The great 2018 MAS111: Introduction to Research in Media Arts and Sciences scavenger hunt

Fridays, 3-5pm, E15-341

V. Michael Bove, Jr., E15-490, x3-0334, vmb (at) media (dot) mit (dot) edu

This syllabus will be updated from time to time throughout the term so please check back regularly!

Grading Information: This class is graded P/D/F. To pass, at minimum you must attend (and participate in) 2/3 or more of the class sessions, and do the final presentation.

9 February: Research

• A brief overview of the semester
• What is research, and what kind do we do at the Media Lab?
• How to design an experiment
• How and why to keep a lab notebook
• Resource: Instructions on keeping a lab notebook (from Course 2)
• Article: Going Paperless
• Assignment for next class: Find a popular-press article or blog discussion of some science or engineering result or design achievement, and also find the researchers'/designers' own write-up of the results. In your opinion, did the press understand and correctly report the most significant aspects of the work? Write one page explaining your thoughts.

16 February: IP

• Understanding intellectual property, copyright, patents (Kate Darling)
• Assignment for next class: Patent search -- find a patent that is relevant to your research and write a brief summary of it. For extra fun, find a seemingly silly, useless, or inexplicable patent and share it with class next week.
• Handout: Kate Darling's IP Presentation
• Handout: Example patent
• The Patented Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich: Food as Intellectual Property
• Resource: Patents Research Guide (MIT Libraries)
• Resource: US Patent and Trademark Office General Information Concerning Patents
• Resource: US Patent Database
• Resource: PAIR: Patent Application Information Retrieval
• Resource: Google Patent Search
• Resource: World Intellectual Property Organization
• Resource: About Creative Commons
• Resource: choosealicense.com

23 February: Ethics in research

• Research involving human subjects (Dr. Leigh Firn, Chair of COUHES)
• Resource: MIT COUHES Web site
• Assignment for next class: Find out about a human-subjects study (on the MIT campus or some other local institution). Who is doing it, what is the topic and what is being done to the subjects, what (if any) compensation is offered?
• Resource: Guidelines 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

2 March: Resources: There's a whole world out there beyond Google!

• Please bring your laptop (or tablet) to class this week
• What do you do when you get stuck?
• What kinds of resources exist and how to find them
• Why a librarian might become your best friend
• Assignment for next class: Literature search -- find a new reference/informational resource/paper (that you didn't have already) related to your project and write a brief summary of it. Also tell how you found it.
• Resources (MIT):MIT Libraries (in particular check out the "Search" tab)
• Resources (external):IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, Google Scholar, DBLP, Zotero, Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics

9 March: Staying safe

• Health and safety considerations and regulations (MIT Environment, Health and Safety)
• Resource: MIT Office of Sustainability
• Handouts: EHS presentations on chemical safety, biosafety, EHS overview, extramural safety
• Resource: Sample MSDS
• Assignment for next class: 1) Find a news article about a safety or environmental incident related to research, and summarize it. Was there an unsafe practice? 2) Please pick your favorite chemical (!) or one used in your lab, find a Material Safety Data Sheet on the Web, and write a brief summary of any health or safety concerns.

16 March: What's "peer review," anyway? And what about non-peer-reviewed publications (like the Web)?

• How to read/write a research paper
• Kinds of conferences and journals
• CFP's and review processes
• Open-access publishing
• Assignment for next class: Conference search -- find out from your UROP supervisor or colleagues which conference or meeting is a typical place for research like that done by your group to be presented. Look up the conference on-line and write a brief summary of it.
• Resource: IEEE Conference Search
• Resource: ACM Conference Calendar
• Resource: (example of a new publication model) PubPub
• Resource: Are there alternatives to peer review?
• Resource: Peer review: Troubled from the start
• Resource: Scientific Utopia II. Restructuring Incentives and Practices to Promote Truth Over Publishability
• Resource: NASA document on how to do technical presentations
• Resource: How to review a technical paper

23 March: Special presentation/activity (To be announced)

30 March: NO CLASS (Spring Break)

6 April: The Fine Art of the Demo

• How to demo panel discussion
• Ryan Chin's Top Ten Things I Learned About Demos at the Media Lab

13 April: How to Present Your Work

• How to make slides and do an oral presentation
• Generic PowerPoint Presentation for MAS111
• Presentation Lessons from Comedians
• How to Escape the PowerPoint Prison, IEEE Spectrum, April 2017

20 April

• Practice student presentations -- student critiques

27 April

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

4 May

• Final presentations (revised)

11 May

• Final presentations (revised)