Due: March 15, 2021

The goal of this assignment is to get you thinking about research related to the ideas of the course and to stimulate ideas for final projects. The assignment is a reaction paper, where you write a short (approximately 5 pages) report that discusses, analyzes, and critiques at least two papers related to the course material. You can work in groups of size 1-3 if you wish; the group does not have to be the same as the one for your final project.

Paper selection

Select at least two papers related to the course (broadly construed). The papers do not have to be developing numerical methods; they could be applying numerical methods to a domain in which you have interest. I have a list of some papers on my to-read list that you may consider, but you certainly should not feel limited to these.

Reaction paper

Write an approximately five-page “reaction paper” to the papers you select. Your paper should

1. Summarize the technical contributions;
2. Explain how the papers are interesting and related to the course;
3. Critically analyze the papers.

Some questions that you might address in your analysis are:

• What are the limitations or weaknesses of the research, and how could these be resolved or improved?
• How could the research be extended?
• Are there particular domains or datasets where the approaches work well or poorly?
• How does the research connect to ideas that you have seen in other domains or work?

Submission guidelines

Your paper should be properly typeset and submitted as a PDF on Canvas. You can work on and submit in teams of size 1-3; these do not need to be the same as for your final project. Please include all of the team member names and netids on the submission. Your paper must include a references section with bibliographic information for the papers to which you are reacting.