CS66 Final Project

Overview

The focus for the last few weeks of the semester will be to propose and complete a final project of your choosing. You will collaborate in groups of 2 or 3 individuals, preferably within the same lab section. The deliverables are as follows:


Project ideas

Your project must be novel work related to the field of machine learning - it should go beyond what we have covered in the course in terms of assignments or core lecture materials. More detailed topics, data/paper resources, and advice is available here.


Proposal (10%)

By midnight on November 7, send your pre-proposal (a 1-page abstract) as a PDF. I will use this to provide advice in lab on November 9. Your preproposal should include:

By midnight November 13, you will submit a full proposal (3 pages plus the timeline as a PDF via your Git repo) with the following :
Checkpoint (10%)

Each week in lab, I will ask you to update me on your progress (via your git repo checkpoints/README.md file). Your grade will be determined by your ability to:

Paper (50%)

Sample papers from CS68 Bioinformatics Project (each of these was machine learning related but there is more of a focus on the applications than some of your projects):

Your final paper is due in the paper/ directory of your Git repository by midnight on December 14. All relevant figures and tex files should also be present. If you use an online editor (e.g., Overleaf), recompile your final code on our systems to ensure compatibility. You have been provided a sample report document in your lab directories. You must utilize the provided LaTeX style files to produce your report. I am more than happy to answer questions, but Google, Piazza and Stack Overflow are where I find all my answers so you should try them first. Details about the paper requirements are available here. Note that your grade is not based on how novel your results are, but rather in your ability to convey your understanding of the problem and analyze your results. My final grade is based on (a) the design and execution of the experiment as well as (b) the thoroughness and readability of the paper.


Presentation (30%)

Your group will present during the exam period on December 21 from 9am-noon. I am to provide ~15 minutes per group plus 2-3 minutes for questions (20 minutes maximum). The grade for this portion is completely based on your delivery, not the difficulty of the project or the impressiveness of results. Having a great project but failing to communicate your design, results, and analysis will result in a poor grade. Please work on your slides throughout the project, and practice with another group present at least once. All members of the group are expected to present equally. Please follow Prof. Newhall's Presentation Guidelines for tips. A few general comments:

I will use rubrics that are very similar to the following:
Submitting your Project
You should hand in: