EN.601.792: Advanced Topics in Conversational User Interfaces

Introduction

Your final project can be on any topic related to conversational user interface. Your project can be a system paper (e.g., a novel system you built with a usability study), a study paper (e.g., an experiment that reveals people's behavioral patterns), an analytic paper (e.g., evaluating or auditing existing systems), etc.

It should be done in groups, ideally of 3-4 students.

The final project encompasses 4 deadlines: team formation, project idea brainstorm, a written research proposal, and a final report. We will also hold in-class midterm proposal presentations and final presentations so students can share their work with each other.

1. Team Formation (Due Feb 12 at 11:59 pm)

The group coordinator should send group formation results (incl. group name, everyone's name, email) to the instructor through email.

A group should have 3-4 students. The group coordinator's role is to ensure group function. You can find your teammate on Piazza or after class. If you need help finding your teammate, you can reach out to me or TA. A group with more than 4 students or less than 3 students needs approval from the instructor.

2. Project Idea Brainstorm (Due Feb 19 at 11:59 pm)

Each group should post at least 5 project ideas to the Piazza.

Group members should meet in person and brainstorm project ideas. You are welcome to come to the instructor's office hours to discuss potential ideas. For each idea, you should include idea category, context, a one-sentence description, and potential impact. Ref. Brianstorm Guide.

3. Project Proposal (Presentation: Monday, Feb 26/ Wednesday, Feb 28; Written: Wed Mar 6 at 11:59 pm)

The project proposal will include two components: an in-class presentation and a written proposal.

• In-class presentation: Each group will have 15 minutes to present their project idea to the class. All groups will upload their slides to the same presentation to avoid switching computers. We will have a collaborative-edit document for others in the class to provide questions and feedback (Feb 26).
• Written proposal: imaging yourself writing to a funding agency to fund your project, outlining your project and convincing us why it's worth doing. Keep it around 2-4 pages and please use the ACM template in a double column mode (e.g \documentclass[nonacm, sigconf]{acmart}). Feel free to delete the teaser photo, CSS Concepts, and keywords

Both the written proposal and in-class presentation should provide a concrete overview of your proposed project. You should specify the problem you're solving and why it's important, and what the implications will be if you solve it.

• For a system paper, you should highlight why it is technically challenging or why it offers innovative functions that enable novel interactions.
• For a study paper, you should specify the research questions, the hypothesis you are testing, the study design, and measures
• For an analytic paper, you should specify the research questions, the data, models, and metrics.

A good written proposal should include:

• A motivation paragraph that showcases the contribution of the proposed work.
• A concrete overview of your proposed idea.
• A 1-page literature review that includes at least 5 related works that point out how your proposed work relates or contrasts with prior work. The goal of this literature review is to situate your proposed idea in the context of existing work. By doing so, you should be able to highlight the novelty and contribution of your work. Each referred work should be properly cited.
• A timeline of your project plan, a list of expected obstacles for each step, and each team member's responsibility.
• A summary of initial work, such as data statistics, off-the-shelf-model performance, or some initial survey themes (for a survey paper)

4. Final Report and Presentation (Presentation: Monday, Apr 22/ Wednesday, Apr 24; Written Report: May 2 May 5 at 11:59 pm)

• In-class presentation: In the final week of class, we will have in-class presentations so that students can share work with others. Each group will have 15 minutes to present their project idea to the class. All groups will upload their slides to the same presentation to avoid switching computers. We will have a collaborative-edit document for others in the class to provide questions and feedback
• Final Report: Most final papers will be in the form of an ACM-style paper. Please use the ACM template in a double column mode (e.g \documentclass[nonacm, sigconf]{acmart}). Feel free to delete the teaser photo, CSS Concepts, and keywords. The paper should be 6-8 pages long, in ACM submission format, and adhere to ACM guidelines concerning references, layout, supplementary materials, and so forth. Try to keep it to 8 pages. Include a brief authorship statement at the end of your paper, explaining how the individual authors contributed to the project.