MAS111: Introduction to Research in Media Arts and Sciences

Fridays, 3-5pm, E14-525

V. Michael Bove, Jr., E15-448, x3-0334, vmb (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu
Chris Schmandt, E15-355, x3-5156, geek (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu
David Reed, E14-348H, 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.

5 February

• A brief overview of the semester
• A brief history of UROP
• Students and instructors introduce themselves
• What is research, and what kind do we do at the Media Lab?
• How to design an experiment
• Assignment for next class: your UROP proposal (or a paragraph outlining your skills and research interests)

12 February

• How to keep a lab notebook
• Resource: Suggestions on keeping a lab notebook
• 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
• Handout: David's slides about IP
• Handout: Example patent

19 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

26 February

• Research involving human subjects (Dr. Leigh Firn, Chair of COUHES)
• Resource: MIT COUHES Web site
• 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

5 March

• No class because of E14 dedication ceremony

12 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

19 March

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

26 March

• Spring Break -- no class

2 April

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

9 April

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

16 April

• Practice student presentations -- student critiques

23 April

• Practice student presentations (second half) -- student critiques

30 April

• Final presentations (revised)

7 May

• Final presentations (revised)