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Milestone Report

Due Date: March 5 by 11:59 pm ET

Milestone Report Submission: Submit your milestone report as a PDF on Gradescope, ensuring the person submitting tags all other team members. Include a link to your code in a GitHub repository.

The milestone report is a checkpoint to ensure you’re on track. It should detail what you’ve accomplished so far and outline your plans moving forward. Think of it as an “early draft” of your final report, allowing you to reuse much of the milestone text later. You are required to use either the LaTeX or the MS Word templates provided here. Write the report with Prof. Song and the TAs as your intended audience. For example, avoid lengthy explanations of well-known concepts like logistic regression.

Your running code should focus on the core elements of your analysis. This may include scripts for data preprocessing, visualization, and any exploratory data analysis you have conducted. Ensure your code is well-organized, clean, and properly commented. Be sure to cite any resources used. Do not submit your dataset, but you may include a few data samples in the report if they are relevant to your analysis.

Format

The milestone report should not exceed 5 pages, formatted according to the required template, excluding references. This 5-page limit includes all content, such as the main text, figures, and tables, to ensure consistent length across different teams. It should include:

  • Title, Authors
  • Introduction: Introduce your project, highlighting its importance or why it’s interesting. Focus on the key questions you aim to answer and the insights you hope to uncover from the data.
  • Code: Provide a GitHub URL for your code. There’s no need to submit the full dataset, but you may include a few representative samples if relevant.
  • Dataset Description: Give an overview of the dataset, including its source, structure, and any preprocessing steps. Mention any unique aspects or challenges that are relevant to your analysis.
  • Analysis: Describe the analysis steps you’ve taken so far. Emphasize how you’ve explored the data, the methods used to extract insights, and any preliminary findings. If applicable, discuss any visualizations, patterns, or trends identified.
  • Narrative and Insights: Outline the narrative you’re building based on your analysis. Explain the story your data is telling and how the insights contribute to the broader context of the problem. Discuss the remaining work, focusing on your next steps and how you plan to refine or expand your findings.
  • Timeline: Include a timeline or workback schedule outlining key milestones and deadlines for completing the remaining work.
  • Contributions: Include a section detailing each team member’s contributions to the project.

Grading: The milestone is primarily a way to receive feedback from the TAs to ensure you’re making reasonable progress. As long as your milestone follows the instructions, clearly articulates the narrative you’re building, and demonstrates thoughtful exploration of your data, you should do well. Please be sure to address any assumptions or challenges that could impact the completion of your project.

Important Note: Between this milestone report submission on 3/5 and the first day of the team project presentations on 4/9, ensure that all analysis and experimentation are completed. The final presentations on 4/9 and 4/11 will need to highlight the full scope and essence of your project. After the presentation, use the remaining time until the final report is due on 4/28 to focus on drafting a polished written report. This post-presentation phase should be dedicated to refining your narrative, ensuring clarity, and finalizing your report, rather than conducting additional experiments or analysis.