Final Technical Paper

  1. Your final assignment is to write a 1250 – 1500 word, technical paper. You may write about a technological device, process, an artistic experience, a product (hardware) or a program (software), a game, etc.
  2. You can choose a topic that you are genuinely interested (example: genetically modifying baby humans) and write about the research and the problems/advantages it solves.

For this paper we will think about research as knowledge production which is context driven and focuses on solving problems. What you put forth should be towards a solution for the problem – this could include educating, changing our behavior, facilitating action, and beyond.

The posited arguments should be original and go towards solving the problem in a novel way. It should get us to think about a problem we are facing today – differently!

The writing style should be clear, crisp and concise.

Final Paper Guidelines: 

  • What is the problem you are trying to solve?
  • What is your approach/solution towards solving the problem?

The thesis:

Why do we care?

The idea development is critical. It may be something that you would actually like to create or it could be a bit more hypothetical (near future) but you must think it through thoroughly.

You must research your idea and discuss in your paper any research or products that exist that are related to your concept. This is called a Subject Review. How does your idea/project build on it?

Don’t forget you must define all key terminology and how you are using it in your introduction.

Your papers needs to include: THIS IS YOUR OUTLINE. You will literally include the headings in your paper.

Title:
Author:

Abstract: This is a paragraph that outlines all the major points of your paper. Generally speaking, this is used by other researchers to quickly see if itis relevant to their research. I recommend you write it last.

Keywords: 5-8 words that pertain to your paper. If someone were to do a search in a database they might be able to find your paper with these keywords)

Introduction: A brief roadmap to the paper. What problem you are solving? Why is it important?

Subject review: Please research and include a section in which you discuss other products, games, experiences and how your concept differs and builds on these prior projects.

Body:

  • problem
  • approach (You may include images, diagrams etc. ) – If you going with the second option discuss use cases and what the potential issues could arise.
    • Technology Design
    • Implementation
    • Tests results (Please note if you are not testing your idea you should leave this out. But if you are for example designing a game your could put your prototype here. Maybe what you learned when you tested it.)
    • Limitations
    • Results
  • Future work: What are the next steps?

Conclusion: Review your main findings.

You should include diagrams and visuals but they do not replace the word count.

Please note that these links often assume experiments and equations. Do not invent fake data but rather describe your process. For game design refer to MDA for product design – using mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics as categories.  Consider your audience, the development process, and the solution.

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/etc/writing-style.html

http://cs.stanford.edu/people/widom/paper-writing.h

Citation and Formatting

Depending on your focus you should either use APA citation formatting or IEEE citation. Here is a cite generator that automates the process:

https://www.citethisforme.com/citation-generator

For game design refer to MDA for product design – using mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics as categories.  Consider your audience, the development process, and the solution.

You will present your papers IN PERSON on the last day of class. You may present your results in a poerpoint presentation. I will supply the Pizza.