. In Communications of ACM, April 2005. Dean Keith Simonton. After Einstein: Scientific genius is extinct. Nature 493(602), January 2013. |
3 |
Mon Sep 27 |
How to read (and write) a (good) research paper |
Philip
W.L. Fong. Reading a Computer
Science Research Paper. SIGCSE Bull. 41(2), pp. 138-140, 2009. S.
Keshav. How to Read a Paper.
SIGCOMM Comput. Commun.
Rev. 37(3), pp. 83-84, 2007. Michael
Ernst. How
to Write a Technical Paper, Last updated July 6, 2021. |
4 |
Mon Oct 4 |
Technology & Ethics Guest lecturer: |
Cathy O’Neil and Hanna Gunn. Near-Term Artificial Intelligence and the Ethical Matrix. In Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, edited by S. Matthew Liao, October 2020. |
-- |
Mon Oct 11 |
No class |
Indigenous People’s Day |
5 |
Mon Oct 18 |
Unreasonable Effectiveness of … |
Eugene Wigner. The
Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences, Communications
in Pure and Applied Mathematics13(I), 1960. Alon Halevy, Peter Norvig, and Fernando Pereira. The
Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data. IEEE Intelligent Systems 24,
pp. 8-12, 2009. |
6 |
Mon Oct 25 |
Turing Test |
Alan Turing. Computing Machinery and
Intelligence. Mind, LIX (236), pp. 433-460, 1950. |
7 |
Mon Nov 1 |
2008 Turing Award Topic: Programming Language & System Design |
2008 Turing Award Winner: Barbara Liskov; Turing Lecture Video Leah Hoffmann. 2009. Q&A: Liskov
on Liskov. Communications of the ACM
52(7), pp. 120-ff, 2009. Karen A. Frenkel. 2009. Liskov's
Creative Joy. Communications of the ACM 52(7), pp. 20-22, 2009. Andrew C. Myers, Barbara Liskov. A Decentralized
Model for Information Flow Control. In Proceedings of the 16th ACM
Symposium on Operating Systems Principles (SOSP '97), pp. 129-142, 1997. |
8 |
Mon Nov 8 |
2011 Turing Award Topic: Causality |
2011 Turing Award Winner: Judea Pearl; Turing Lecture Video Judea Pearl. The Seven Pillars of Causal
Reasoning with Reflections on Machine Learning. Communications of the
ACM, 62(3): 54-60,
2019. Leo Breiman. Statistical Modeling: The
Two Cultures. Statistical Science, 16(3): 199-215, 2001. |
9 |
Mon Nov 15 |
2018 Turing Award Topic: Deep Learning |
2018 Turing Award Winners: Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey E Hinton, Yann LeCun; Turing Lecture Video Yoshua Bengio, Yann LeCun, Geoffrey
Hinton. Deep
Learning for AI. Communications of the ACM 64(7), pp. 58-65, July
2021. Yann LeCun, Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton.
Deep
Learning. Nature 521(7553), pp. 436-444, 2015. |
10 |
Mon Nov 22 |
Student Presentations |
|
11 |
Mon Nov 29 |
Student Presentations |
|
12 |
Mon Dec 6 |
Wrap-up |