Literature Survey (Bundy)

Each student must prepare a literature survey on some topic in Artificial Intelligence. The topic will be chosen to reflect
the student's interests. The first tutorial is about selecting your literature survey topic. Some suggestions for survey topics
can be found here, but you are not restricted to these. 

The survey should be based on between 10 to 30 papers. Students are not expected to read all these papers in detail; in
fact, one of the skills to be learnt is the ability to read papers at different depths. Students will be expected to locate the key
papers and read them in detail and to get a general enough idea of the contents of the other papers to place them in
context. 

The literature survey is an assessable component of the module carrying 40% of the total mark. Between 15 and 30 hours
are allocated to it. The mark will be based on the written report which should be submitted electronically by 5pm on
Sunday of week 10 as a postscript file. 

  submit {aimsc,ai4} airm 1 <filename> <time spent>

A copy with feedback and a mark will be returned by Monday of week 1, term 2. Note that the mark awarded is
provisional and must be confirmed by the Board of Examiners. 

Skills to be Developed

The literature survey is designed to help you develop the following skills: 

      Reading at different levels of depth. You cannot read all the papers your survey must cover. Identify the key
      papers and read them all in the traditional way. If you are using some of them for your presentation you may want
      to read these twice and/or try the ideas on some examples of your own. Other papers you might only skim (see
      more detail below). The second tutorial is about reading research papers. 

      Locating relevant papers. You will be given a few pointers to papers to start you off, but then you are on your own.
      To discover some more there are various methods. Look in the bibliography of those papers you have already got
      to identify other authors in the field. This will only take you backwards, however. To go forward look for recent
      publications by the same authors or other papers on this topic. You can search the library catalogue (some are on
      CD-ROM). There are publications which give forward pointers, i.e. list papers which cite some paper. You can
      access the www pages of the authors or you can email them. You can skim through relevant journals or
      conference proceedings. You may find the Library's online resources useful for tracking down papers
      electronically. 

      Organising the material. It will not be enough to merely record who said what when. You must try and relate the
      papers you have read. What were the key ideas and when and by whom did they appear? How were they
      propagated? What were the dead-ends? What are the rival approaches and the hot issues? An issue-based
      organisation of the survey will be preferred to a merely historical account, i.e. try to tell a story about the
      development of the research. 

      Managing your time. 15-30 hours is not a lot of time and can easily be dissipated in undirected reading and fruitless
      searching. You must structure your activities to make efficient use of your time. Leave plenty of time for writing the
      report. Do not leave everything until the week before the deadline. 

The Structure of your Report

The literature survey should be about 10-20 pages in length and cover the following points: 

      What papers were surveyed? Put a bibliography at the end. 

      Which were the key papers in the area? Give an overview of the content of these. 

      How are the other papers related to these key papers? Tell a story about the development of the field explaining
      how everything fits together. 

      What is the current situation? What are the hot issues? Where is progress being made and what has proved to be
      dead end?