Tue 9-10:30/Th 9-12; NSH 2609

Instructor: Jen Mankoff (jmankoff @cs.cmu.edu)
Office: NSH 2504A
Office Hours: T 10:30-11:30

Textbook

Required: Turabian, K. L., A manual for writers of research papers, theses and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers, Revised by Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M. & University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff. The University of Chicago Press, 7th Edition
Recommended: Reis, R. M., Tomorrow's professor: Preparing for academic careers in science and engineering, IEEE Press

Most Important to be Aware of (tentative)

• Thursday, 10 September Individual Project Proposal Presentations
• By Tuesday, 15 September: groups formed
• Tuesday, 22 September & Thursday, 24 September: Group proposal presentations
• Tuesday, 6 October: FINAL IRB due today in preparation for IRB panel
  
• Tuesday, 13 October: IRB panel (have your group IRBs ready to hand out if you are doing a study)
• Tuesday, 27 October: Group project literature surveys due
  
• Thursday, 19 November: Mock PC meeting
  
• Wednesday, 26 November: Thanksgiving break
• Thursday, December 10, from 1:00-4:00 p.m NSH 3002 Final Project Presentations

Topics and Activities (Tentative)

Course work will be divided into discussions about the nature of interdisciplinary research in HCI in the context of enduring problems, as
well as activities building specific skills, and a semester long group project experience. Some examples of specific topics include:

About Research

• Examples of Interdisciplinary work in problem areas such as the social web, etc.
• Differences and values
• Example project(s)
• Human subjects and IRB
• Other selected ethics topics (e.g., authorship/credit, confidentiality, and conflict of interest in the review process)
• Quick tour of methodologies
• Publishing norms
• Picking problems
• Reward structure (tenure criteria as a model)

Skills

• Literature Skills
• Writing Skills
  
• Organizing and motivating material
• Research papers
• Writing a proposal
• Presentation skills

Project related topics and activities

• Introduction and background for the project theme
• Individual proposals (written and presented)
• Group proposals (written and presented)
• Work on the projects proper
• Ongoing critiques
• Group final project results (written and presented)

On-Line Materials and Required Pre-Class Electronic Discussion

Class materials including slides from presentations and readings will be posted on-line.

The class discussion group will be employed for extended discussion when there are readings. Each student is required to make at least two relevant postings to hcii-pandt@googlegroups.com. Postings need to be prior to class (by 11:59pm Monday or Wednesday for readings related to Tuesday or Thursday classes respectively). These posts can be about:

• a question you had about the reading, something important you did not understand,
• an idea inspired by the reading,
• an interesting connection with something you learned or did previously
  in this or another course, or in other professional work or research,
• an on-topic, relevant response, clarification, or further comment on another student’s post.

Assignments:

Critiques and small writing assignments are used extensively in this class. See the Assignments page for information on larger assignments.

(Tentative) Grading Criteria

• Class participation 10%
• Skills 10%
• Individual project proposals 15%
• Group project 65%

Past Years

• 2008 Syllabus
  
• 2007 Syllabus