PAPER PRESENTATION GUIDELINES & MARKING SCHEME
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This collection of four papers describe 4 main heuristic algorithms
popular for solving difficult optimization problems. The algorithms
are called, "meta-heuristic algorithms", because they follow a set of
problem independent computations which are often inspired by physical
or biological processes. Chapter 11 in our text covers greedy
algorithms and simulated annealing. The present papers talk about tabu
search, variable neighborhood search, memetic algorithms and ant
colony optimization algorithms. 

When designing your presentation, please follow these guidelines. 

GUIDELINES:

1) Goals of your presentation:
  - to briefly discuss the motivation behind the approach. Why are
	things done the way they are done?
  - to understand the main ingredients of the approach
  - to understand how the algorithm works

2) Constraints on the presentation:

  a) Length 20-25 minutes. Target 20 min. 

  b) You have the choice of presentation format: PowerPoint,
  transparencies, white board, or a mixture of these. However, using
  some form of formal presentation such as slides is strongly
  encouraged in order to keep your presentation on time and to not
  overlook things (see the marking scheme). A rule of thumb says that
  a well designed slide takes, usually, about 1 minute of your
  presentation.

  c) In 20 min you cannot (and should not) present everything in the
  paper. Give an overview on the algorithm, and then choose 1 or 2
  aspects that you feel are most important and present them in
  enough detail with examples (for example, show how these steps are
  carried out).

3) Things you should avoid (in any presentation):

  a) Slides with a lot of text. Do not write slides from which you
  read out loud during the presentation. It is OK to make notes
  separately for this purpose.

  b) Slides that are too busy. Do not include too many concepts on one
  slide.

  c) Slides with excessive mathematical formulae. For example, avoid
  formulae that use many notations defined on previous slides.

  d) Animations, and special effects. They usually distract the
  audience when giving a technical talk (it's OK to use effects when
  making a presentation at your best friend's wedding).

  e) Definitions, theorems, abstractions. When talking about a
  concept, the best slides contain a visual representation of it,
  not an abstract and rigorous textual representation. 

  f) Copying parts from the paper ad litteram in your slides
  (exceptions: short mottoes, or citations if very illustrative,
  drawings that you find very suggestive, etc.). Given the time
  constraints, you need to present information already digested and
  simplified in order to outline the most important ideas from the
  paper.

  g) Excusing yourself for parts of the presentation. Examples: "I did
  not sleep well, the last 2 slides are ugly" or "My dog ate my notes,
  and I don't remember what I have on this slide". Chances are your
  weaknesses won't be noticed. Exceptions: you got mugged on your way
  to class and you have no pants (shirt, etc.); or other extreme and
  obvious situations.  


MARKING SCHEME 

Total 10 pts

1) [1 pt] Name of presenter; title of talk; author of paper.

2) [1 pt] Timeliness (20-25 minutes). You will be penalized for a
presentation that is longer than 25 or shorter than 18 min. 

3) [2 pts] Clarity of your slides (see Point 3 - Guidelines). If not
using slides, clarity of your drawings / writings and explanations on
the white board are considered.

4) [1 pt] Present the motivation for the approach.

5) [2 pts] Clarity of presentation for the overview of the
algorithm(s). Is the flow of your presentation (sequence of slides)
logical?

6) [3 pts] Clarity of presentation for the detailed aspect(s)
chosen. Relevance of these aspects to the algorithm. Using examples.