Presentations

During this class, you will be responsible for presenting one paper in class and leading the discussion. Here is a list of suggested papers; you are free to choose a paper that is not on the list, but please clear it with me first. The day before each presentation, I will send out a few short questions to check your understanding. Please reply with short responses---a few sentences should be more than enough.

Research papers are written for a very specific technical audience. Papers appearing in conferences---most papers in computer science---are also subject to tight page limits and are typically extremely condensed; many things are left unsaid. (Here is a useful guide to reading papers.) When presenting a paper in class, you should not try to compress the material from the paper. Instead, you should try to expand and unpack the paper, so that it is easier to understand.

Here are a few specific things to keep in mind when presenting a paper.

• Make sure the high-level picture is clear. Make sure to explain the problem the paper is trying to solve, the setting, and as much of the motivation behind the paper as possible.
• Don't spend the whole time presenting technical details. It is probably not interesting for the class to spend the whole presentation talking about the technical details in a single proof.
• You don't have to present the whole paper. It is simply not possible to present every detail in the span of one lecture. For some papers, it may not even be possible to present each main contribution. Focus on the one or two most important contributions (as decided by yourself). If the paper first discusses a "core" or "basic" version, and then later adds on a bunch of advanced extensions, focus on the core version.
• Give as many examples as you can. Most research papers are extremely condensed, and do not have nearly enough examples. Present as many examples as you can. Your examples don't need to be drawn from the paper---small examples are the most useful, as simple as possible.
• Keep the class background in mind. Our class has students from a variety of backgrounds; try to keep this in mind. It's better to briefly explain a technical term if you are not sure everyone knows what it means. You should assume that everyone in the class has basic familiarity with the paper (say, assume everyone spent about 30-45 minutes reading the paper before class).

You may use the chalkboard during the presentation, or slides.