Raskar Thesis Guidance 2011

Preparing for a Masters Thesis

Ramesh RaskarMIT Media Lab

• Questions before you start the project• How to come up with ideas• How to write a paper• How to decide if the idea is worth pursuing

• What makes a great ML thesis

• Happy to meet– Help you towards a fantastic + manageable thesis

Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info

What Makes a Good ML Thesis?• An original piece of work

A good thesis puts forth an original hypothesis/method/design/art piece with appropriate testing/verification/critique

• Written well Grammar, appropriate style, organization

• Comprehensive A good thesis has sufficient information to allow a person of

ordinary skill in the art to replicate the results A good thesis has a complete set of references

• Accurate Do not blow hot air!! Every sentence in the thesis must be

correct!!! Do not exaggerate!!! Slide by Hugh Herr

Research .. • http://raskar.info

– How to come up w ideas: Idea Hexagon– How to write a paper– How to give a talk– Open research problems– How to decide merit of a project– How to attend a conference, brainstorm

• Tips– Get on Seminar/Talks mailing lists worldwide– http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html – Why do so few scientists make significant contributions and so many are forgotten in the

long run?– Highly recommended Hamming talk at Bell Labs


Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Lab

After X, what is neXt

How to Invent?



Xd

X++

X X+Y

X

X

neXt

Ramesh Raskar, MIT Media Labhttp://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/raskar-ideahexagonapr2010


Simple Exercise .. Simple Exercise ..

• Image CompressionImage Compression– Save Bandwidth and storageSave Bandwidth and storage

What is neXtRamesh Raskar, http://raskar.info


Simple Exercise .. Simple Exercise ..

• Image CompressionImage Compression– Save Bandwidth and storageSave Bandwidth and storage

.. Video Compression .. .. Video Compression .. – Extend the idea to time dimensionExtend the idea to time dimension

Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.infohttp://www.slideshare.net/cameraculture/raskar-ideahexagonapr2010

Is project worthwhile? Heilmeier's Questions• What

– What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.

• Related work– How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?

• Contribution– What's new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?

• Motivation– Who cares?– If you're successful, what difference will it make?

• Challenges– What are the risks and the payoffs?– How much will it cost?– How long will it take?

• Evaluation– What are the midterm and final "exams" to check for success?

• Raskar additions– Why now? (why not before, what’s new that makes possible)– Why us? (wrong answers: I am smart, I can work harder than others)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H._Heilmeier#Heilmeier.27s_Catechism

Great Research: Strive for Five

1. Before Five teamsBe first, often let others do details

2. Beyond Five yearsWhat no one is thinking about

3. Within Five layers of ‘Human’ ImpactRelevance

4. Beyond Five minutes of descriptionDeep, iterative, participatory

5. Fusing Five+ ExpertiseMulti-disciplinary, proactive



Pick atleast 2 out of 3Pick atleast 2 out of 3

FunCoolMedia Coverage

ImpactMoneySocial implications

ResearchNoveltyGeneralityScience

What distinguishes ML projects .. – Synthesize not just analyze– Use power of human intelligence

• Intelligence Amplification• Human in loop,

– Democratize, Power to the People– Be paranoid .. Are we relevant and what is next?

Topics for discussion (create your own group)• How to pursue 'ideas in the spirit of the media lab'? What is not in the spirit of ML? • How to make the best of ML resources? • What are the common problems in picking/initiating/pursuing/finishing great projects? • Case studies of successful transitions of efforts into research/demos/products and more• Some procedural topics: juggling classes vs research, Apprenticeship vs independent research, group

dynamics, media coverage


Thesis Organization• Abstract• Acknowledgements• List of Tables and Figures• Introduction• Background• Mechanism/Process Design• Experimental Methods• Results• Discussion and Conclusions• References• Appendix A, B, etc. Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/mit.research.how.to/section3.11.htmlhttp://www.cad.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=a_good_thesis

http://www.sce.carleton.ca/faculty/chinneck/thesis.html


Be proactive not reactiveGeneralize today’s conceptsAvoid basing all on facebook/twitter/kinect etc or today’s hot techBut we are still slaves to available tech“Let’s do smart things with stupid technology today, rather than wait and do stupid things with smart technology tomorrow” - Bill Buxton. You can ofcourse do even smarter things with smart tech.

Be prepared but careful on what you doBe in optimist but be paranoid (vs pessimist + laidback)Defer judgment (don’t dismiss, believe or start instantly on any idea)Overnight success after months of workHave a list of 10-20 problems .. Don’t work on first one you think or that comes your wayTalk to a lot of people (you trust) to see if worth purusing as most ideas will be useless anyway

Don’t be religious, listen to othersI often find people too much in love with a tiny incremental idea if they came up with themselves Try and change what is difficult to some other situation which is easily done but is still importantDon’t work on same project for 2+ yearsFail fast

If u want to win .. Be willing change rules of the game, sometimes the game itselfRemember the 4Ps and their SEQUENCE

– Projects > Papers > Polished Demo/Prototype > Press– (Note ‘polished demo’ comes AFTER a paper or some external validation)– Don’t chase press before you have a serious project that is peer-reviewed or validated (novelty and

impact should be already understood) Ramesh Raskar, http://raskar.info

Self Improvement

Raskar Thesis Guidance 2011