Many (undergraduate) students at KAIST consider having a research career. Although there are research opportunities such as URP or lab internships, it is still difficult to assess whether research is right for oneself with such short research experience. Moreover, mentoring and guidelines for research beginners are not always available. This course is designed for students who want to understand which activities and tasks are involved in research and what characteristics and attitude are required to be great researchers. This course will provide students with a taste of various aspects of research, including how to find the right research area, how to approach your potential research advisor, how to identify papers to read, how to create good research ideas, how to write and present papers, how to interact with peers, and how to write a good CV. Through a series of lectures, projects, assignments and student panels, we will cover the following:
This course is open to highly motivated undergraduate students and also graduate students who are in very early stage of their research career.
Grading: There will be no midterm or final exams. Your grade will be based on how you excel at a series of assignments and projects, in addition to your class participation.
Policy on Class Registration Approval: We are humbled by the interest shown by a great number of students on this course. As one of the goals of this course is to have the students experience various research activities and receive detailed feedback from the instructors, we have placed a limit on the number of students. We appreciate your understanding. We have also decided to offer this course in Spring of 2019.
For those students who feel like they must take the course this semester, please send an email as soon as possible but no later than August 30th (Thursday, first week of class) to cs492c@nmsl.kaist.ac.kr and explain in English why you have to take the course now.
| Week | Date | Led by | Topic | Due | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8/28 | Lee | Introduction & Course Overview | ||
| 1 | 8/30 | Lee | How to choose area and advisor | ||
| 2 | 9/4 | Yoo | How to find papers for your research | ||
| 2 | 9/6 | Lee | How to recognise good research and generate good idea | Assignment #1 (10am) | |
| 3 | 9/11 | Lee | Student Panel #1: how I selected my research area and advisor | ||
| 3 | 9/13 | Yoo | How to read papers: which is where? | ||
| 4 | 9/18 | Kim | How to write a good paper | Assignment #2 (10am) | |
| 4 | 9/20 | Kim | Designing human studies | ||
| 5 | 9/25 | - | No class (Chuseok) | ||
| 5 | 9/27 | Yoo | Basic statistical analysis | Assignment #3 (10am) | |
| 6 | 10/2 | Yoo | What happens to my paper: publication pipeline | ||
| 6 | 10/4 | All | Writing workshop | ||
| 7 | 10/9 | - | No class (Hangul Proclamation Day) | ||
| 7 | 10/11 | Yoo | How to review papers | ||
| 8 | 10/16 | No class (Midterms week) | |||
| 8 | 10/18 | No class (Midterms week) | |||
| 9 | 10/23 | Lee | How to make good presentations | ||
| 9 | 10/25 | Kim | Research ethics | ||
| 10 | 10/30 | All | Presentation Workshop #1 | ||
| 10 | 11/1 | All | Presentation Workshop #2 | ||
| 11 | 11/6 | Kim | How to market yourself and your research | Assignment #4-1 (10am): First Review | |
| 11 | 11/8 | Yoo | Job market/career paths | ||
| 12 | 11/13 | All | CV/resume workshop | Assignment #5 (10am) | |
| 12 | 11/15 | Lee | How to write proposals | ||
| 13 | 11/20 | All | Elevator pitch presentation workshop | Assignment #4-2 (10am): Second Review | |
| 13 | 11/22 | Kim | Life as a researcher | ||
| 14 | 11/27 | Kim | Student panel: how to survive grad school | ||
| 14 | 11/29 | - | No class (Undergrad admission interview day) | ||
| 15 | 12/4 | All | Mock TPC meeting | ||
| 15 | 12/6 | All | Mock TPC meeting | ||
| 16 | 12/11 | - | No class (Finals week) | ||
| 16 | 12/13 | - | No class (Finals week) |