Assignment 7: Research Paper Critique
DUE WEDNESDAY APR 17 AT 11:59PM.
Table of contents
Critique Format
You must adhere to the critique format given below:
- HEADER: Your name and student ID (state what portion of the presentation you presented).
- PAPER: Give the paper # and full reference of the paper you presented, and the date you presented.
A. SUMMARY
An overview of the main idea and contributions in one paragraph.
- What is this paper about?
- What is its main contribution? In what way did it advance the state of the art? – make a bulleted list of 3 major contributions and write a sentence or two for each
- Describe 3 major concepts or new ideas presented by authors as a bulleted list with a line or two explaining each.
- Summarize the insights resulting from any experimental investigation conducted or the performance details presented by authors. (2 bulleted results)
B. STRENGTHS
Keep the following questions in mind; pick any combination of these questions and give a bulleted list of three strengths of the paper (that you consider the most important) with a brief explanation for each. Note: your judgement of what you consider “most important” is a part of the evaluation of this question. Every paper will not necessarily have strengths in all listed areas.
- Is there a new theoretical insight? Or a significant empirical advance? State whatever you find applicable in this paper.
- Did they solve a standing open problem? Or a good formulation for a new problem? Explain in your own words.
- Are the experiments well formulated and executed? What are their important results?
- Did they develop a faster/better solution in terms of a system solution? If so, list what advances they made or what novel techniques they implemented.
- Any good practical outcome (code, algorithm, technique, language etc.) that is widely applicable? What is it and where will it be applicable? If the result is a commercial product, comment on how much impact it has and what is its status (may require you to do some investigation on the Web).
C. WEAKNESSES
State at least one weaknesses of the paper. Every question below may not have a valid answer for each paper. These questions will help you think of the weaknesses. You are NOT required to answer each sub question below.
- What could the authors have done better?
- Did they make any assumptions that limit the scope of what they did? If so, what limiting assumptions can you state and how do they limit the applicability of this paper?
- Are there major drawbacks in the way they conducted the experiments?
- Are there any odd design choices in the approach or the algorithms?
- Did they ignore any important issues related to the work? Does the paper have a very limited application?
- Any other weaknesses you can point out.
D. OVERALL IMPRESSION
Summarize your overall impression/opinion about this paper. Here you can include additional points that you want to add beyond what you listed under strengths and weaknesses.
Submission and Grading
Submit a PDF with your paper critique using the required format on canvas. Please use the listed questions above to structure your critique properly. If you write a long piece of text without proper structure, it will affect your grade adversely.
This is an individual assignment and counts for 5% of your grade.