CS 689: Research Methods in Computer Science

Spring Semester 2008

Instructor: Chris Lüer, PhD
Email:
Phone: 285-8661
Office: RB 442
Office hours: see instructor's Web page

Lecture: Tu, Th 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm, RB 122

Description - Materials - Policies - Schedule

Description

Catalog description:
689 Research Methods in Computer Science. (3)
Discussions on research areas in computer science, scientific methods of research, and dissemination of research. Requirements include presentations and written reports that demonstrate proficiency in presentation tools and techniques, statistical and experimental design techniques, and library and literature searches.
Prerequisite: CS 570.

Materials

Required Textbooks:
Leedy, Paul; Ormrod, Jeanne. Practical Resarch. 8th edition. Pearson Education, 2004.
Zobel, Justin. Writing for Computer Science. 2nd edition. Springer, 2004. — Author's site with additional resources.

Grades and handouts are posted to Blackboard. However, we do not use Blackboard for grade calculations.

Policies

Cheating. Consequences of cheating in this class: the course grade is lowered, possibly to F. No team work is allowed in this class unless explicitly stated. Material that is copied from books or Web pages has to be quoted and the source must be given. Copying material without citing the source is plagiarism and is considered cheating. Be aware of the Ball State University Student Academic Ethics Policy.

Attendance. There is no grade for attendance; however, there may be unannounced quizzes. There is no make-up for missed quizzes. Oral participation is expected.

Email. Emails to the instructor and the TA must be sent from a BSU account; this is the only way for us to verify your identity. Emails from other accounts may be ignored. Please make sure that your mailbox does not overflow, or you may miss emails from the instructor or the TA.

Grading.
Participation, homework, quizzes 20%
Final exam 20%
Project 50%
Chapter presentation 10%

If you receive 93.3% of the total course credit, you will get an A. If you receive 90.0%, you will get an A- or better. If you receive 86.7%, you will get a B+ or better, and so on.

Students with special needs or disabilities. If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please let me know as soon as possible.

Schedule

The schedule is subject to change.

Week	Topic and Readings Tu	Topic and Readings Th	Assignments due
1	Introduction: Research	Introduction: Computer Science Denning. Is Computer Science Science?
2	Research, LO 1 (Mary), 2 (Todd)	Paper presentations Mary: Plaue, Miller, Stasko. Is a picture worth a thousand words? Siraj: George, Hanley, Tanksale. Research-Informed Development for Interactive Media: Enhancing Learning By Engaging Students With Users. To appear Naveen: Das, Ng, Woon. Rapid Association Rule Mining	Paper presentations
3	Basics of research; Paper presentations Nagateja: Limayem, Khalifa, Chin. Factors motivating software piracy Abdullah:Wei, Muthuprasanna, Kothari. Preventing SQL Injection Attacks in Stored Procedures	Library instruction	Paper presentations
4	Paper presentations: Ben: Panjer, Damian, Storey. Cooperation and coordination concerns in a distributed software development project Todd: Hämäläinen et al. Martial arts in artificial reality Charles: Yang. An Internet-based electronic voting system with balanced complexity and security	Paper presentations: Keshav: Singelée, Preneel. Location Privacy in Wireless Personal Area Networks Bala Veera: Caetana, Silva, Tribolet. Using roles and business objects to model and understand business processes Carrie: Cowley et al. Toward an understanding of flow in video games
5	Literature surveys; LO 3 (Naveen), 4 (Siraj)	Presentation technique (Zobel 14); research ethics (Zobel 13)
6	Survey: Charles, Carrie, Todd	Survey: Naveen, Nagateja, Abdullah, Keshav	Survey presentations
7	Survey: Mary, Siraj, Abdullah, Ben	Survey: Ravi; Quantitative research: LO 9 (Carrie), 10 (Ben)	Survey
8	LO 11 (Nagateja); Qualitative Research: LO 7 (Keshav)	Research Proposals: LO 5 (Abdullah), 6 (Bala)
9	Research proposals; Zobel 10	Research proposals; Zobel 11	Survey 2nd draft
10	Research proposals	Research report: LO 12 (Charles); Zobel 9
11	Proposal presentations: Naveen, Ben, Carrie, Mary	Proposal presentations: Todd, Abdullah, Charles	Proposal
12	Proposal presentations: Siraj, Ravi, Nagateja, Keshav	Research methods in CS Shaw, Writing Good Software Engineering Research Papers Patterson, How to Have a Bad Career in Research/Academia	Proposal 2nd draft
13	Serc Workshop	Serc Workshop	Workshop report
14	no class — Thanksgiving	no class — Thanksgiving
15	Project presentations: Naveen, Siraj, Todd	Project presentations: Mary, Abdullah, Charles, Keshav	Final report 1st draft
16	Project presentations: Nagateja, Ravi, Ben, Carrie	Review	Final report

Final Exam: Tuesday, December 16, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Chris Lüer.