IT 990:
Dissertation Topic Presentation
IT 991: Engineer Project Presentation
Semester: Spring 2003
Professor: Stephen Nash
The purpose of this seminar is to help you prepare a proposal for
your research project and then to give you a chance to present your proposal
for the comments of others (including students and faculty). This seminar carries one hour of graduate
credit.
Course Schedule:
January 24: Organizational meeting.
February 14: Presentations of general topic areas
March 7: Presentations of background literature
March 28: Presentations of your research topic
April 18: Presentations of your research plan
May 7-15:
Final presentations [schedule to be determined]
Requirements:
1. During this semester you will work with
your chosen faculty advisors in drafting a proposal. Your dissertation committee must approve your
proposal. Toward the end of the
semester, I will expect to have a copy of your proposal in advance of the date
of your presentation in this seminar.
You may also wish to meet with me during the semester to discuss your
progress.
2. In order to give everyone time to give a
thorough and coherent presentation of a proposal, we will devote
several 3-hour periods at the end of the semester. Plan on having about 30 minutes for your
presentation, including about 10 minutes for questions from your audience. For credit in this seminar, you must attend
at least two of these presentation sessions [in their entirety]. During your attendance at a presentation made
by someone else, you should be willing to ask constructive questions of this
person.
3. For the benefit of your audience, you must
prepare copies of any slides/viewgraphs you intend to use during your
presentation.
4. The generation and drafting of a
dissertation proposal is a joint effort involving you and your chosen
committee. I would not wait until the
last minute to get this process started.
Useful Reference Materials
Materials on the course web page.
Nicholas J. Higham, Handbook of
Writing for the Mathematical Sciences, Second Edition,
GMU Dissertation and Thesis Web Guide: available online at www.gmu.edu/library/specialcollections/dtwebguide.htm