Date post: | 01-Sep-2014 |
Category: |
Self Improvement |
Upload: | mit-media-lab-camera-culture-group |
View: | 2,427 times |
Download: | 3 times |
Preparing for a Masters Thesis
Ramesh RaskarMIT Media Lab
• Questions before you start the project• How to come up with ideas• How to write a paper• How to decide if the idea is worth pursuing
• What makes a great ML thesis
• Happy to meet– Help you towards a fantastic + manageable thesis
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
What Makes a Good ML Thesis?• An original piece of work
A good thesis puts forth an original hypothesis/method/design/art piece with appropriate testing/verification/critique
• Written well Grammar, appropriate style, organization
• Comprehensive A good thesis has sufficient information to allow a person of
ordinary skill in the art to replicate the results A good thesis has a complete set of references
• Accurate Do not blow hot air!! Every sentence in the thesis must be
correct!!! Do not exaggerate!!! Slide by Hugh Herr
Research .. • http://raskar.info
– How to come up w ideas: Idea Hexagon– How to write a paper– How to give a talk– Open research problems– How to decide merit of a project– How to attend a conference, brainstorm
• Tips– Get on Seminar/Talks mailing lists worldwide– http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html – Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the
long run?– Highly recommended Hamming talk at Bell Labs
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
After X, what is neXt
How to Invent?
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
Xd
X++
X X+Y
X
X
neXt
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Labhttp://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/raskar-ideahexagonapr2010
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
Simple Exercise .. Simple Exercise ..
• Image CompressionImage Compression– Save Bandwidth and storageSave Bandwidth and storage
What is neXtRamesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
Simple Exercise .. Simple Exercise ..
• Image CompressionImage Compression– Save Bandwidth and storageSave Bandwidth and storage
.. Video Compression .. .. Video Compression .. – Extend the idea to time dimensionExtend the idea to time dimension
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.infohttp://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/raskar-ideahexagonapr2010
Is project worthwhile? Heilmeier's Questions• What
– What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
• Related work– How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
• Contribution– What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
• Motivation– Who cares?– If you're successful, what difference will it make?
• Challenges– What are the risks and the payoffs?– How much will it cost?– How long will it take?
• Evaluation– What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?
• Raskar additions– Why now? (why not before, what’s new that makes possible)– Why us? (wrong answers: I am smart, I can work harder than others)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Heilmeier#Heilmeier.27s_Catechism
Great Research: Strive for Five
1. Before Five teamsBe first, often let others do details
2. Beyond Five yearsWhat no one is thinking about
3. Within Five layers of ‘Human’ ImpactRelevance
4. Beyond Five minutes of descriptionDeep, iterative, participatory
5. Fusing Five+ ExpertiseMulti-disciplinary, proactive
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab
Pick atleast 2 out of 3Pick atleast 2 out of 3
FunCoolMedia Coverage
ImpactMoneySocial implications
ResearchNoveltyGeneralityScience
What distinguishes ML projects .. – Synthesize not just analyze– Use power of human intelligence
• Intelligence Amplification• Human in loop,
– Democratize, Power to the People– Be paranoid .. Are we relevant and what is next?
Topics for discussion (create your own group)• How to pursue 'ideas in the spirit of the media lab'? What is not in the spirit of ML? • How to make the best of ML resources? • What are the common problems in picking/initiating/pursuing/finishing great projects? • Case studies of successful transitions of efforts into research/demos/products and more• Some procedural topics: juggling classes vs research, Apprenticeship vs independent research, group
dynamics, media coverage
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
Thesis Organization• Abstract• Acknowledgements• List of Tables and Figures• Introduction• Background• Mechanism/Process Design• Experimental Methods• Results• Discussion and Conclusions• References• Appendix A, B, etc. Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/mit.research.how.to/section3.11.htmlhttp://www.cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=a_good_thesis
http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis.html
Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info
Be proactive not reactiveGeneralize today’s conceptsAvoid basing all on facebook/twitter/kinect etc or today’s hot techBut we are still slaves to available tech“Let’s do smart things with stupid technology today, rather than wait and do stupid things with smart technology tomorrow” - Bill Buxton. You can ofcourse do even smarter things with smart tech.
Be prepared but careful on what you doBe in optimist but be paranoid (vs pessimist + laidback)Defer judgment (don’t dismiss, believe or start instantly on any idea)Overnight success after months of workHave a list of 10-20 problems .. Don’t work on first one you think or that comes your wayTalk to a lot of people (you trust) to see if worth purusing as most ideas will be useless anyway
Don’t be religious, listen to othersI often find people too much in love with a tiny incremental idea if they came up with themselves Try and change what is difficult to some other situation which is easily done but is still importantDon’t work on same project for 2+ yearsFail fast
If u want to win .. Be willing change rules of the game, sometimes the game itselfRemember the 4Ps and their SEQUENCE
– Projects > Papers > Polished Demo/Prototype > Press– (Note ‘polished demo’ comes AFTER a paper or some external validation)– Don’t chase press before you have a serious project that is peer-reviewed or validated (novelty and
impact should be already understood) Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info