Exercises

We have created several "problem set" exercises to help students develop experience with both creative thinking and the logistics of the Ph.D.

Assignments. We have created three assignments concerning the generation and evaluation of ideas:

Mini-Assignments. To help students with more practical issues concerning the Ph.D., we have also designed four mini assignments:

Mini-Project. To help you get your feet wet with research as soon as possible, to expose you to research in other disciplines, and to give you an excuse to meet faculty other than your advisor, we have created a mini-project assignment. We ask that you complete two mini-projects by the end of the term.

Project. To provide you practice with reading and writing presentation skills, to give you a deadline to work towards, and to help you begin to iterate on your thoughts as part of the research project, we have created a main project assignment. This assignment assumes that you are already paired with at least a temporary research advisor.

These assignments were designed jointly by Nick Feamster and Alex Gray and have undergone several iterations over the years.