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Final Project Description

This class will contain a final project component, in which students complete a novel research-style project based around the class theme of "bridging between research areas." Examples of acceptable projects include:

modifying an existing system to leverage knowledge of client program behavior
adapting an existing type system to solve a problem within the systems community
evaluating an existing artifact under the standards of a different community

I'm also putting together a short, "brainstorm-style" list of project ideas.

Deadlines

Group Formation: 10/2
Proposal: 10/8
Survey: 10/22
Presentations: 12/5-12/7
Final Reports: 12/11

The Proposal

Deadline: 10/8

The proposal takes the form of a short, one-page document describing what you plan to do, and how you plan to achieve it. It should include:

The "core idea" of your project
The methods that you will employ to complete your project
Which domains of related work you intend to read
How you intend to define and measure success of your project
A brief timeline of project milestones

Beyond these required components, the "ideal" proposal looks like the introduction for a conference paper. Much as with all assignments in this class, this assignment is not directly graded; rather, I will read proposals over fall break and shoot you an email with my feedback on your ideas.

The Survey

Deadline: 10/25

This is a short (~3 pages "word" format, ~1 page double-column LaTeX) document covering a broad space of "related work" to the topic you have proposed. It should, unless otherwise noted, be a series of papers within the area of your proposed project. It is absolutely fine for these papers to include work that we have read in class. Ideally, you will discuss around 8 papers. Note that these papers should be selected based on what is important to your project; it is not necessary that they be evenly balanced between areas, and it is ok (even expected!) that some of them might be outside of Systems + PL entirely.

You do not need to deeply understand all of these papers. Rather, you need to know enough to characterize them with respect to the other papers you are citing. For example: if your project is in operating systems, and you are citing RedLeaf, HiStar, and Singularity, it would be acceptable to explain that RedLeaf focuses on fault isolation, HiStar on privacy via information-flow, and Singularity on enabling structure communication between processes.

I would encourage you to spend less time reading any one of these papers than you would spend on an assigned class paper. Remember, how to read a paper is a learnable skill!

The Presentations

Deadline: 12/5-12/7

The Report

Deadline: 12/11