Paper and presentation DOs and DON'Ts

The evaluation of your CS 881b work is 50% for the paper, 40% for the presentation and 10% for class participation.
The papers, presentations and class participation will be judged both separately and in comparison with your colleagues.
The following is a list of paper and presentation DOs and DON'Ts which is an indication of what I will look at when evaluating your work.
The 10% class participation is composed of class attendance AND active participation (i.e. asking questions) in the course.

Paper

Research possible topics. Do a literature/web search.
Choose a topic. Choose the articles that are pertinent to your topic.
The bibliography should contain at least 3-5 papers it focusses on, possibly more for an overview.
The paper should be 10-15 pages long, excluding the bibliography.
Research carefully and understand the articles that are the focus of your paper.
Do not quote paragraphs directly from the paper
Your paper should not be only a list of results from the articles you have read.
Your contribution is to understand in depth, criticise and compare the knowledge found in the articles you focus on. If you choose to design a DNA algorithm, this will be of course considered an original contribution.
Be prepared to answer questions about your paper.
The paper can be submitted via this web site

Your presentation should be 25 minutes long, including questions.
The text on your transparencies should be big enough to be read easily.
Transparencies should NOT be full pages or paragraphs copied from your paper.
Do not just read your transparencies.
The transparencies should contain only few easy-to-swallow bites of information at a time: your comments should fill in the explanations needed.
Never, ever, ever use more than your allotted time for presentation.
Look at your audience while speaking.
Be prepared to defend your paper and answer questions about it.