STA 250, Spring 2025 -- Project

Overview

The goals of projects and expectations

Evaluation

The project will constitute xx % of your final grade. Your grade on the project will be evaluated based on:

• 5%: Project milestone 1 (pre-proposal)
• 15%: Project milestone 2 (proposal)
• 10%: Project milestone 3 (mid-term meeting)
• 20%: Project presentation
• 50%: Project report
• Attendance and participation on presentation days (-5% point per missed day)

Milestones

Project milestone 1: Pre-proposal (Fri, April 18)

• An informal one-page note, containing
  • Initial exploration of topics
  • Brainstorming (mini) research questions
  • Names of group members (1 or 2 people)

Project milestone 2: Proposal (Fri, May 2)

• A proposal of at most 3 pages, containing
  • (Brief) summary of literature review
  • Formulation of 2-3 interesting (follow-up) questions to explore
  • Plans for how you will approach (at least one of) these problems

Project milestone 3: Mid-term project meeting (mid or late May)

• Each group will meet with me in mid or late May to discuss progress and receive feedback if needed.

Project presentation (early June)

• Presentations for ~20 minute including Q&A
• The presentation will be evaluated primarily based on
  • Clarity in slides
  • Delivery of key messages in the allocated time
  • Handling questions from the audience

Project report (Mon, June 9)

• Final report in a typical ML conference format (max 9 pages excluding references and appendices)
• The report will be graded primarily based on
  • Clarity in writing
  • Correctness of results & soundness of arguments
  • Literature review (adequate discussion of related work)
  • Significance and novelty