MAS111: Introduction to Research in Media Arts and Sciences

Fridays, 3-5pm, E15-235

V. Michael Bove, Jr., E15-368B, x3-0334, vmb (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu
Chris Schmandt, E15-368A, x3-5156, geek (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu
David Reed, E15-492, x3-6469, dpreed (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu

Where possible, handouts will be linked to this page, but a few may unfortunately be available only in paper form. If you miss class, you can pick these up from Michael Bove's office, or in class the following week.

8 February

A brief overview of the semester
A brief history of UROP
Students and instructors introduce themselves
Assignment for next class: your UROP proposal (or a paragraph outlining your skills and research interests)

15 February

What is research?
How to design an experiment
How to keep a lab notebook
Resource: Suggestions on keeping a lab notebook

22 February

What kinds of resources exist and how to find them
Assignment for next class: Literature search -- find 3 new papers/references/informational resources (that you didn't have already) related to your project and write a brief summary of each. Also tell how you found them.
Resources: VERA, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Google Scholar, DBLP, Zotero

29 February

Understanding intellectual property, copyright, patents
Assignment for next class: Patent search -- find a patent that is relevant to your research and write a brief summary of it
Resource: US Patent Database
Resource: Google Patent Search
Resource: World Intellectual Property Organization
Handout: US Patent and Trademark Office General Information Concerning Patents

7 March

Ethics/ownership/teamwork
Assignment for next class: A brief summary of who all the participants are in the project on which you are working and their roles: other UROPers, grad students, faculty and research staff, collaborators outside the Media Lab; also where the research funding comes from.
Resource: Ethical Expectations for UROP at MIT
Resource: IEEE Code of Ethics
Resource: ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
Resource: AIGA Standards of Professional Practice for Designers
Resource: The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science

14 March

How to read/write a research paper
Kinds of conferences and journals
CFP's and review processes
Assignment for next class: Conference search -- find a conference or meeting that is relevant to your research and write a summary of what it's about
Resource: IEEE Conference Search
Resource: ACM Conference Calendar
Resource: NASA document on how to do technical presentations
Resource: How to review a technical paper

21 March

No class (since so many of you left early for Spring Break!)

28 March

Spring Break -- no class

4 April

How (and when) to do a research-results Web page
Assignment for next class: find and critique a research-results page

11 April

How to demo
How to make slides and do an oral presentation
Generic PowerPoint Presentation for MAS111

18 April

First round of student presentations -- student critiques, part I

25 April

First round of student presentations -- student critiques, part II

2 May

Revised presentations, part I

9 May

Revised presentations, part II