CS501: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Computer Science I Fall, 1997

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Instructor:

Prof. Stuart C. Shapiro, 226 Bell Hall, 645-3180 ext. 125, shapiro@cs.buffalo.edu,

Office Hours: See my schedule. If I'm in my office, and not talking to someone else, I'll be happy to talk with you. Or make an appointment via Gloria Koontz, koontz@cs.buffalo.edu, 716-645-3180 Ext. 103

Class Meetings: Wed Fri 10:00 - 10:50 AM, 210 Natural Sciences Building

Registration Number: 098120

Texts (Buy from Book Store):

• Leslie Lamport, LaTeX: A Document Preparation System User's Guide and Reference Manual, 2nd Edition, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
• Richard Stallman, GNU Emacs Manual, 13th Edition, Free Software Foundation, 1997.
• Mary-Claire van Leunen, A Handbook for Scholars, Revised Edition Oxford University Press, New York, 1992.

These are all reference books you will be using for several years, at least.

CS501/502/700 Requirement:

The Graduate Student Handbook says that first year graduate students are expected to take 3 credits of CS501/502/700. In 1997-98, CS502 will not be offered, instead, you are to take CS501 in the Fall and CS700 in the Spring for a total of 3 credits. You are to register for CS700 under the faculty member you expect to do research with for your M.S. and/or Ph.D. A main activity of CS501 will be presentations by the department's graduate faculty of their research programs. This should help you decide whom you want to work with for your CS700.

Schedule:

CS 501, WF 10:00 - 10:50 AM, ROOM 210 Natural Sciences Building

September	3	Prof. Shapiro Dr. Davin Milun	Introductions Computer Accounts
	5	Prof. Jin-Yi Cai	Assigment 1 due Graduate Studies at UB
	10	Dr. Milun	UB CS Computing Environment
	12	Drop/Add Deadline Prof. Shapiro	Begin Emacs
	17	Prof. Shapiro	Finish Emacs, Begin LaTeX
	19	Prof. Shapiro	Finish LaTeX, Begin HTML
	24	Prof. Shapiro	Finish HTML
	26	Prof. Sargur Srihari	Handwriting Recognition
October	1	Prof. Russ Miller	A Project Involving Atoms, Molecules, and Computational Science
	3	Prof. Ashim Garg	How to Visualize a Graph
	8	Prof. William Rapaport	A Computational Theory of Vocabulary Expansion
	10	Prof. Kenneth Regan	Low-Level Complexity Theory
	15	Prof. Shapiro	Research in Knowledge Representation & Reasoning
	17	Prof. Shapiro	More on LaTeX
	22	Mrs. Elenora M. Heffner	Writing Skills
	24	Prof. Shapiro	R Deadline Presentation Techniques
	29	Dr. Milun	Software Development Tools
	31	Prof. Jin-Yi Cai	Overview and Some Topics in Complexity Theory
November	5	Prof. Rapaport	Teaching Techniques
	7	Department Portraits	Report to 216 Bell Hall for pictures
	12	Prof. Alan Selman	TBA
	14	Prof. Shambhu J. Upadhyaya	Research in Reliability and Fault Tolerance
	19	Prof. Rohini Srihari	Multimodal Information Retrieval
	21	Prof. Deborah Walters	Computational Vision
	26	No class	Fall Recess
	28	No class	Fall Recess
December	3	Prof. Bharat Jayaraman	Research Topics in Programming Languages
	5	Prof. Shapiro	Open Discussion
	10	Prof. Venugopal Govindaraju	Recognition Paradigms for Handwritten Words and for Faces
	12	Prof. Aidong Zhang	Research on Multimedia and Databases Last class

Other resources:

• Information on building a home page within the CS Department's WWW pages.
• Helpful information from Prof. Miller's WWW Seminar

Grading:

Grading is on an S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory) basis. Registrants are responsible for attending all class meetings and handing in all assignments on time. Excessive absences from class, or excessive missed or late assignments will be result in a grade of "U". A grade of "S" in this course is required for any graduate degree in this department.

Assignments:

Due September 5, 1997:

Answer the following questions (printed, not handwritten):

1. (If you are a non-U.S. student) Why did you choose to do your graduate work in the U.S.?
2. Why did you decide to do your graduate work in this department and in this university?
3. What is the final degree you plan/hope to earn in this department, M.S. or Ph.D.?
4. What area of computer science are you interested in?

Due every Wednesday following a departmental colloquium and every class meeting following a research presentation by member of the department graduate faculty:

Write a 1 page review of the talk. Include

• The name and affiliation of the speaker.
• The title of the talk.
• What was the main point of the talk?
• Give your reaction to/impression of the contents of the talk.
• Comment on the positive and negative aspects of the speaker's delivery style.

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Stuart C. Shapiro <shapiro@cs.buffalo.edu>