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Information Science Colloquium Series

Past seminar speakers

Syllabus

  Week 1
  Week 2
  Week 3
  Week 4
  Week 5
  Week 6
  Week 7
  Week 8

  Week 9
  Week 10
  Week 11
  Week 12
  Week 13
  Week 14

Reading research paper

Writing a critique

About this site

Professors:

William Arms (301 College Avenue, 5-3046, wya@cs.cornell.edu) Office hours: Tuesday and Thursdays 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. (or by appointment) Tracy Mitrano (201 Computing and Communication Center, 4-3584, Tracy.Mitrano@cornell.edu) Office hours: Tuesday and Thursdays 9:30 - 10:30 AM (or by appointment)

Schedule:

Discussion classes: Mon/Wed 2:55 - 4:10 PM, in the Seminar Room at 301 College Avenue Seminars: Students are expected to attend the Information Science Colloquia, Wednesdays 4:15 - 5:15.

Spring, 3 credits

Undergraduates and masters students should register for Info 435. Ph.D. students should register for Info 635.

Prerequisite:

Background in computing, data structures, and programming at the level of CS 211 or equivalent, and experience in using information systems.

Course Web site:

           http://www.infosci.cornell.edu/courses/info435/2007sp/ (this page).

Objective:

This course is intended as a final course for undergraduates who are majoring in Information Science and for entering Ph.D. students. While other courses in the Information Science program focus on specific aspects of the field, the goal of this course is to show how the various aspects inter-relate. Each week the course takes a state-of-the-art example and explores it from an interdisciplinary perspective. Some of the examples are advanced application; others are multi-faceted research topics.

Course structure:

The course meets twice a week. The exploration of each topic will typically include readings, discussions, and presentations by the instructors, students, and guests. The weekly Information Science colloquium will be integral to the course. There will be several readings assigned for each week, including one or two by each speaker. Some topics will expect you to review videos of seminars by past speakers.

Research papers:

A theme of the course is to develop skills in reading and critiquing research papers.

• You might find useful the Notes on Reading a Research Paper.
• Some of the classes may ask you to write a one page critique of a paper. See Guidelines for Writing Paper Critiques.

During the fifth and twelfth weeks of the course you will be expected to write an essay that explores one of the topics of the course in depth.