Always include the number of the writing you are submitting, your name and ID on any material you submit for grading.
Unless otherwise instructed you are free to format your writings as you want. Please use single spacing and a font size of 11 or bigger. Typically a page has 25-30 lines.
Each writing assignment can be resubmitted for regrading, unless otherwise specified. You are allowed one resubmission per writing, which has to be within two weeks from when you received the original writing back. When you submit for regrading, please submit also the original writing.

Writing 5 - due Tuesday April 20

There will not be time to resubmit this writing, but you will receive this writing back within a week, so you'll be able to use the feedback to improve your final paper.
You are welcome to include in this writing any additional material that you will have in your final project. This is the last chance to have it reviewed before the final submission.

Writing 4 - due Thursday March 25

• team members. If there are multiple students doing the same project you can submit a single paper, indicating which parts each person wrote. A paper with more than one author is expected to be longer to reflect the larger effort.
• a brief description of the problem you intend to address and why it is interesting,
• the approach you will take to solve it,
• the software you'll need to write or to use,
• how you will evaluate your solution,
• a plan for the remaining work and related timeframe,
• the bibliographic references of at least 2-3 relevant papers.

• For pictures, look at http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial5.html, which explains how to use the package graphicx. It is not the only package for graphics, but it is widely used and very simple. If you use a latex implementation under Windows that generates directly the pdf file (under linux it is called pdflatex) you can include figures in different formats, including .png and .jpeg. Please include a caption and figure number for your figure. Look at http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial6.html for how to do it. For example,

  \documentclass[11pt]{article} 
  \usepackage{graphicx}
  ....
  \begin{document}
  ...
  \begin{figure}[ht]
  \includegraphics[width=4in]{mypicture.eps}
  \caption{\label{mypict} This is a sample picture}
  \end{figure}
  

• For tables, I suggest you look at http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial4.html. You could use a table for showing the timeframe for the remaining work or for anything else you like. Something like this

  \begin{tabular}{l | l}
  Topic & Expected completion date \\ \hline
  Read related work & April 6 \\
  Install software package XYZ & March 23\\
  ... & ... \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
  

• Finally you need to include at least one math equation. It can be a very simple equation, either embedded in the text or printed on a separate line with or withut an equation number. Look at http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial9.html for examples. To include the equation in the text use $ ... $, to produce it on a separate line without an equation number use \[...\], to produce it on a separate line with an equation number use \begin{equation} ...\end{equation}. For instance, $x^2$ will produce x² in the text, \[ x^2 \] will produce x² on a separate line with no equation number. If you need to use special symbols (greek letters, math symbols, arrows, etc) you can find a list at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Symbols

Writing 3 - due Tuesday February 23

1. write approximatively 1 page describing the topic (or topics) you are interested in, why they are interesting, and what you think you will do. Provide a few sentences on who has studied them with relevant citations. You do not need to make any commitment at this point to what you will do for your project.
2. include at least 5 bibliographical references of different types (journal article, book, conference paper, technical report or thesis, and url). Format the references using bibtex. If your latex implementation does not include url as a recognized field, use note for the field, followed by whatever you want to include. You can look at http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial3.html for details on how to do bibliographies in Latex.

Writing 2 - due Tuesday February 9

1. read the paper A. M. Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, pp. 433-460, 1950.
2. to do good writing you need to get informed on more recent developments on Turing Test. For instance, you can look at the Loebner Prize and then read about some criticism of the prize in Lessons from a Restricted Turing Test by Stuart M. Shieber, Harvard University, April 15, 1993.
   In Response by Hugh Loebner.
   This is an example, by no means these are the only additional sources of information.
3. write 2 pages answering the questions listed above and using any of the additional information you have found to support your arguments. Do not forget to include references to the work you use.
4. You have to use Latex. Look for instructions on Latex in the Material on Writing.

Writing 1 - due Tuesday January 26

1. Select and read one of the papers from The Singularity Issue of IEEE Spectrum. The papers are all short and written for a general educated public. The issue is accessible from campus. If you access it from outside campus, you will have to authenticate with your X.500 account.
2. Write a 1-page summary and review of the paper you have read. Your summary should be 8-10 lines long and say succintly what is in the paper. Not your opinion about the paper but a summary of the paper itself. The idea is that a reader who has not read the paper should be able to find out what the paper is about. The summary should be followed by your comments and opinion about the paper. You are free to express your own opinion, but as much as possible you should base your opinions on science. For instance, you can bring an example from another paper or book that contraddicts what the author says.
3. Bring your writing to class on Tuesday. We will divide in groups, each student will read the writing of another student, then each group will have a short discussion on the papers read.
4. At the end of the class turn in your writing to get credit.