> Hello,
>
> I have a question about the rough draft that is due tomorrow. What
> exactly is supposed to be covered in the rough draft? Is it going to be
> similar to the midterm progress report?


Dear CS-175 Class,

Because there has been some confusion as to what we expected from your
draft final report, the due date for the draft final report is postponed
for two (2) days until *Thursday, 21 May*.  No student will be penalized
for not knowing what were the grading expectations for the class.  This
postponement will let you do your best according to grading expectations.

As stated in class, your final report should be structured to "look like"
a computer science technical conference paper.

It should be at least 5 pages, and no more than 7 pages.  Your paper will
have a title and authors block, followed by an Abstract.  It should begin
with an Introduction that states the problem you set out to solve, situates
your work in the broader field, and provides enough background information
for the reader to understand the rest of the paper and why it is interesting
and important (roughly 1 page of Intro).  The body of the paper should
describe your methods and results, with an emphasis on your own personal
contribution within a team setting.  The paper should end with a Conclusions
or Discussion section (roughly 1 page) wherein you reflect on the implications
of what you have done and discovered.  Explain the sources of power whereby
it worked (or didn't), show (by cogent discussion) your advances in conceptual
understanding of advanced AI techniques, lay out what you would do in a second
generation system if you implemented same, and so on.  Following the body of
the paper will be the References section where you give bibliographic citations
for anything referenced or cited in the body of the paper.  You are expected
to have read at least one (and doubtless more) computer science technical
conference paper to get background for your project, so you should by now
be familiar with the format.  If not, find one (preferably more) and read it.

Be *SURE* to cite any of your sources for anything you used that was not the
work of you or one of your teammates.  It is OK to use *ANYTHING* from outside
that is helpful to you, but you *MUST* give credit where credit is due.  You
must declare *EVERYTHING* from outside that you used in any way.  If it is a
citable literature reference, it will go in the References section.  If it is a
website or a URL, it will be a footnote.  (These distinctions were discussed
in class).

Of course, many of you are still coding on your project (TIME IS *ALWAYS* TOO
SHORT!!!!).  Thus, your draft final reports may contain "place-holders" for
figures and graphs that you expect to generate when your project finally works.
At this point, we only want to see a "draft" that will eventually become final.

Shortly, for your convenience, I will post some *OPTIONAL* draft templates for
your final report.  You are *NOT* obliged to use them.  Also, shortly I will
post some *OPTIONAL* common "simple stories" for the body of your report.
Again, they are optional and you are *NOT* obliged to use them.

I will go over the expected format of the draft and final report tomorrow
(Tuesday 19 May) at the beginning of the lecture.  (The bulk of the lecture
will be on machine vision and robotics, in response to a student request.)

    All best regards,  Rick Lathrop