Research Project for BS/MS students
Due: Tuesday, December 14, 2010

 

Introduction

In order to earn BS/MS credit for this course, research project is required in addition to the normal course work.

The goal of the BS/MS project is to make an in-depth study of a topic relevant to the operating systems and/or distributed systems. You have the freedom to choose the topic and approach for studying. It is expected that all projects will require of research and reading beyond the level expected for CS-4513. The amount of additional work depends on the type of project. A few potential project types include (this list is not intended to be exhaustive):–

·        Examine and write a report on the structure/internals of a mobile operating system such as the iPhone or Android operating system. Your choice of operating system must be approved by the professor in advance.

·        Research and write a report on a particular area of distributed computing including reading of literature and gathering of material. An important part of this type of project is synthesis of the material. This is the type of project that many students complete.

·        Do a performance study on some aspect of operating/distributed systems. For example, use or develop benchmarks for one aspect of system performance.

Your BS/MS project may be coordinated with or on the same topic as a programming project of this course or another course. It may not duplicate the work of that other project, but it may extend beyond what is required for that project in terms of scope and difficulty.

Submissions

Write up your findings in a well-presented technical report of about ten pages in length, including bibliography. As with any literature study, your report should synthesize what you read in your own words, and not merely be a concatenation of reviews of individual papers. Also, as with any literature study, you are responsible for validating your sources.

Note that while Wikipedia is very useful tool for helping you to find things, it is not valid citation in a bibliography. You need to work backwards from what you find in Wiki­pedia until you get to original or other authoritative sources, and then you should read and cite those.

Due Dates

1.      Proposal. Submit a one-page proposal for your project no later than November 2, 2010, along with the appropriate BS/MS form. If you have questions about the feasibility of your proposal, contact the professor beforehand. If your project is coordinated with and/or on the same topic as a project of another course, please indicate which course and its instructor.

2.      Final Report. Submit your final report on December 14, 2010 — i.e., the last day of class.