CS 525: Special Topics
Brain-Computer Interaction

Research Presentation and Discussion

Submit Slides / Presentation before class on the presentation day. No paper critique is required for presenters.

Goals

The individual class presentations allow each student both to study a special topic in more detail and to practice oral presentation skills to the rest of the class. Each student gives a short talk, tying together several papers into a broader class theme, and then leads a class discussion on that paper. You will do one presentation before spring break and one after spring break.

Details

In preparation for your class presentation, you should follow these steps:

1. Choose the date that you would like to present.

Look at your schedule and pick the class date for which you would like to do your presentation. Sign up here. To choose a date, simply put your first name, last name and email in one of slots for the date you would like. Once you select a date, you cannot change it. All selections will be honored on a first-come, first served basis. If all slots for a particular day are taken, you must select a different date. The date must be selected by Friday, January 17.

2. Choose a base article for your presentation.

For your research paper presentations, you will pick a paper that you would like to present. Once you have selected a paper, add a link to it in the spreadsheet where you signed up for a presentation date. All selections will be honored on a first-come, first-served basis. This should be done as soon as possible to ensure that you get a paper that you are interested in, and must be done at least one week before your presentation to enable your classmates to read and respond to the paper.

I have put together a list of papers published in HCI conferences and journals, using brain input. These options provide lots of variety and so you should be able to find a paper that interests you! You may find it useful to download this spreadsheet so that you can annotate it for yourself and sort it based on different criteria.

You should be able to use Google Scholar to find the papers. If you have any issues, please don’t hesitate to contact the professor.

3. Find 2 journal or conference papers related to your base article.

Given your base article, you should now delve deeper into the topic by finding 2 other papers related to the base article. These must be full-fledged research papers of at least 4 pages that have been published in a recognized venue (i.e., international conference or journal). Possible options for finding related papers include selecting from the list that I put together, tracking down cited papers in the reference list of the base article and/or searching for relevant keywords in a research database such as the ACM Digital Library (available through the WPI Library web site). If you have any concerns whatsoever about whether certain papers are appropriate, please email the paper(s) to the professor for feedback. Please add links to the two documents in the spreadsheet.

4. Prepare your presentation.

Your presentation is intended to build on the base article and further inform the class about this work — the class may have read the base article and should understand the basic topic, so it is your job to add interesting technical and conceptual details to this topic using your two additional papers.

You will have 35 total minutes for your presentation, which includes approximately 15 minutes for presentation (about 15 slides) and 20 minutes for discussion. While your presentation can describe each individual paper separately, you should emphasize the bigger picture in your talk, focusing on common generalities to be learned across all your papers and even your own opinions about the work.

Following your presentation, you will lead the class discussion on the topic. Because you have read several detailed papers on the topic, you are the expert — you should aim to spark critical thinking and debate about the paper at hand and the general topic overall.

Please submit through Canvas a set of PDF or PowerPoint slides before class on the day of your talk. You can then use the instructor's laptop (preloaded with your slides) to present your talk. Please note that using your own laptop is also possible, but you must still submit the slides online as well. If you would like feedback before your presentation, please email a draft of your slides at least 48 hours before the presentation to the professor, and even earlier is preferred!

Please note: When  you introduce a paper (the main one or a supporting one), please include the full citation for that paper. You can retrieve this using Google scholar. Search for the paper, and there will be quotation marks under the search result. When you click on it, you will see the citation in several formats. Please choose one that has all authors names (not et. al).

Grading

Grading for your presentation will be based on the quality and organization of your material, and the quality and facilitation of discussion.

To solidify understanding and for practice in critical reading, I have included some guidelines for things to include in your presentation or to be prepared to discuss in class. Some will be more or less relevant, depending on the paper, so it is not expected that you include all of these for one paper: