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Liz Marai's advising pointers (how do I write a semester plan? etc.)1. How do I find a research project?2. How do I write a semester research plan/proposal? 3. How can I improve my writing/presentation skills? 4. How do I write a technical review? 5. What should I read to learn more about graphics and visualization? 6. How can I improve my time-management skills? 1. How do I find a research project?Visualization research opportunities are always available! The process we typically follow at the lab requires first producing a proposal for a project that would interest you. Look for ideas on the iVRL lab site; for ongoing projects, make sure their status is 'Active' and not 'Completed'; although if you have specific ideas about extending a completed project, that's also an option; and also check out potential projects here: ; or tell me a bit about your background and interests and I might suggest a project. You might have an idea for a project that's not listed on either selection. That's fine also, but in general, keep in mind that the project area needs to match my own interests, or, to quote my wise alma mater advisor, "I won't be able to be an effective advisor on it" :-). Then, put together a preliminary semester research proposal/plan (see 2. How do I write a semester research plan/proposal? below.) When you have some thoughts on your goals and some ideas for projects, come talk to me. We'll likely converge on something that we both find exciting. 2. How do I write a semester research plan/proposal?Here's what I expect to see in a semester research plan: 0) Your name, some title, and the semester you plan to do the research in. 1) Your goals for a project and for the semester. Initially, your goals will probably be unrelated to a specific research project. They might include things like "find out what it's like to work in the vis lab," "put my classroom math skills to work on a research project," "figure out if ____ research is something I want to do," or "combine astronomy and visualization somehow." As you develop the proposal, these goals will refine and likely become more specific. You'll also add some more research-related ones (e.g, "Design, implement and test a sub-voxel accurate algorithm for tracking bone motion from CT and X-ray images".) 2) A research project or area to work on. In general, this needs to align with my own interests. The exact project might be vague in the beginning of the term, but should become clearer after a few weeks. 3) A work plan that describes the things that you will do to address your goals and the research problem/area. 4) A schedule, with concrete, quantifiable milestones every 1-2 weeks. Such a milestone might be "finish first draft of the related work section of final report." In contrast, an item such as "read some papers" is not a milestone and is not particularly concrete (although "read two papers a week" might make it quantifiable.) At the end of the term we will look back together at the proposal and determine what worked and what didn't in the context of your goals. The proposal is usually about 2 pages long -- short and pithy preferred :-). Expect to iterate on it a few times before we're both happy with it. 3. How can I improve my writing/presentation skills?Writing: Pitt offers several classes on composition and creative writing. You can look them up on the under Writing, or at the 's under ENGCMP-English Composition and ENGWRT-English Writing. You might want to read the course description and contact the instructor first, to make sure the course syllabus will meet your expectations. Presentation (talks): John Pinto of Stanford University lists a few (from Gordon H. Bower). You may agree or not with Bower's observations; they're still interesting. Presentation (posters): The most sensible thing to do is print a real-size draft of your poster (A4 sheets taped together), put it up on a lobby wall with a stack of post-it-notes and pencils next to it, and ask your friends to mark their comments directly on the poster draft. 4. How do I write a technical review?A 'technical review' is a review we do for a conference or a journal. In many ways, a technical review is more challenging than the paper reviews we write routinely for class. First, remember to begin your review with a one or two sentence summary of the paper (conference chairs and journal editors *will* sometimes mistakenly send your comments to the wrong authors; the summary helps disambiguate such situations). Second, the tone of your review is very important. Third, as a colleague, you can (and should) help the authors improve their work. Below follows Greg Turk's excellent advice on writing technical reviews. Writing Technical Reviews In many professions, people give back to their community by doing volunteer work. In technical fields such as computer science, we volunteer our time by reviewing papers that are written by other researchers in our field. I recommend that you approach your reviews in this spirit of volunteerism. Sure, your reviews make you a gatekeeper in helping decide which papers are ready for publication. Just as important, however, is to provide feedback to the authors so that they may improve their work. Try to write your review in a way that the authors can benefit from your review. I like reading a paper and then thinking about it over the course of several days before I write my review. "Living" with a paper for a few days gives you time to make thoughtful decisions about it. This is the best way to come up with helpful suggestions for improving the paper. To do this, you need to carve out some time in your day to think about the paper that you are reviewing. The tone of your review is important. A harshly written review will be disregarded by the authors, regardless of whether your criticisms are true. If you take care, it is always possible to word your review diplomatically while staying true to your thoughts about the paper. Put yourself in the mindset of writing to someone you wish to help, such as a respected colleague who wants your opinion on a concept or a project. Here are some specific issues to keep in mind as you write your reviews: A thoughtful review not only benefits the authors, but may well benefit you, too. Remember that your reviews are read by other reviewers, including several who know your identity. Being a helpful reviewer will generate good will toward you in the research community. 5. What should I read to learn more about graphics and visualization?We are going to assume here that you have covered at Pitt or elsewhere the material we cover in . The next steps are and (you can take either cs2620 or cs3610 first, they're not a sequence). There are more graphics classes at CMU that you can register for, see: . I think Physically-based Computer Animation is a good choice. Outside of class, short-term, you can play a bit with the advanced features of OpenGL -- topics like volume rendering, animated textures, constructive solid geometry etc. Here's the tutorial examples I'd recommend: , and the . In terms of physically-based animation, check out the Baraff and Witkin online course and slides on (SIGGRAPH 2001) -- see also the older version (SIGGRAPH 1997). The ACM SIGGRAPH and IEEE Visualization proceedings are available locally, come talk to me if you're interested. 6. How can I improve my time-management skills?That's a tough one. I like this short chapter on time management from "Making the Right Moves" by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund: Ch6: Time Management. Then, check out (good investment of 1 hour and 15 minutes of your time). Then, if it turns out your problem is procrastination rather than less-than-stellar time management, I highly recommend Kate Lorenz's tips: Procrastination: Work's Silent Killer (the seems to be gone). The NIH Chapter on time management is short and to the point. Randy Paush's video talk is a bit long, but it gets very relevant around minute 20 ("eat the ugliest frog first") and stays so through the end. The procrastination list is both an excellent diagnostic tool ("are you a dreamer or a dreader?") and an awesome collection of advice. Hope this helps! Compiled by Liz Marai. |