An opt-in component of the class is a research project that you can develop over
the course of the semester. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to explore
one problem within the broad cloud and mobile space in depth (and perhaps even
bootstrap a thesis in this space). The projects will be done in teams of 2
(depending on the class' size, I might modify the minimum team size to
3 students to ensure the projects are manageable for me).
I will meet with each group regularly to discuss your progress and provide
you guidance, if needed.
Together with your team, you will choose a project by either restricting one of
the ideas provided below or coming up with your own idea. Either is fine, but I
will need to validate the idea before you start working on it (see the
timeline below).
A list of example projects is available
here (accessible only from Columbia
IP addresses).
Timeline
Speaking from personal experience, deadlines dictate how progress. To ensure
that your project stays on track for a successful final presentation and
report, I have established six deadlines:
Sept. 21: Groups are formed and projects are selected. You will need to
email me a 1-page description of the problem you're going to address and the
basic solution. This document is due one hour before class.
Oct. 19: Progress document due one hour before class.
You will write a two-page description of your progress, including a detailed
problem description, discussion of some related work, preliminary results --
such as the architecture of the system you're (thinking of) building -- and
your project timeline for the rest of the semester.
I would recommend you to write this document in a form that's conducive to your
final report, which needs to be in a conference paper format.
Nov. 16: Preliminary results document due one hour before class.
You will extend the document you submitted on Oct. 19 to reflect your progress.
For example, you might include an implementation section, some preliminary
evaluation results, and an updated timeline for the rest of the semester.
Dec. 7: Final presentations in class. You can either do a formal
conference-style presentation or you can show a demo. Either way,
you have 20 minutes to illustrate your work, after which there will be 5
minutes of questions. Each person in the group must participate in the
presentation or demo. If you do a demo, you will still need to provide
a verbal overview of the motivation of your work.
Dec. 7: Along with your final presentation, you should submit
two hours before class a document outlining your final report in detail.
You can start from the document you submitted on Nov. 16 and add placeholders
for any sections you are planning to add in your final submission on Dec 17 (see
below). Outlines are an extremely important way to organize your thoughts about
a paper, which is why I am adding this deadline.
Dec. 17: Final reports due at 20pm EST. The reports must be
formatted in a conference-style paper with at most 12 pages, 11-point fonts,
reasonable margins, and a two-column page style.
All of the above write-ups are due one hour before the class on their deadline day.
In between each deadline, I will be meeting with each group on a regular
basis, to ensure your timely progress.