Technical Essays

There will be 4 essay assignments. You get to choose a topic from a given topic selection. The idea is to get you to dig in a little further on any of the subjects discussed in class and search for additional content from the Web afterwards. Formulate your findings and thoughts and list the references (book chapters, websites, magazines, etc.) in a 3-page double-spaced 11-pt-fonted write-up. Figures and tables included. Though you may list the references from the 4th page and on. There'll be no late assignments accepted. You'll be graded mainly on the originality and thoughtful-ness. Technical correctness is minor.

To help you identify an interesting and yet relevant topic, here is the topic page that provides a comprehensive list of sample topics. You may select one from the sample topics. You may also select one that is not in the list but please confirm the topic with Polly. And keep in mind: any online search engine or encyclopedia will be your good friends.

Submission Instruction:

• Inside the submitted file: please make sure you state the followings at the beginning of the file to be submitted.
  • team number
  • team member names (in Chinese)
  • team member student IDs
• Naming the file to submit: Please follow the this naming convention for the files you will submit: paper#-team#-mmdd-hhmm.(whatever format you chose to use).
  • (paper#): for essay #1, just say 'p1'
  • (team#): your team number
  • (mmdd): the date of this submission. 2 digits for the month. 2 digits for the day. For example September 3 will be 0903. Please add a 0 in case the month or day is a single digit number.
  • (hhmm): the approximate time of this submission. 2 digits for the hour in 24 hour scale. 2 digits for the minute. For example 4:45 am will be 0445 and 4:03 pm will be 1603. Please add a 0 in case the hour or minute is a single digit number.
  • a complete example: p1-7-1014-1843.pdf
  • Uploading the file via ftp: please follow the following instructions.
    • FTP to: 140 dot 112 dot 42 dot 158 at port 6621
    • As user: introCS password: wed78
    • Go to the 'homework' directory
    • Go to the corresponding 'essay-#' subdirectory
    • Put the file you need to submit in this directory
    • Close the ftp connection
  • Submiting a better copy: simply follow the instruction above with the modified date and time and then upload. The TA will grade the latest version.