For the successful completion of CS 379H, each student must make an oral and written presentation of his or her research. (Both must be completed independent of whether the course is being used to satisfy "substantial writing component" degree requirements or not.) Both oral and written presentations must be approved by the advisor, the "second reader", and the honors advisor. The second reader may be anyone else on the CS faculty familiar with the material and must be approved by the honors advisor. Generally the advisor will suggest individuals who could serve as second readers.

The oral presentation should take about one hour with 25 minutes reserved for a the student's part and the rest for question. In attendance at the oral presentation should be the advisor, the second reader, and the honors advisor. (Students are free to make public announcements and invite others at their choice.) Rooms for the presentations can be arranged through the CS departmental office with Ms. Gem Naivar (gem@cs.utexas.edu and 471-7316 ext 0). Students should recognize that faculty plans at the ends of semesters are often less predictable than in mid-semester and thus scheduling for the oral presentation should be done several weeks in advance.

The written thesis should be at least 20 pages in length. In format and appearance, it will conform to the standard rules of academic writing. There are numerous examples of previous CS 379H theses in the office of the honors advisor for loaning. A section below gives an outline of how the presentation of the material might be organized.

Suggestions for the Oral and Written Presentations

The question most often posed - and the most common difficulty - concerns the level of the presentation. Far too often students prepare presentations as if they were simply reviews for their advisors of what has been accomplished. The advisor should already know this. The presentation is for others.

The student should build a model of his or her typical reader (and listener). The creation of this model is critical because many times during the writing, the student will pose the question "how much detail is required for this section?". These question are answered simply by altering the question to "how much detail is required by my model reader?".

The model reader can actually be a real person (such as a fellow student) or a hypothetical device. If real, the questions can be answered by approaching the person. If hypothetical, the questions can only be answered if the model reader is sufficiently well described. (for example, such a hypothetical model might be described as a fourth year CS student who has taken courses x, y, and z but has not taken p, q, or r.) Once again, the most common problem with presentations is that far too much is assumed about the background of the model reader. The student doing the research has immersed himself or herself in the material for months and many concepts are quite familiar. A proper presentation recognizes that the typical reader hasn't had any of that familiarity and thus needs a great deal of assistance in understanding. The writer should be asking himself or herself at the completion of every sentence "would that make sense to my model reader?".

1. Organization

Roughly, both written and oral presentations are similar in organization. Both have introductions, background material, the new contributions (possibly several sections), and conclusions. The written version should also contain a one paragraph abstract of the work.

2. Introduction

This section introduces the problem. It should contain whatever theory is necessary to understand the statement and discussion of the problem that has been solved. The statement of the problem itself should be very clear. (The second most common difficulty with these presentations is that the problem itself - what should be the most important item - has never been definitively stated.) If preliminary definitions are necessary, they belong in the introduction. When the problem is stated, there should be no question to the reader what it is.

3. Background Material

This section presents auxiliary material associated with the problem. Generally, it answers two questions: why is this problem important and what work have others done that is relevant? This puts the problem into context. The writer should not assume that the material is so inherently interesting that no motivation is necessary. It is possible that in the presentation of others work, more definitions and background theory will need to added.

4. The New Contributions

This is where the student clearly describes what he or she has done. It may take several sections. It may require new definitions and theory. After finishing the section, the reader should able to answer "what exactly did this student do?". Although this may be the majority of the presentation, it should rarely be much more than that (i.e., if, by far, most of the material deals with the new contributions, the introduction and motivating material may have been slighted.)

5. Conclusions

This is where the results are summarized. It need not be lengthy. Often students like to add a paragraph or two on "Future Work" meaning ideas they had but were not able to pursue.

Comments particular to the oral presentation

The easiest way to organize the presentation is by using transparencies with an overhead projector. The slides themselves serve as the cues for the talk. The slides should be large enough to read (when projected) from the back of the room. They need not employ complete sentences. Color and figures can add a lot to the audience's ability to understand. If the project involved building a system, the oral presentation can conclude with a demonstration of the system (possibly in another location).

Comments particular to the written thesis

A special difficulty of a written thesis (as opposed to an oral presentation) is that the reader is not present to pose questions. Thus, the writer must anticipate those questions. Writers should always err on the side of over-explanation rather than under-explanation. A reader may skip familiar material and thus over-explanation is only a problem of length. Unfortunately. if the material is under-explained the reader is forced to guess. Too many such guesses lead to frustration. Too much frustration leads to quitting.

A closing comment to students in CS 379H

Most importantly, remember this document will have your name on it. It will be filed with past undergraduate honors theses of the department and will be shown to your successors. Take pride in it and repay your advisor for his or her assistance by having the best document you can produce. Recognize that such a high quality piece of work may take weeks or months to prepare.

Questions to be answered:

1. Has the problem been clearly stated?

2. Has the problem been sufficiently motivated?

3. Is each sentence understandable to the model reader?