CS 571 Project

Project Idea

I will provide you with a list of ideas. You are also encouraged to pursue your own ideas.

Project ideas are not open to public to protect students’ work.

Deadlines

1. Friday, 02/04, 23:59 pm: Form a project team

   • Fill the team composition form.

2. Friday, 02/11, 23:59 pm: Pick a project idea

   • Pick what project to work on. The way you do this: read the project page and find at least three projects you’d be willing to work upon. Then sign up for a meeting with the instructor to decide what project you will be working on.

3. Friday, 02/25, 23:59 pm: Project proposal due

4. Friday, 03/25, 23:59 pm: Project checkpoint 1 report due

   • For system/tool building projects, you are expected to show prototypes.
   • For measurement/study projects, you are expected to show general statistics of your datasets and concrete examples or case studies.

5. Friday, 04/15, 23:59 pm: Project checkpoint 2 report due

   • For system/tool building project, you are expected to show primary results.
   • For measurement/study projects, you are expected to show your numbers and findings.

6. Wednesday, 05/11, 23:59 pm: Project everything due

Reports and Artifacts (code, datasets, etc.)

Proposal

Recommended structure for the Proposal Report is:

• Title.
• Motivation + concrete problem statement (need not be formal, only concrete).
• Approaches/system_design/experiment_design proposed / planned to solve the aforementioned problems: Initial thoughts + what you have done in design/setups/experimental_tests.
• Timeline/Expected milestones for achieving your goals.

About 1-2 pages is fine. The end product of the proposal is a crisp problem statement. Please submit your report via a shared Google Doc (so we can comment on specific lines).

Checkpoint 1 report

Your checkpoint report should describe your progress on achieving the goals you included in your proposal. Clearly explain any changes you have made to the goal of your project based on your experience so far. Also, provide a concrete plan of what you will need to accomplish in the remaining weeks to complete your project. It’s OK to report any preliminary results that you have already collected if any.

Your checkpoint #1 report should use a separate, shared Google Doc (a separate one from your proposal report).

Checkpoint 2 report

Similar as Checkpoint #1. And what’s more, you must include primary results (e.g., small-scale measurement results, examples that your prototype can already handle, etc). Please format your checkpoint #2 report using this template. Submissions formatted with other templates are invalid.

Final report

Your final report should be written like a conference-quality paper that you read in class. Following are some example questions that may help you organize your storyline:

• Question 0: What is/are your main hypothesis/hypotheses in the project? This is a one-sentence summary of your paper. Position your paper w.r.t. other related work on the same or even similar problems (reuse relevant parts of your survey report here!). Show to the reader that your work is on a unique point in the design spectrum. Don’t overstate it, don’t understate it either. This statement is related to Question 5 below (yes, it’s a chicken and egg problem!)
• Question 1: What are your goals?
• Question 2: What is your design and implementation (for system/tool building)?
• Question 3: What are your research questions (for measurement/study)?
• Question 4: What do your approaches gain and lose you? That is, what are the tradeoffs, if any?
• Question 5: What do your results tell you? (This is related to Question 0, 3, 4 above, and again, it’s an egg and chicken problem!) Show that your data supports your hypothesis, and show the gains, losses, and tradeoffs by using your techniques/analysis/measurements.

As well as pay attention to:

• Importance of problem,
• Novelty of solution,
• Evaluation of solution,
• Clarity of Presentation,
• Nits (grammar, references, etc.).

Your paper must be no longer than 6 pages and no shorter than 4 pages. The paper can have as many additional pages for references and for supplemental material in appendices. Please format your paper using the this template; submissions formatted with other templates are invalid.

Final presentation

Please prepare a 10-minute presentation and record your presentation (DO NOT exceed the 10 minute limit – we will have penalty if you do). Check out this Ed post on how to prepare your presentation video using Zoom. Send the instructor and the GTA the video link and its passcode once it’s ready.

We will have the project presentation session on Wednesday, 05/04, as well as on Friday, 05/06. We can schedule around ten teams in the Wednesday slot (where we will meet in person) and the rest in the Friday slot (where we will meet virtually on Zoom). We will follow a hybrid format that is commonly used in today’s online conferences. That is, each team will have strictly 15 minutes: we will play your recorded 10-minute talk video first followed by a live, 5-minute Q&A. The instructor will lead the Q&A session, but the audience are encouraged to ask any questions.

Submission

Submit everything including:

• your final project report (in pdf) using this template,
• code/data (add the code repository link in your final report – make sure your code repository is private and shared only with the teaching staff: if you choose to use GitHub, share it with this ID: tddg [my github account]; if you choose to use Mason GitLab, share it with this ID: yuecheng),
• and video (add the video link in your final report). Check metadata.tex for detail about adding links.

Send the pdf of your final report to the teaching staff including the instructor and the GTA.