Research Skills

CSC 595, Fall 2025

Lectures: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 11:30am - 12:20pm, CLE A320
Instructor: Nishant Mehta. Office hours: by appointment

There is no textbook for this course

About the course
This course is all about how to do great research. You will learn fundamental research skills, including learning how to recognize great research, the traits of great researchers, how to review papers and think criticall about ideas, techniques for coming up with good research problems and techniques for tackling those problems, strategies for creative thinking, the value of cross-disciplinary approaches to research, and how to write great papers and prepare/give great talks. But that's not all. You also will learn skills for time management, how to stay motivated, and (very importantly) how to have fun during graduate school. This course is closely based on a heavily refined course from Nick Feamster and Alexander Gray. You can find their course materials here.

Project
Details about the project

In the schedule below, any information about future lectures is just a rough guide and might change.

Lectures
Date Topics Lecture Slides and Additional reading Notes, Resources
9/3 Course Overview Lecture 1
9/5 Why do a PhD? Lecture 2 Mini-Assignment 1 released (due Wed 9/10)
9/9 and 9/10 Recognizing Great Ideas Lecture 3
9/12 Case Study in Great Ideas Lecture 4 Baran: interview, video interview, paper
9/16 and 9/17 Great Ideas #1: Scientific Revolutions Lecture 5 Kuhn
9/19 Case Study in Great Researchers Lecture 6 Hamming (required reading)
9/23 and 9/24 Great Ideas #2: Great Researchers Lecture 7
9/26 Time Management Lecture 8 Griessman
9/30 National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NO CLASS)
10/1 and 10/3 Generating Ideas #1: Research Patterns Lecture 9
10/7 and 10/8 Generating Ideas #2: Creativity Lecture 10
10/10 Generating Ideas #3: Cross-Disciplinary Thinking Lecture 11
10/14 Class Cancelled
10/15 Motivation and Procrastination Lecture 12
10/17 and 10/21 Communicating Ideas #1: Writing Lecture 13 Zobel, Strunk and White
10/22 First Time at a Conference: How To Lecture 14
10/24 People skills (+ Managing your Advisor) Lecture 15
10/28 AI in Research: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Lecture 16
10/29 Resources for Mathematical Research Lecture 17
10/31 Communicating Ideas #2: Speaking Lecture 18
11/4 Fun around Victoria (Panel)
11/5 Research and Ethics Lecture 19
11/7 Nishant in Japan 🇯🇵 (NO CLASS)
11/11 and 11/12 Reading Break (NO CLASS)
11/14 Nishant in Japan 🇯🇵 (NO CLASS)
11/18 Each Group Discusses A3 Reviews
11/19 Mock PC Session
11/21, 11/25, 11/26, 11/28, 12/2 Mini-Conference (Project Presentations)