Purpose: The purpose of this project is to give you the opportunity to research into an area in distributed systems and to demonstrate your research result.
| Step | Due Date | Submission ID |
|---|---|---|
| Proposing a topic | Feb 18 | plan |
| Getting a topic accepted | Feb 25 | |
| Submitting the preliminary report | April 21 | draft |
| Presenting the project | April 21 - May 5 | project |
| Submitting the final project and report | May 10 | project |
The project can be either a programming project or a technical/research paper. Some directions of project include:
All students are expected to have different topics, so if you're interested in a specific topic, it strongly suggested that you submit your proposal earlier.
You must include at least two references in the proposal. References must be complete enough for a reader to find the paper without talking to you. The proposal should be submitted in the plain text format.
Proposals must be accepted by the designated due date. If a proposal is accepted, you will be notified of acceptance by an e-mail, otherwise, the proposal will be returned to you for revision.
Note
If you plan to combine the term paper for this class with work you are
doing for another professor,
you need to make sure that both the instructor of this course and the
other professor are
aware of it from the beginning.
Unfortunately, work from you that is
replicated for another class without prior knowledge, will be considered as
plagiarism with according penalty.
The paper or report should be formatted like a conference paper. Specifically, margins and typefaces are:
| Format 1 | Format 2 | Format 3 | Format 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Font | 12 pt | 12 pt | 10 pt | 10 pt |
| Columns | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Left/Right Margins | 1 inch | 0.75 inch | 1 inch | 0.75 inch |
| Top/Bottom Margins | 1 inch | 1 inch | 1 inch | 1 inch |
| Gutter width | n/a | 0.5 inch | n/a | 0.5 inch |
| Pages | 10 - 15 (12) | 10 - 15 (12) | 8 - 12 (10) | 8 - 12 (10) |
| Spacing | single | single | single | single |
Since the paper/report should be formatted like a conference paper, PDF, PostScript, Microsoft Word is strongly recommended as the submission format.
You should conduct a research on an area of mobile and wireless networks. The contribution will usually be the design or experiments of a new system, or the improvement, comparison, and analysis of several existing systems.
Papers will also be graded on the clarity of expression. The main criteria for evaluating this is how clearly and simply the concepts of your paper are illustrated. Your papers are expected to be spelled correctly and grammatically correct.
A paper/report is usually composed of: (1) the topic, (2) the author(s), (3) the abstract, (4) keywords, (5) the main content, and (6) references.
Usually the abstract describes the main content within 100 to 200 words. Keywords indicate the main terminologies used in the paper. The main content always includes an introduction, research methods, analysis, results and the conclusion.
Papers/Papers must contain at least six references. At least one of the papers must have been published in the last two years. These references must be to papers published in conferences, journals or workshops. References to other publications (trade journals, newspapers, magazines, personal communications, etc.) are allowed but must be in addition to the six primary references. As in the proposal, all references must be complete.
When using cited material in your paper, do so appropriately. You should identify ideas from other papers with citations. Verbatim material must appear in quotes (if short) or with indented margins (if long) and must include a reference. Your paper should use citations with a style similar to a conference or journal paper.
Papers/Reports will be processed like in a conference. You will submit a preliminary version of the paper/report, it will be evaluated by your peers and you will have a chance to revise it.
Copies of your papers/reports will be randomly distributed to two of your peers. They will read your paper or study your programming project, comment on the paper or your programming project, and participate in grading your presentation. They might identify if the paper/report meets the requirements for format, length, number of references, and correct use of references. You will also review their papers and comment on their papers. This review will be a homework assignment. This homework will concern the quality of your paper reviews.
Each student will present her/his project in the class. The presentation will generally be about 15 minutes, including questions, interruptions, comments, etc. The presentations will be organized in PowerPoint, PostScript, PDF, or Microsoft Word format. Transparencies can also be used.
The presentation will be graded by both the instructor (50%), peer students in your group and other students present in the class (50%). All students are welcome to attend the presentation session.
You are suggested to practice your talk before your presentation. The practice will help you smooth the presentation and understand if your organization makes sense. It will also give you a practice to fit your presentation in the time slot.
| Item | Percent | Due Date | Submission ID | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial/Accepted proposal | 5% | Feb 18/25 | plan | |
| First version: meet requirements | 5% | April 21 | draft | |
| Presentation | 30% | April 21 - May 5 | project | |
| Programming | Content | 20% | May 10 | project |
| Contribution | 12% | |||
| Organization/Writing | 12% | |||
| Format/Documentation | 4% | |||
| Final Report | Content | 5% | May 10 | project |
| Contribution | 3% | |||
| Organization/Writing | 3% | |||
| Format/Documentation | 1% | |||
Grading of the paper is as follows:
| Item | Percent | Due Date | Submission ID | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial/Accepted proposal | 5% | Feb 19/26 | plan | |
| First version: meet requirements | 5% | April 21 | draft | |
| Presentation | 30% | April 21 - May 5 | project | |
| Final Paper | Content | 25% | May 10 | project |
| Contribution | 15% | |||
| Organization/Writing | 15% | |||
| Format | 5% | |||
Note: that there are several deadlines. The late penalty for any of
these counts against the entire paper.