MAS111: Introduction to Research in Media Arts and Sciences

Fridays, 3-5pm, E15-209

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.

6 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)

13 February

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

20 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

27 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

6 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

13 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

20 March

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

27 March

Spring Break -- no class

3 April

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

10 April

How to demo

17 April

Attend Media Lab research open house this week

24 April

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

1 May

Practice student presentations -- student critiques

8 May

Final presentations (revised)