Undergrad survey project
For the survey project, students will review a research paper in a subarea of multi-agent systems. There will be two milestones during the term: a proposal (10%) and a presentation (90%).
Proposal for undergrads
In the project proposal, students should form groups of no more than three and identify the paper they intend to review. They should also briefly describe the subarea of their chosen paper and explain the significance of the research. Students may consult this page for a list of suggested papers related to the course.
Undergraduate students can choose the graduate grading scheme when they submit their proposals. Those who decide to go with the graduate grading scheme have to follow the proposal format outlined below for grad students.
Final presentation for undergrads
In the final presentation, each group is expected to prepare slides for a 10-minute presentation, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer period. The presentation should provide clear answers to the following questions:
- What specific problem does this work address, and why is it important?
- What was the state of the art in this area at the time of publication, and what limitations existed?
- How does the paper advance the state of the art, and why is it more effective than prior approaches?
- What are the key artifacts presented in the paper (e.g., methodology, hardware design, software algorithm, optimization or control technique)?
- How were these artifacts implemented and evaluated?
- What are the most important empirical or theoretical results?
All group members should be prepared to answer questions about the paper. The final grade will be the same for all members of a group and will depend on the quality and clarity of the presentation, as well as the answers provided by all group members during the question period.
Grad research project
For graduate students, an important part of this course is the research project. For the research project, students can work on the research project alone or in a team of at most three students; of course, teams are expected to work on more significant projects.
The goal of the research project is to try to do something novel, rather than merely a survey of existing work. Projects may be theoretical, experimental (based on simulations), experimental (based on real-world data), a useful software artifact, or any combination thereof. Creativity is encouraged. The only real constraint for the project is that it has to have something to do with the material covered in the course. Students are encouraged to talk to the course instructor if you are not sure about whether something is an appropriate project.
The final product is a writeup (in the form of a short research paper). Some projects may well lead to publishable papers (perhaps with some additional work). There will be 3 milestones during the course: proposal (10%), final presentation (50%), and final written report (40%).
Proposal for grads
In the project proposal, students should explain the topic of their project, what types of results they hope to obtain, and what some of the technical issues are that you will need to address. For graduate students, the course project could be related to their own ongoing research as long as it also has clear connections with the course material. If necessary, the course instructor can help with finding topics. Each proposal should include all the following.
- Introduction: Introduce and motivate the project
- Problem statement: Describe the purpose and the objective(s) of the project
- Methodology: Describe methods and tools that will be deployed to tackle the problem
- Related work: Overview the state-of-the-art by citing related research papers, ideally published recently in top-tier conferences or journals
Progress report for grads
Intermediate oral project progress report is optional. This report should explain what results each group has obtained already, what (if any) difficulties the group has encountered, and what the group plans to do to complete the project. Ideally, at this point, each group should already have some good results, so that it can spend the rest of the time on answering questions generated by the results, as well as preparing the writeup.
Final presentation and report for grads
Each group is expected to prepare slides for a 15-minute presentation, followed by a 10-minute question-and-answer period. The presentation should provide clear answers to the following questions:
- What specific problem does your project address, and why is it important?
- What was the state of the art in this area, and what limitations exist?
- How does your project advance the state of the art, and why is it more effective than prior approaches?
- What are the key artifacts of your project (e.g., methodology, hardware design, software algorithm, optimization or control technique)?
- How are these artifacts implemented and evaluated?
- What are your most important empirical or theoretical results?
All group members should be prepared to answer questions about the paper. The final grade will be the same for all members of a group and will depend on the quality and clarity of the presentation, as well as the answers provided by all group members during the question period.
Each group also has to prepare and submit a final project report by the end of the term using the ACM Master Article Template. For Microsoft Word, students should use the interim layout.docx, and for Latex they should use the sample-sigconf.tex file in the samples folder. Submitted reports with any other format/style will not be accepted.
Each report has to include (at least) the following sections: abstract, introduction, methodology, experimental results (if applicable), related work, conclusion, and references. Without references, each report should not be less than 5 and not more than 11 pages.
Academic integrity policy
In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.
Grievance policy
A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department's administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline policy
A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offense, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.
A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about "rules" for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean.
For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Appeals policy
A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Automatic system to detect plagiarism
Moss (Measure Of Software Similarity) will be used to screen each project in this course. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students will be given an alternative if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Moss in this course.
