FinalProjectPaper

Papers should be written using the SIGCHI format. Templates in Microsoft Word, LaTeX, and Apple Pages are available here. Use the “HCI Archive Format.”

You can and should use your proposal write-up as a starting point for your paper. (In some cases, the proposal write-up is a good start on a paper already.) In general, you should re-use all of your previous work (including the proposal) as is appropriate given how your project actually took shape.

Here are specific guidelines about what the paper should include. There are guidelines for everyone in the class, and then separate instructions for those in the undergraduate and graduate sections. Finally, there are submit instructions.

Undergrads please note: you are welcome to follow the grad guidelines, because they require higher academic standards. This is optional, and you will not be penalized if you ignore this.

Everyone

Write an Abstract that briefly introduces your project and your findings. It should be approx. 10 lines long (same as the template). Mention the AI concepts that are employed.
Include some Author Keywords. These are keywords that describe your paper, not yourself :)
Delete the ACM Classification Keywords.
Include major sections named INTRODUCTION, PROJECT DESCRIPTION, ANALYSIS OF RESULTS, DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, and REFERENCES. You may have additional sections as you see appropriate, but it is unlikely that it is wise to remove any of these sections.
- The INTRODUCTION corresponds to the Problem Statement of your earlier proposals.
- The PROJECT DESCRIPTION corresponds to the earlier Problem Analysis + Deliverable and Demonstration + Data Set sections. You should describe what you built, how it works, and what data you used. Please be specific enough that I understand how the AI ideas were actually applied.

E.g., it does not suffice to say “A* search was used in the implementation.” You must be specific about how it was used, what was the heuristic function, and so on.

For a pretty good example of what I am talking about, please see Eric McCann's commentary in his Innovation section of his 2010 project flyer (thanks Eric). For a paper, you'd want to present this in narrative prose (rather than a bullet list), but the level of description is just right.

The ANALYSIS OF RESULTS section should present conclusions. How do you know that your thing worked? E.g, an A* search, was it successful? How many nodes did it expand? Each of you should have some metric of success based on our earlier conversations—present the metric and how well you did against it here. If you don't have a formal metric, still provide some kind of qualitative analysis discussion.
The DISCUSSION section is more free form. Generally, I'd like to know what you learned about the problem here. Focus on your own experience with the problem—don't worry if you learned something that others might already know. The goal of this project was not for you to make an original contribution to knowledge (of course that would be nice if it happened, but that was not the expectation). Instead, the goal was for you to learn something about the problem domain in which you worked, and how AI applies to it. So, focus on your own learning: what you discovered; what was surprising.
In the CONCLUSION, summarize your results and give any forward pointers to new work.
Include an ACKNOWLEDGMENTS section. Please include the following statement:

The work described in this paper was conducted as part of a Fall 2011 Artificial Intelligence course, taught in the Computer Science department of the University of Massachusetts Lowell by Prof. Fred Martin.

You may additionally mentioning anyone who helped you or otherwise encouraged you (e.g., material that you learned from the Stanford course.)

Please note that in the U.S. English spelling, “Acknowledgments” does not have an “e” between the g and the m.

Finally, if you have no other content in your Acknowledgments section than the statement above, please change the heading to ACKNOWLEDGMENT (because there is only one of them).

In the REFERENCES section, include citations for any work that you used in the creation of your project.

Undergraduate Students

The paper should be 2 to 3 pages long, including diagrams.

Graduate Students

The paper should be 3 to 4 pages long, including diagrams.
You are required to connect your work with existing work in the field. Use the ACM Digital Library to find related work (if you haven't located it already), and in the Introduction, mention how your work relates to and/or builds upon prior work.

As previously stated, you are not held to the standard of creating something wholly new, so don't worry if you don't have a great story for “extending” prior work. Building a relationship to existing work is adequate.

You should have three to five citations. Copy the citation format in the SIGCHI template.

To Submit

To turn in the paper:

Name paper with the author's CS username and an abbreviated version of your title, and save it as a PDF (preferred) or DOC file. E.g., fredm_a_sample_project.pdf.
Edit your wiki project page markup to add the Attach: tag below your name and date, like this:

    '''Fred Martin''' \\
     December 12, 2011

    Attach:fredm_a_sample_project.pdf

Save the markup. The Attach tag will turn into a link for uploading your paper.
Upload it, and you are done.