Assigned Readings

For each lecture we will have a selection of relevant papers and articles on visualization (posted on the calendar). All students should download and read one of the assigned papers and post a detailed question or comment on the assigned reading before 10am on the day the paper will be discussed in class. The post should be well-written and approximately 100-200 words in length.

It's "ok" if you don't understand all of the details (we will often be reading recent technical research results), but you should be able to put that paper in the wider context of visualization research and learn more about the technical background related to that paper (using other reference material as needed). Ideally, the paper will serve as a jumping off point that leads to other reading, possibly specialized to your area of interest.

Your post should demonstrate that you did a careful and thoughtful reading of the paper. Avoid superficial statements such as: "There was alot of math in the paper. Math is hard. I didn't understand the math." or "This paper was published in the dark ages using slow computers. I wonder how fast it would be with a GPU." or "The pictures were pretty. I liked watching the video."

Your post can respond to another student's comment/question. Multiple posts, following up on the discussion are encouraged. Including links to other sources of related background material and a summary of how that material is related are encouraged as well. You must contribute to at least 20 of the assigned reading discussions in order to pass the course.

In-class Reading Discussions

Each student will lead the lecture discussion of one assigned reading, during lecture. The student should give a quick (~5 minute) summary of the paper (remember, the other students have already read the paper), focusing on:

• the important contributions of the paper to the community,
• what was interesting about the paper or topic, and
• any questions or confusions that arose in the online discussion.

Then we will open up the discussion to the whole class, moderated by the student discussant.

Many conferences have assigned discussants for each paper. Here's a detailed guide to being a paper discussant:
     Tips for Discussants, by Prof Alexopoulos, University of Toronto

Note: It is important that everyone have posted their comment/question before 10am, so the student leading the presentation has time to review the posts in preparation for the in-class discussion.