A7: Special Topic Reflection Essay (Graduate Students Only) Due Wednesday, 29 April 2026, 11:00AM EST.
This is an individual assignment.
This assignment is required for graduate students. Undergraduates may also choose to complete it, for a small amount of extra credit (note: the amount of extra credit awarded will intentionally be more than the effort you will have to put in to do the assignment; if you’re just trying to improve your grade in the class and don’t care about the topic, we suggest you work on your project instead).
Learning Goals
Read a paper about an interesting way to use an LLM in software engineering and try it out yourself. Reflect on your experience.
The task
Write a 1000-word essay on a special topics reading of your choice from this Google Sheet. Only one graduate student may choose each reading. Write your name down in the sheet next to the question you have chosen in the “graduate student” column if you are a graduate student. If you are an undergraduate, add a new line in the appropriate cell in the “Undergraduates” column with your name; there is no limit to the number of undergraduates that may choose each reading.
You should start by reading the “special topic” article in detail. Then, you should try to replicate something discussed in the reading yourself, using your own LLM. For example, if the article is about using LLMs for code review, you should spend some time trying to use an LLM to review a change to an existing codebase. It’s up to you exactly how you interpret this requirement, but your essay should clearly explain what you did and why.
Write your essay.
Good essays have concrete examples, e.g., it did x but I expected y in the context of z. Bad essays are vague and employ generic sentiments, like “I like it!”, or “It’s helpful.”.
Be sure to write down your name, UCID, and the title of the special topics reading that you chose at the top of the page.
Leading A Discussion
Each graduate student in the class will lead discussion groups (of undergraduates) in-class on April 29 about the topic of their essay. Assuming there are k graduate students in the class:
- undergraduates will be split into k groups.
- class will be divided into k equal periods. For example, if we have 60 minutes for discussion and k is 6, then each period will be ten minutes.
- you must be prepared to 1) explain the topic of your chosen paper in no more than half the allotted time for each period to the undergraduates in each group, and then 2) moderate a discussion amongst the undergraduates.
Your grade on this assignment will be based in part on the quality of these discussions. As a result, graduate students must attend class on April 29. If you are unable to attend on that day for any reason, contact the instructors. Undergraduates can ignore this part of the assignment.
AI Constraints
You should not use any AI, GenAI, or LLM to write this essay. You may use any tool you wish to proofread your essay for grammar, but do not use any tool that creates or changes the meaning of what you have written.
Note: You will be on the hook for understanding and defending the opinions you write in these reflection essays during in-class activities. You must understand and buy into the contents of your essay at the time you turn it in. Unlike the other reflection essays, for this one only one student will answer each question. You will be called on in class to describe how you answered the question, so you should be prepared for that.
Submission
Submit as a PDF file to Canvas.
If you prepare the response in some other software (like Tex, Word, or Google Docs), please export as PDF before submitting.
Rubric
This homework is worth 200 points. You will receive points for accomplishing the following:
- Name, UCID, and reflection question are written at the top of the page: 5 pts.
- Essay is between 900-1100 words. 10 pts.
- Essay answers your reflection question. 35 pts.
- Essay shows that you have read and reflected on the article. 50 pts.
- Essay clearly describes what you did to test out the article’s claims and why. 50 pts.
- Essay contains meaningful reflections that derive from your personal experience in this class. 50 pts.