Below my grading rationale for theses, projects, independent studies, depth exam literature surveys.
Goal: literature survey of at least twenty relevant and recent citations. Student selects topic. The approach and relevance of each citation is explained in a paragraph. Citations are structured in a relevant manner.
A’s (or Depth Survey) when citations are recent, a student even more relevant citations than recommended by instructor, the research gaps are clearly identified.
B’s when citations provided by professor are correctly described. B+ for identifying research gaps.
C’s when description of approaches are incorrect, the collection of citations is incoherent.
D’s when an attempt was made, but many weaknesses of the manuscript and selection.
Goal: Student demonstrates the capacity of performing rigorous research.
Procedure: student selects a research task; student and instructor discuss approaches towards addressing the task; student performs literature research; student implements existing work and new approaches; student performs rigorous evaluation (cf. CS 753), student produces manuscript with the usual outline of Introduction, Related Work, Approach, Evaluation, Conclusion (cf. CS753).
A’s for theses comparing several methods, (A-) for novel experimental methods, (A) for a publication-ready thesis.
B’s for carrying out the research work necessary and presenting it in a thesis-style manuscript, i.e., rigorous experimental evaluation, clear task statement, related work, separation of approach from evaluation, clearly described approach, useful evaluation measures, plots and tables are elaborated, conclusions are supported by the study.
C’s for carrying out the research, but insufficient manuscript.
D’s is an attempt was made, some results, many weaknesses of the manuscript and research, etc.
Goal: Student demonstrates research contribution to a narrow research field. (ideally a short paper would be published in the process)
Procedure: student selects a research task; student and instructor discuss approaches towards addressing the task; student performs literature research; student implements existing work and new approaches; student performs rigorous evaluation (cf. CS 753), student produces manuscript with the usual outline of Introduction, Related Work, Approach, Evaluation, Conclusion (cf. CS853).
A for a publication-ready short paper.
B for novel experimental methods are compared
B- for comparing established methods only, no novel contribution
(lower grades are not accepted)
Weaknesses in the thesis-style manuscript lead to the reduction in grade. Small weaknesses in the research carried out, such as the selection of weak baselines and wrong evaluation measures, would lead to a reduction by a full grade (e.g. A -> B, (A-) -> (B-)).
Minimum requirement: carrying out the research work necessary and presenting it in a thesis-style manuscript, i.e., rigorous experimental evaluation, clear task statement, related work, separation of approach from evaluation, clearly described approach, useful evaluation measures, plots and tables are elaborated, conclusions are supported by the study.
Goal: Student demonstrates that a significant research contribution was made to a narrow research field. (three full papers)
Procedure: A Ph.D thesis usually comprises three full-papers at flagship conferences or journal publications. The thesis manuscript needs to convince all committee members of the significance of the research contribution, clearly delineating the unique contributions made by the student versus related work conducted by others. The experimental evaluation needs to provide evidence that the contribution significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in the field (at the time when the contribution was published).
For each of the three contributions, a chapter is to be included, that by itself, would be awarded an A under the grading rational for “Master’s Project”.