Understanding literature and communicating your thoughts on a topic is an essential part of doing research. In this assignment, I want you to act (or learn to act) as a research scientist and give your fellow class a lecture about your topic. The individual research lecture presentation will start from Week 3. You will be asked to give a 20min presentation of a topic, and then lead 40mins discussion for the topic.
Gain knowledge of cutting-edge research.
Develop proficiency in identifying relevant research papers.
Develop proficiency in synthesizing the contribution of several research papers.
Learn how to draw connections among research papers.
Develop proficiency in giving a research talk.
Take a look at videos from the following talk series to learn how to structure your talk
University of California, San Diego, Design@Large, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoWuaQlGD1dnRv82i71aSmYQgsZUp73fB
Stanford HCI Talk Series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoROMvodv4rMyupDF2O00r19JsmolyXdD
University of Toronto. TUX: Toronto User Experience Speaker Series https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi3ZH7kOtWXlu-ypJ6iD5Bg
Step 1: Take a quick scan of the research papers listed on the schedule page, and be ready to bid for a research area that you would like to give a presentation about. We will use this google form to bid on the topics and submit the response you have received as proof by 11:59 pm October 3 on canvas.
Step 2: You should read the papers listed in the schedule of your selected topic in detail, and then use them as starting points to conduct a literature review. In your 20-mins presentation, you will give us an overview of the research topic. Specifically, you should describe what are the key subareas within the topic, and show two or three representative work for each subarea. These representative papers should be new papers outside the set of papers provided for you so that the class can learn about new work.
Step 3: Prepare for the discussion. The day before the presentation, all other students' commentaries will be submitted. You should read through them and think about what to discuss. Decide on 3-4 key ideas from the readings that you would like the students to understand deeply, and structure your discussion strategy around that. The discussion is where you get other people talking: you can ask one student to elaborate on their ideas; you can moderate a debate if you find different opinions from their commentaries; you can also put students in breakout rooms to discuss.
Step 4: Presentation and Discussion. You will present the overall topic for around 20 mins, and then lead a 40 mins for discussion.
Your presentation will be graded based on the following:
(50%) Does the presentation give an informative overview of research area? Good presentations tend to a clear, well-structured overview of the research area, explain key challenges, major subareas, representative approaches, and state-of-the-art work with accuracy and synthesis., uses visuals/examples effectively, and demonstrates depth of understanding, and introduce new relevant papers beyond the provided list.
(50%) Does the student lead an engaging discussion? Good discussions are dynamic where students are actively engaged, integrate classmates’ commentaries into the discussion, use thoughtful prompts, targeted questions, or group activities (debates, breakout rooms, elaborations), and ensure multiple perspectives are voiced and deepens understanding of 3–4 key ideas.