[[TOC(Internal/PaperReadingGroup*, depth=2)]] = Why This Group? = The mastering of literature is important to a proper research. Skills like paper reading, reviewing, presentation and understanding talks/discussions are also critical to a successful researcher. However, it is difficult for a person to acquire these skills alone. Therefore, we help each other in this reading group to improve ''all'' the above-mentioned skills by reading, reviewing, presenting and discussing papers ''together''. = What Do We Do in This Group? = We will have two types of meetings:\\ * '''Regular meetings''': held once every week that would have 3-4 presentations each. All the presenters are required to provide a slide set (for a 20-min talk), a review of the paper he is going to present. The topic of the paper is not limited. Participants are required to write a review for each paper that is going to be presented.\\\\ * '''Conference-oriented meetings''': when a participant is going to a conference, we can read the papers in that conference which are of interest. If we have questions, the participant can also help us contact the author (and/or ask the questions) on behalf of us. This kind of meeting are usually held 1-2 weeks before a conference and will have 2 meetings per week. Since conference-oriented meetings are quite intensive, slides and reviews are not mandatory (but preferred). However, a presentation (of about 15 minutes) is required for each paper to introduce what is proposed. Here is a checklist of what to do for each meeting: == Prepare for A Meeting == === Select a paper === In a regular meeting, you can select whatever paper that interests you. It is preferred if the paper is accepted by a top conference and is well written. A full paper is preferred over a workshop paper (or a short paper). Please do not select posters or demo abstracts (or PhD forum abstracts). Theses or dissertations can only be selected in special conditions (and agreed by all the participants). In a conference-oriented meeting, you are supposed to choose a paper in the targeted conference. For the participant that has a paper accepted by the target conference, you can select your own paper (but you need to prepare a slide set and use it as a mock presentation for the conference). === Prepare a talk with a slide set === For a full paper, you usually have 20-25 minutes in a conference (15 minutes for a workshop paper). Exceeding the time limitation is usually seen as a disrespect for the audience. We will have the same limitation in our meetings. You need to prepare a slide set for a talk no longer than 25 minutes. Usually, you would use 1 minute on each slide (except the animation pages) therefore the slide set should be no more than 25 pages (preferred, but not mandatory). If you have too much material to cover, pick only the most important ones in the main talk, and put details in the appendix slides for the explanation in Q&A session. Speak faster than your normal speed is not a good practice either. The audience also need to think while you are talking. Faster speed will only make your talk more difficult to understand. While arranging the slides, a complete story is preferred to a bunch of sub-stories grouped by an agenda (personal suggestion). If you can make the whole paper a continuous story, do not interrupt the flow by the agenda. While describing the paper, ''why'' is always more important than ''how''. E.g., * ''Why'' the work is important? * ''Why'' the work is better than the others? * ''Why'' the solution is built on this platform rather than the others? * ''Why'' the author made this design choice rather than the others? * ''Why'' the author chose to use this dataset rather than the others? * ''Why'' the result is shown in this way? * ''Why'' the result looks like this? * ... A successful paper (and talk) should always (but not limited to) answer these questions. ''How'' you did it is only useful in this specific example/scenario, but ''why'' you did it can help people with their design even in the future. Therefore ''why'' is much more important for researchers, and please make sure that you have it when presenting the work. In the slides, bullet points are preferred over long sentences. ''Neither you, nor the audience should read the text during the presentation.'' Use the bullet points to hint yourself about what to talk, and also give a flow to the audience about where they are. Also, ''a picture worth a thousand words''. A ''meaningful'' figure can help explain complicated concepts much better than words. Please note that nobody would (or should) interrupt a talk by asking questions or giving comments. Therefore, '''a slide number for each page is a mandatory''', so that the audience can write down the questions with the page number and ask them at the end of the talk. After preparing the slides, please make sure that you rehearse the talk before presenting it to the audience. A talk that is not well-prepared will only waste the time of us all. === Write reviews === Serving as a reviewer is also an important part in our researcher life. ''The purpose of reviewing a paper is to help improve the paper'' rather than accepting or rejecting it. A proper review should conclude what is proposed in the paper, what's the strengths and weakness of the ''design'' (rather than the solution/implementation only). Suggestions:\\ Make a printed copy of the paper. Have a pencil with you while reading and mark down your thoughts. They will help you understand the paper, collect the details for your review and find where you can optimize the solution. \\ If you find it difficult to understand the flow, conclude one sentence for each paragraph. Usually, in good papers, there will be only one topic for in paragraph (you can do it in your own paper too, it is a good practice). '''Each participant should write a review for the papers that will be presented in the coming regular meeting.''' Here is a review template: {{{ '''Overall merit''': [Accept (top 10%) | Weak accept (top 30% but not top 10%) | Weak reject (top 50% but not top 30%) | Reject (bottom 50%) ]\\ '''Confidence''': [Expert | Knowledgeable | Some Familiarity | None]\\ '''Quality of writing''': [Excellent | Well written | Not well written | Poorly Written]\\ '''Summary of the paper''': (Provide a 1-2 sentence summary of the work in your own words, including the contribution and technical depth)\\ '''Strengths''': (Be brief)\\ '''Weaknesses''': (Be brief)\\ '''Detailed comments''':\\ }}} We can skip the "overall merit", "confidence" and "quality of writing" for our own papers, since the grades should be "double blind". == During The Meeting == === Give the talk === * Please make sure that the talk is within 25 minutes. * Practice the talk before the meeting. * You can write notes as hints, but do not read notes. * Please also make the assumption that the audience might not have read the paper before (as how you present it in the conference). === Listen to the talks === * Try to understand the key points in the talk, no matter if it is in your research topic or not. Some solutions in other fields might also help your solution. * Take notes about the flow and questions. Prepare for at least 3 questions to the paper (or to the talk) === Discuss based on reviews === * Combine your review with the questions you have written down during the talk. * We will go through all the reviews to the presented paper one by one. * Feel free to ask questions, give comments on both the paper and the talk. * ''For everyone'', please comment on: if I want to continue the work, this is how I am going to improve it. === Electronic devices are NOT recommended during the meeting === It is quite obvious that electronic devices (e.g., smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc.) are huge distractions while listening to talks. It is not good to focus on your own work while listening to the talks. You can definitely bring your laptop for backup materials but please make sure that '''they are out of reach''' whenever you do not need to show the material from the laptop. We will have devices to show your slides and go through your reviews. If you need any support material, upload it to the Wiki system or send it to me before the meeting. Prepare a book for the reading group, and write down your notes/comments in the book. Move it to your own page after the meeting, merge it with your review as a conclusion (it is also a good practice). = Before You Start: Register Your Own Page = == Register a student page in the wiki == * Type in the browser address bar: `http://mobilityfirst.orbit-lab.org/wiki/Internal/StudentPages/` (Replace `` with your first name] * Create the page and make sure it is under `Internal/StudentPages/` * Write something about yourself. You will put all your reviews and slides in this page later (see [[Internal/StudentPages/Jiachen]] for example) * In case you don't know how to use Wiki formats, you can check the WikiFormatting and WikiMacros == Create a link to your page in [[Internal/StudentPages]] == * Edit [[Internal/StudentPages]] {{{ #!comment Template for an event ==