The purpose of the seminar is to introduce our graduate students to the range of research being carried out in Computer Science, particularly in the areas in which our department has strength. The seminar meets every week on Monday and/or Wednesday, from 4:10 pm to 5:00 pm. Seminar speakers include invited speakers from outside the department, augmented with talks from our own faculty and senior graduate students. Specific details about the course organization follow:

• Approximately 14 talks will be scheduled during the semester, either in the Monday or the Wednesday time slot (some weeks will have two talks; most weeks will have one). Announcements for talks will be released approximately one week in advance at the course's WWW pages. Additional sessions may be scheduled and attendance to these meetings may be required.
• Students should check the course pages at http://www.cs.tamu.edu/seminar regularly for course announcements.
• The course is graded credit/non-credit. To obtain credit for the course, a student must attend at least 12 talks, fufilling these requirements for each talk:
  • The student must complete an acceptable seminar report, due at the end of the seminar, on the form provided at the beginning of the seminar.
  • The student must attend the entire talk--late arrival and early departure are not acceptable. The seminar report forms will not be given to late arrivers nor will they be accepted from early leavers.
  • The student must maintain proper behavior during the talk. This includes not carrying on side conversations, reading newspapers, sleeping, etc., during the presentation. Please note that, especially for outside speakers, you are representing the department and improper behavior on even a single student's part leaves the speaker with a bad impression of us.
  Note that the initial organizational meeting is not considered to be one of these 12 talks.
• Attendance at certain non-seminar talks will be accepted for seminar attendance credit. This requires advance permission from both the seminar organizer and the talk sponsor. To receive credit, the student will be required to turn in a talk report signed by the faculty member sponsoring the presentation.
• You should fill out and turn in an information/record sheet at today's introductory session.
• The first seminar talk is scheduled for Wednesday, January 22.

For your information, the seminar report forms will ask for the following information:

1. Identifying information--your name, student id, etc.
2. A list of key points from the talk.
3. A list of questions raised by the talk.
4. Your signature, certifying and validating your attendance at the seminar.