Instructor: Spyridon (Spyros) Mastorakis, PKI 174E (available online for Fall 2022)

Lectures: Zoom

Instructor's Office Hours: Tuesday 1PM-2PM or by appointment (over Zoom)

Course Description

The purpose of this course is to provide a forum for interaction among Ph.D. students and faculty on topics of relevance to Information Technology (IT) research and make them familiar with current and future research directions in IT. Students will examine what constitutes a research contribution, gain hands-on experience with directed research, and explore the breadth of sub-disciplines within IT research.

Grading Scheme

• Class participation (15%): The participation component is awarded for constructive contributions to class discussion at every class meeting. Excellent participation requires thorough preparation, critical thinking, a cooperative attitude, and the willingness to share ideas. Students should approach the readings from a critical perspective, looking for aspects of the readings that are interesting, intriguing, counter-intuitive, confusing, or even contradictory.

• Preparation assignments (20%): Students will be expected to complete reading reflections each week tied to the preparatory papers. For weeks when papers are not being actively discussed, other preparation tasks may be assigned. These preparation materials must be turned in prior to the start of class, and late work will not be accepted.

• Paper presentations (10%): Students will lead two (conference or journal) paper presentation discussions during the semester. Each presentation is worth 5% towards the final grade.

• Mini projects (45%): Students will complete two mini-projects (directed research) under the supervision of a faculty member of their choice in our college. Each project will last for 6 weeks, needs to have clear documented outcomes, and must to be documented in an academic conference format. Each mini project must be completed with a different faculty member. Each project is worth 22.5% towards the final grade. The grade of each mini project is based on a conference-style paper documenting the project results and the faculty member's assessment of the student's professionalism during the project.

• Final presentation (10%): Students will select one of the two mini projects to present at the end of the semester in a conference-style presentation.

Your final weighted average will be first curved and then translated into a letter grade per the values below:

• 97 - 100 = A+

• 94 - 96 = A

• 90 - 93 = A-

• 87 - 89 = B+

• 84 - 86 = B

• 80 - 83 = B-

• 77 - 79 = C+

• 74 - 76 = C

• 70 - 73 = C-

• 67 - 69 = D+

• 64 - 66 = D

• 60 - 63 = D-

Textbook

No textbook is required. The course material consists of lecture slides, research papers, and other online resources.

Class Participation

You are expected to not only attend class, but also actively participate. Participation is a crucial part of this course. There will be several opportunities for class discussion and activities during the semester. It is my expectation that you will actively participate in these discussions and activities, and you will be awarded points for that accordingly.

Late Submissions

You are expected to submit all assignments on time. No late submissions will be accepted unless there is a documented extenuating circumstance.

Miscellaneous Course Policies

• Reasonable accommodations are provided for students who are registered with the Accessibility Services Center and make their requests sufficiently in advance. For more information, please contact the Accessibility Services Center (MBSC 111, Phone: 554-2872).

• The instructor reserves the right to change the course material or dates as necessary.

• By enrolling for this course, students agree to abide by UNO's student code of conduct, including rules on academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and impermissible collaboration, as well as all other rules and regulations.

• Academic dishonesty will neither be allowed nor tolerated. Such occurrences will be directly reported to the responsible academic units, which will determine the disciplinary actions to be taken.

• By enrolling in this course, you automatically agree to abide by all course policies (mentioned in this or other sections of the syllabus).

Course Schedule

• Week 1 (August 22 - August 26): Course intro, tips for a successful Ph.D., and types of papers in IT.

• Week 2 (August 29 - September 2): How to read/present a paper, academic integrity in publishing (part 1), mini project 1 agreement due September 2 at 11:59PM).

• Week 3 (September 5 - September 9): Research using Criss Library Resources, academic publishing (part 2).

• Week 4 (September 12 - September 16): Human Center Computing (HCC) seminar.

• Week 5 (September 19 - September 23): Student project reports and academic CV preparation.

• Week 6 (September 26 - September 30): Artificial Intelligence seminar.

• Week 7 (October 3 - October 7): Choosing a Ph.D. advisor, the UNO writing center, and the paper submission and publication process

• Week 8 (October 10 - October 14): Computing Systems seminar

• Week 9 (October 17 - October 21): Semester break, no class, mini project 1 report and mini project 2 agreement due October 21 at 11:59PM.

• Week 10 (October 24 - October 28): PhD program discussion and questions

• Week 11 (October 31 - November 4): IT Project Management seminar

• Week 12 (November 7 - November 11): Digital Development seminar

• Week 13 (November 14 - November 18): Peer reviewing/Mock program committee

• Week 14 (November 21 - November 25): Miscellaneous reading material

• Week 15 (November 28 - December 2): Final mini project presentations and mini conference

• Week 16 (December 5 - December 9): no class, mini project 2 report due December 9 at 11:59PM.

Acknowledgments

The course structure and material is based on prior offerings of CIST 9080 by Dr. Brian Dorn. The instructor would like to thank Dr. Dorn for sharing his course material and for the fruitful discussions during the preparation of this CIST 9080 offering.