The second half of the semester will be dominated by in-class guest lectures and out-of-class work on major group projects. You are to form teams of not fewer than 3 and not more than 5 individuals. By the beginning of class on Thursday, March 18, each team must turn in (via e-mail to both the TA and the Professor) a written project description (PDF preferred; one description per team). 2–3 pages (1000-1500 words) is a good target length.
Class on the 18th will be devoted to presentation of the proposals. Each team should plan a formal 10 minute presentation. The presentation should be made by a member of the team (if there is one) who did not make a spam or file-sharing presentation. Let me know if you will require an LCD projector. I can also arrange access to a printer that makes good plastic overhead slides, if that's easier.
Each project must address an open-ended problem for which there is no obvious, straightforward solution, and must be sufficiently difficult to make completion by the end of the semester a challenge. All projects require the approval of the Professor.
Intermediate progress reports (verbal only) will be made in-class on April 1 and April 6. Each team should prepare a 10 minute presentation, to be followed by 10 minutes of class discussion and feedback. Again, the presentation should be made, if possible, by someone who has not yet made a formal presentation.
Final project reports are due (via email to the Professor) by Friday April 30. The exact nature of the report will depend on the nature of the project, but the quality of writing and presentation should aspire to that of refereed research publications. The report should indicate how the work was partitioned among members of the group. The last 2–3 class periods will be devoted to formal presentation of final reports. If any member of the team has not yet made a formal presentation, he or she should make this one.
