Course Schedule: www.math.fsu.edu/~kercheva/Courses/16Spring/

The purpose of this capstone course is for students to bring together knowledge from previous courses to read current research, formulate specific project ideas, develop computational experiments to support their own conclusions, hone written and oral presentation skills, and practice teamwork to produce a polished final product under time-limited conditions.

The main objective is the completion of an individual research project on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. The project will be submitted as a polished written paper in the format of a thesis, and also as an oral presentation in class.

In addition, students will complete a group project leading to a group in-class presentation, review a book or article for the class, and participate in group discussion and review of projects. An important part of the course is for students to practice critically listening to other projects and participating in constructive questions and discussion. Therefore attendance and class participation will be a part of the course grade.

Each student will deliver a Prevew of their intended project. A Preview includes a 3-5 minute oral presentation with a couple of slides, and a written handout to each class member of 1 or 2 pages describing your plan, with references and a description of external help you are getting, if any. You will also submit your written Preview via SafeAssign on the Blackboard course site.

The class will give comments, ideas, and suggestions about your proposed project.

Assignment 2: Book/Article Review, due Thursday, Feb. 11:

Hand in an interesting 1-2 page review of a book or article (other than one required for a course) that you found influential or helpful. Your review should include:

1. A summary of the topic;
2. An evaluation of how well the book or article handled the topic;
3. Why you would recommend the book or article to others.

Group presentations are popular and fun to prepare: students form groups of 3 or 4; each group will put together a presentation on a current or newsworthy topic (say, in the past 5 years) expected to be of interest to all. The presentations should be approximately 20-30 minutes long, with each person having a speaking role. Oral presentation plus slides -- there is no written submission required.

Your project may be based on a topic suggested in a previous course or your own readings/investigations. Generally it should incorporate reading from recent literature, and some related computational experimentation that you design and carry out.

You are individually responsible, in consultation with your instructor, for framing, developing, and presenting a suitable problem - that is part of the assignment - but you may ask a professor from an earlier course, or a financial sector professional, for suggestions and help along the way. If a professor/expert advises you on the project, you must disclose this at each presentation stage. If you are pursuing a PhD here your project may be closely related to a potential ATE topic.

• Preview (written and verbal): See Assignment 1 above.
• Presentation: On the date you ``draw", give a talk (40-45 minutes) about your problem/investigation. Presentations are critiqued by the class and your participation in discussing the papers of others will be noted. You will use powerpoint or LaTeX slides or equivalent. This is a professional level presentation, not just a class discussion. It is suggested that if you do not have a laptop you arrange with a classmate, but if necessary ask Mr. Boyd for technical support --- but this is your responsibility. Your best tech help is often a classmate. If for any reason, even illness, you cannot present on the day you draw, it is necessary for you to swap presentation dates with another student, and inform the class by e-mail of the swap.
• Paper: Hand in a paper in good thesis form both hardcopy and via a word processing system acceptable in the University Blackboard SafeAssign system. (LaTeX is highly recommended. Word is accepted, but you will have to figure out how to do equations.) The latest date for submitting your electronic and hard copy is April 14 by the start of class.

Each project paper will be anonymously reviewed by a classmate. Anonymous reviews will be due April 18 by email, and distributed to the project authors. Authors will then submit a revised draft, taking into account the review suggestions, on the final due date of Thursday, April 21, by 11am, hardcopy and electronic via Bb SafeAssign.