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, assignments, workshops, 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, workshops, presentation, project, in addition to your class participation
Policy on Class Registration: 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.
While the registration is currently full, we encourage you to monitor the status as registered students could drop. Even if you're not registered, if you have a strong interest in taking the course, please attend the classes in the first week, as we expect a few more positions to open up.
| Week | Date | Led by | Topic | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2/26 | Lee | Intro: What is research? | |
| 1 | 2/28 | Lee | How to choose area and advisor | |
| 2 | 3/5 | Yoo | How to find papers for your research | |
| 2 | 3/7 | Lee | How to recognize good research and generate good ideas | Assignment #1 (10am) |
| 3 | 3/12 | Lee | [Panel] How I selected my research area and advisor | |
| 3 | 3/14 | Yoo | How to read papers: which is where? | |
| 4 | 3/19 | Kim | How to write a good paper | Assignment #2 (10am) |
| 4 | 3/21 | Yoo | What happens to my paper: publication pipeline | |
| 5 | 3/26 | Yoo | How to review papers | Assignment #3 (10am) |
| 5 | 3/28 | All | Abstract workshop | |
| 6 | 4/2 | Lee | How to make good presentations | |
| 6 | 4/4 | Kim | Designing human studies | |
| 7 | 4/9 | All | Presentation workshop #1 | Slides submission: link (9 am) |
| 7 | 4/11 | All | Presentation workshop #2 | Slides submission: link (9 am) |
| 8 | 4/16 | - | No class (Midterms week) | |
| 8 | 4/18 | - | No class (Midterms week) | |
| 9 | 4/23 | Lee | How to write proposals | Assignment #4 (10am) |
| 9 | 4/25 | All | Review workshop | |
| 10 | 4/30 | Kim | Research ethics | |
| 10 | 5/2 | Kim | How to market yourself and your research | |
| 11 | 5/7 | Yoo | [Panel] What to do when attending a conference for the first time | Project (10am) |
| 11 | 5/9 | Yoo | How to approach Statistical analysis | |
| 12 | 5/14 | All | Resume workshop #1 | Assignment #5 (10am) |
| 12 | 5/16 | All | Resume workshop #2 | Assignment #6 (due: 5/20, 10am) |
| 13 | 5/21 | All | Mock proposal review | |
| 13 | 5/23 | All | Mock proposal review | |
| 14 | 5/28 | Kim | Life as a researcher | |
| 14 | 5/30 | Kim | [Panel] How to survive grad school | |
| 15 | 6/4 | Yoo | Job market/career paths | Assignment #7 (10am) |
| 15 | 6/6 | - | No class (Memorial Day) | |
| 16 | 6/11 | - | No class (Finals week) | |
| 16 | 6/13 | - | No class (Finals week) |
Previous course website: CS492C Fall 2018