Course Syllabus

Typical Venues and Timings: 9:40–11:35am on M,W,F in WEB 1230 OR 3:20–5:00pm on T,H in LCR (3147 MEB)

Calendar: See Announcements or subscribe to the Colloquium Mailing List for ALL details (venue, timing, speaker for each event).

Introduction

We are requiring every student registered in Colloquium (CS 7930) to attend at least a third of the colloquia for 1 credit, two-thirds of the colloquia for 2 credits, and all colloquia for 3 credits. Note that we strongly discourage signing up for 3 credits since attending all colloquia in a semester is really challenging.

Please refer to the Announcements or the department calendar to know when and where colloquia are held. All attendance requirements are with respect to the colloquia announced through Canvas (and not the department calendar).

A research colloquium may be a standard colloquium, a Distinguished Lecture, a faculty recruiting talk, a thesis defense, or a Research Buffet talk. Note that colloquia are sometimes announced quite late, so keep checking the Announcements regularly and also sign up for the mailing list. After each talk you attend you must also send a brief report of about half a page (10-20 lines) summarizing the main ideas in the talk.

Submitting Reports

Submit your reports using the Canvas system as plain text. In your summary describe the main ideas in the talk and list what you think are some strengths and weaknesses of the presented work. Reports must be received within one week of a colloquium. Late submissions or reports not adhering to the above format will receive no credits at all without exceptions. You will not be allowed to make up for missed colloquia even if you missed them due to TA duties, being sick, traveling, etc.

NOTE: We will periodically pass around a sign-up sheet to keep track of attendance.

Grading

Your final grade will be based on the number of attended colloquia as well as the quality of your submitted reports. Typically, each missed colloquium will lower your grade by one grade bracket. For example, let's say there were 24 colloquia total listed in the Announcements and you were taking the course for 2 credits. That means you had to attend two-thirds of the colloquia, which is 16. However, you ended up attending only 13, which would immediately bring your grade down from A to B.

Cheating

The main purpose of submitting your colloquium report is to establish that you actually attended the colloquium in person. Submitting a report for a colloquium you did not attend in person is cheating. When writing up your reports you must work completely independently of everyone else. Any collaboration here, of course, is cheating. We do not distinguish between cheaters who copy others' work and cheaters who allow their work to be copied. Copying text from online sources into your reports without properly acknowledging it is also considered cheating. Note that Canvas uses modern techniques to extensively check your reports for signs of plagiarism after you submit them. If you cheat, you will be given an E in the course and referred to the University Student Behavior Committee. Under the School of Computing's Policy Statement on Academic Misconduct, if you are sanctioned for cheating in two courses, you will not be allowed to take any more courses from the School. If you have any questions about what constitutes cheating, please ask.

FAQ

1. How many colloquia are we going to have this semester? This is impossible to know in advance since invited speakers are in general not scheduled months ahead of time. Sometimes there are around 20 and sometimes closer to 40. Another reason why taking this course for 3 credits is discouraged.
2. Where can I keep track of colloquia that count towards the total number? The Announcements and Assignments are your best source. If a colloquia is not listed there, in general it does not count towards the total number.
3. What about colloquia outside of the usual time slots? If they are in the Announcements, you have to attend them. Again, one more reason why taking this course for 3 credits is discouraged.
4. What if there are two half an hour talks during one colloquium slot? This situation, which often happens during research buffets, still counts as just one single colloquium. You have to submit a single report that covers both speakers.
5. I missed X colloquia due to TA duties/being sick/traveling/etc. How can I make up for the missed colloquia? You cannot! So make sure to attend them regularly and again, I strongly advise you against taking it for 3 credits.

Thank you, and have fun attending our colloquia!