6.454: Graduate Seminar in Area I

Auditors

Auditors are welcome at any session, provided they come prepared (e.g., by reading the relevant papers, or being an expert in the field). It was decided that "advertising" to auditors should be done by word of mouth. It would be nice of the inviting class member to introduce any new listeners.

Attendance

Consistent attendance, while not mandatory, is expected of members of the class. As a rule of thumb, participants should plan to attend at least 75% of the sessions.

Presentation Guidelines

The class prefers a broad view of each topic, rather than details about a single result. Furthermore, the class prefers to understand the intuition and basic structure of theorems, rather than the details of their proofs.

Leader Responsibilities

Aside from leading the discussion on Wednesday, the responsibilities of the discussion leader are as follows:

Week Before:

Drop PDF files of key papers into course locker (Athena: /mit/6.454/). Link (or have someone link) them to the web page. When PDF files are unavailable, bring copies to class. Finally, send email to the course mailing list (6.454@mit.edu) to let members know that papers have been posted.

Monday Before:

Distribute outline/summary of discussion to be led on Wednesday. If possible, post this summary in PDF form on the course web page.