November 4,6 (Tue, Thur):

Group work on preparation of project proposals. Proposals due Friday, November 7 at 5pm: Each group must submit a proposal/plan of project history. (See Handout #7)

November 11: no class, Veterans’ Day

November 13: (Thur)

In-Class group work. Bring the list of guests (with addresses) to invite to final presentations (see below).

November 18: (Tue)

[Note: we will be visited by the Course 6 Undergraduate Guide on this day, from 9:30 to 9:50, so please make an effort to arrive at 9:30 so they can get a fair evaluation]

AGC, Spreasheets: group work

RSA, TMC, CORE: each group member makes a 5-minute presentation (with visuals on paper) to dm/cl. This should be considered a "rehearsal" for final project presentation. Should deal with some significant aspect of ongoing research that will be relevant to final project history, and be coordinated among group members to cover the significant issues.

Assignment Due (entire class): two-page response paper; include a discussion of at least one document encountered during research and an assessment of its credibility as a historical source. Can be an expansion of the 5-minute presentation.

November 20: (Thur)

AGC, Spreadsheets: individual 5-minute presentations as above.

RSA, TMC, CORE: group work.

November 25: (Tue)

Commercialization and Production

Lita Nelson who runs MIT’s Technology Licensing Office will visit to discuss how technologies developed at MIT are licensed in the outside world – come prepared with questions if your project history deals with licensing.

November 27: (Thur): no class, Thanksgiving

Group Presentations of project histories: These will be done in class time (beginning at 9am) to the rest of the class plus a series of invited guests, in room NE-43 518, in Technology Square. To allow two full hour presentations, the sessions will run these days from 9 to 11 am. Be prompt! Look presentable. If you can, you might plan to stay a few minutes later to chat with the guests, we have the room till noon.

Invited guests: these can include anyone you interviewed or who helped you in the course of your research, as well as particular "experts" in the technology. We can make parking available for people coming from off campus (see Charles’s assistant, Irena), and we will provide a "Continental Breakfast" for the guests. Please give us a list of people you wish to invite by November 13 so we can send them invitations (anyone interested in designing a nice invitation?).

Respondents: Each group’s presentation will be discussed by a "respondent," invited by the professors as a disinterested expert in the topics being discussed. Be prepared to defend your conclusions to someone who really knows the technology! (but someone who probably doesn’t know the history). To avoid personal interests, participants in the history will not be respondents.

Presentation: Each group will have one hour total: 30 minutes for presentation, 5-10 minutes for respondents and then the rest for questions and discussion. There is one single way to make sure you fit into the time slot: practice your talk – individually (at least three times) and together (at least twice). Presentations which go significantly over time will be graded down. Practice will also make you feel more comfortable as you speak and smooth your language.

Clarity – How carefully was the story presented, and how did it mesh with the analysis?

Presentation – Coordination of group members ("choreography"), quality of visuals (not quantity or fanciness), smoothness of oral presentation, fit into time slot (overtime will be downgraded).

Integration – Individual presenters coordinating with the whole.

Relevance to course material – Content deals with issues raised in course readings.

Synthesis – Our old friend. Be original! Be creative!  

Project History Drafts: The day of the oral presentation, a draft of the project history will be due. Professors Mindell and Leiserson will grade these, add comments, and return them the following day. Then groups should modify their drafts before submitting the final paper, responding to professors’ comments and those of respondents/discussion from presentation. We will then give this version the final grade (most important). Final projects due December 12, 5pm. No exceptions!

Schedule: Groups which present earlier will have less time to prepare the draft but more time for revisions; groups which go later will have the opposite, but the sum of draft and revision time will be the same for all groups.

December 2: (Tue) Apollo Guidance Computer, Thinking Machines

December 4: (Thur) Core Memory, RSA

December 9: (Tue) Spreadsheets, Class Party!

Final projects due December 12, 5pm. No exceptions!