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Paper Discussions


We follow the CSE 599 @ UW version of Alec Jacobson’s and Colin Raffel’s role-playing paper reading seminars. The text below is to a large extent copied from their website.


For each class, we’ll assign two required readings to discuss in class: we’ll go deep into Paper 1 in the discussion so it requires careful reading, and you can skim Paper 2 time-permitting (unless you are assigned the role “Original Author of a Related Paper”).

Before any paper discussion sessions, we expect that you carefully read these three readings:

  1. Reading AI Research Papers by Pranav Rajpurkar
  2. A Framework for Generating Research Ideas by Pranav Rajpurkar
  3. Tips for Creating High-Quality Slides by Pranav Rajpurkar

We assigned presenters in this spreadsheet (you must use your unid@gcloud.utah.edu account to see it) to play the following five roles in each class:

🌻 Original Author [5-10 min]. You’re among the original authors of Paper 1. You’ll give a 5-10min short, high-quality presentation at a conference.

👩🏽‍🔬 Scientific Peer Reviewer [3-5 min]. Paper 1 has not been published yet and is currently under review at a top conference where you’ve been assigned as a peer reviewer. Complete a full review of this paper answering all prompts of the ACL official review form. This includes recommending whether to accept or reject the paper. In class, you will present your review.

Please do maintain a polite and considerate voice when sharing limitations about the work (as if the readers of the reviews might be yourself!) and even better if you can suggest constructive and concrete action items to improve the paper.

🏺Archaeologist [3-5 min]. Paper 1 was found buried underground in the desert. You’re an archeologist who must determine where this paper sits in the context of previous and subsequent work. Find and report on one older paper cited within the current paper that substantially influenced the current paper and one newer paper that cites this current paper. Report how the older paper was influential and why a newer paper cites the current paper.

🍜 Imaginative Researcher [3-5 min]. You’re a researcher who is working on a new project in the area of Paper 1. Propose an imaginary follow-up project not just based on the current but only possible due to the existence and success of the current paper.

🦦 Original Author of a Related Paper [5-10 min]. You’re among the original authors of a related Paper 2. You’ll give a 5-10 min short, high-quality presentation at a conference.

Each role-playing presentation will be completed by either an individual student . We will use a shared Google Slides (see them here) for all presenters to streamline the presentation. Each role-playing presentation will begin with a title page that states which role they are playing. The presentation material can be borrowed from elsewhere so long as the original source is acknowledged.

For people who are not assigned as the official presenters, you will serve as the discussion assistant of the class by doing one of the following two tasks:

  1. Play a 🦄 Wild Card Role [3-5 min].

    You’re welcome to play a wild card role, be it an industry practitioner, a cranky researcher, a moral philosopher, a government policy maker, an inquisitive scholar, an alien from Mars, or whatever role you want to define and play!

  2. Complete a written artifacts on any paper of your choosing from among the required and optional readings (to be shared with the class).

    📝 A study (summary) note of a paper

    📑 A blog post of a paper or a group of papers that reads like a tutorial

    🙋‍♀️ An opinion piece reflecting your own thoughts and perspectives

    📕 A scribe of the class discussion (key questions and discussions)

Each written artifact should be at least one paragraph in length and submitted by the end of the class. The written artifact should not contain any plagiarism (e.g., a blog post elsewhere on the same paper/topic cannot be submitted as is or even after paraphrasing). Please keep in mind that all your written artifacts will be shared with the class. You will upload them to the google folder, as well as to Gradescope.

How are you participating in each class throughout the semester?

  • Undergraduate students are allowed to do written reports for all papers, but they must choose in the first two weeks whether they will do that or also participate in regular role-play presentations.
  • All students that are not assigned a presentation role will either play a wildcard role OR write a written artifact.