CS697
Graduate Initiation Seminar
General information
Class Information
- Place: CDS 801
- Time: Wed 10:10–11:00am
- Class schedule
- Online discussion at Piazza
Overview
This required two-credit course is designed to help guide entering Ph.D. students through the challenging transition into the graduate program in Computer Science. As part of the responsibilities of students and mentors engaged in research, we will cover topics that overlap with the NSF/NIH Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) program.
Topics we will try to address range broadly across issues of research and scholarship, including:
- Balancing competing demands of coursework, research, and teaching
- How to go about identifying and working with a dissertation advisor
- Working within a research group
- Resolving conflicts with advisor and collaborators
- Becoming a proficient reader, writer, and reviewer of technical papers
- Making use of online and library research resources
- Becoming proficient with technical tools of the trade for writing and performing research
- Presenting good talks
- Networking and becoming visible in the research community
- Understanding the research funding landscape
- Understanding and applying scientific ethics
- Applying for fellowships and internships
- Writing a thesis proposal and a dissertation
- Finding a job after graduate school
The course will not cover details of program requirements and milestones, nor will the class provide academic advice specific to individual students in the class. For these please consult the Graduate Student Handbook and your academic advisor, respectively.
Course Syllabus and Readings
- Further details can be found in the weekly schedule.
+ Required Readings for Upcoming Class Meetings
- Announcements will be made via email or in class about required readings. Please note that the listing of a particular text doesn't mean that we agree with all, or even most, of what is in it. Our goal (and hope) is that these specific texts will stimulate discussion. Recommended references and readings are available below.
Resources and References
The following is a comprehensive list of materials and references that have been collected over the many iterations of this class over the years. Feel free to suggest others to the instructors! The required readings for each class meeting are subsets of the references below. Further information is also available via the RCR website at BU.
On Being a Graduate Student
- For anyone considering a Ph.D. in Computer Science by Doug Comer
- So Long, and Thanks for the Ph.D.! by Ronald Azuma
- PhD Rants and Raves (Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid)
- Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D. by Robert Peters (Amazon)
- Survival in the Academy
- How to Succeed in Graduate School by Marie desJardins
- Useful Things to Know About Ph.D. Thesis Research by H.T. Kung
- A Ph.D. Is Not Enough: A Guide to Survival in Science by Peter Feibelman
- Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students by Stephen C. Stearns
- The Ph.D Experience by Mihir Bellare
Choosing (and Managing the Relationship with) Your Advisor
- The Grad Student-Advisor Relationship: Choosing an Advisor, Caltech
- Choosing your advisor, from Lance Fortnow, 2005
- Take your advisor's perspective, by Tara Kuther
- Graduate Student Survival Guide by Wanda Pratt
Reading and Reviewing Research Papers
- How to Read a CS Research Paper? by Philip Fong
- Thoughts on Reading Research Papers by Jeff Offutt
- The Task of the Referee by Alan Jay Smith
- A Guide for New Referees in Theoretical Computer Science by Ian Parberry
- The Role of Program Committees and Suggestions to Program Committees by Oded Goldreich