Course syllabus

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DAT147 / DIT147 Technical writing in Computer Systems and Networks (HT23)

Course responsible: Risat Pathan

Official course information: [ DAT147, DIT147, TimeEdit]

Organization

The course organization includes the following items: lectures, seminars, workshops, home assignments, report writing, and oral presentation.

Aim and content

This course aims to develop the student's awareness of the underlying structure of scientific and engineering research papers and to improve proficiency in writing and reviewing as well as presenting such papers in public. The paper should be based on a selected topic within a research area in the Computer Systems and Networks or a related field. To this end, the student examines and surveys the current state of the art in a specific field such as e.g. data communication, computer networks, distributed systems, computer security, real-time systems, computer graphics, computer architecture, and computer system engineering and writes an analytical survey paper in this field.  A further goal is that the student should be able to make ethical considerations of his/her work. Ethical issues in general and in connection with scientific writing, e.g. plagiarism and authorship, are an important part of the course. There will be lectures, seminars and workshops in the areas of scientific writing, reviewing and presentation as well as in ethics.

After the course the students shall be able to:

  • Get acquainted to a research field:
    • The student should have investigated a selected area of research and deepened his/her knowledge in said area. This knowledge is used for writing a scientific paper.
  • Perform an independent literature review:
    • Given a scientific problem in the studied field, the student should be able to find the most relevant papers in scientific literature, review them and communicate the review result.
  • Write an analytical survey paper or other scientific paper:
    • The student should be able to plan, structure and write a research related paper in a selected scientific field. The report will be based on already published papers and the student should be able to independently select those papers.  
  • Make ethical assessment:
    • The student should be able to make and defend ethical judgement in general, and in particular within the area of scientific writing, e.g. related to plagiarism and authorship. Where applicable, the student should be able to discuss and value the societal and economic consequences of his/her work.

Each research area and a number of related topics will be briefly presented to the student. As a student you will be put in a group with a few other students. To each group will be allocated a topic for the paper that is to be written. Each topic will have a supervisor who will guide the students. The paper should be orally presented. Students are also required to make peer reviews of other groups' papers. 

Important Dates

→ Mon Aug 28 : First lecture, 13:15 - 15:00,  Room HA2, Johanneberg (Note: The room numbers may be different for different lectures, please see TimeEdit)
→ Study week 1 : Deadline (Aug 28 by 23:59): Project topic selection (you will be given a weblink to mark/vote your preference of topics) 
→ Study week 2 : Deadline (Sep 6 by 23:59): Submission of title and abstract in EasyChair
→ Study week 4 : Deadline (Sep 24 by 23:59): Email your groups' first draft to another group. You also review the draft of another group during the next week (the group you send the draft to will be notified later)
→ Study week 5 : Deadline (Oct 1 by 23:59):  Submission of the second draft of your groups' survey paper in EasyChair
→ Study week 6 : Deadline (Oct 4 by 23:59):  Submission of the homework assignment on Ethics in Canvas
→ Study week 7 : Deadline (Oct 9 by 23:59): Finish review of other groups' first draft in EasyChair
→ Study week 8 : Deadline (Oct 22 by 23:59): Submission of your group's final paper in EasyChair
→ Study week 8-9 : Final presentation and opposition

Examination

To pass the course, the student must: (1) write an analytical survey paper or other scientific paper for a given topic in a specific research area, (2) complete all review assignments of other surveys, and (3) make an oral presentation of the paper, (4) participate in lectures, seminars and workshops in technical writing and presentation techniques, (5) participate in the ethical parts of the course, and (6) complete all  assignments. The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.

Additional information regarding the survey paper can be found on the Survey section via the Modules in Canvas.

Attendance

Attendance in all the lectures (particularly Lectures 1-6) is important as there are group activities in some of these lectures. If you cannot attend a lecture for any unavoidable circumstance, please let the examiner (risat@chalmers.se) know it in advance.

Course literature

(TXT) Recommended textbook
Writing for Computer Science, 3rd ed., by Justin Zobel, ISBN 978-1-85233-802-2
(Full Text Online, Chalmers Library)

Template papers
These papers will be used as illustrative survey examples in the lectures and workshops:
(LEC) Lecture notes. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers, 2023.
Can be downloaded from the Lectures page in Canvas.

Teachers 

Examiner and coordinator: Risat Pathan, phone: 070-941 5951

                                               email: risat@chalmers.se

Teacher (writing)                : Baraa Khuder, email: khuder@chalmers.se  
                                              Maria Cervin-Ellvist mariace@chalmers.se

Teacher (ethics)                 : Richard Torkar

Teacher (presentation techniques) : David Sands

Teaching assistants:

 

Supervisors 

  • Tomas Olovsson
  • Elad Schiller
  • Marina Papatriantafilou
  • Philippas Tsigas
  • Ulf Assarsson
  • Victor Åberg
  • Mohammad Ali Maleki

 

Course summary:

Date Details Due