I430/520, CSCI-B 649 Security For Networked Systems
(Spring 2013)


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Research Paper (Graduate Students)

Graduate students will work on an 8–10 page (double spaced) term paper in groups of one or two students (groups of three are not allowed). The paper should identify an interesting topic related to security or privacy and provide a survey of existing solutions and research related to this topic (I expect about 5–8 research papers to be referenced in addition to commercial and other resources). Additionally, the student must provide thoughtful directions for future work and research on this topic.

Grading of research paper

Proposal document Feb 11 15%
Final presentation Apr 19 15%
Final report Apr 21 70%

For each deliverable, each student will need to complete an additional OnCourse 'assignment' where you characterize your individual contribution to the a) background work on the project and b) writing of the paper. Both aspects are equally important in determining your individual grade. I expect both students to contribute significantly to both aspects. In particular, if you leave most of the writing to your project partner, your grade will be significantly reduced. Aim for no more than a 60-40% discrepancy in your individual contributions to each component.

Proposal (Feb 11)

1 page paper description with 1-inch margins, 11-pt font, single spaced.

Outline for proposal:
  • Section 1, Introduction: Motivate the problem/issue you are trying to explore. Why is it an interesting issue?
  • Section 2, Approach: Describe your approach for exploring, surveying and analyzing the various aspects of the problem/issue. What are some resources you have found already? Need some preliminary ideas here to show you have a plan.
  • Section 3, Schedule: Propose a schedule of milestones, with a 2 week granularity showing how you will make steady progress towards your final report. The goal is to have a plan. It is okay to deviate (within reason) from this plan as the semester progresses.

Final presentation (Apr 19)

"3 minute madness": During your final scheduled lab session, we will have 2–3 minute presentations where you will quickly tell the rest of the class about the interesting problem you explored and what your salient findings were. End with one or two recommendations, e.g., if your project explored cloud security and privacy, you could end with "if you want a secure cloud storage alternative, we suggest X because ..."

Final report (Apr 21)

Final report due. 8–10 pages, 1-inch margins, 11-pt font, double spaced. Details forthcoming.

Outline for term paper:

  • Introduction (1-2 pages): Motivate the problem/issue you are addressing in your paper. Why is it an interesting issue?
  • Approach (half page): A short section describing how you analyze the issue in the rest of the paper. For example, "In Section 3, I will survey the existing techniques to address this problem, and in Section 4 I provide suggestions on how to better address the issue." Frame the rest of the paper for the reader, so that the reader understands how you analyze the problem you motivated in the Introduction.
  • Survey of Existing Techniques/Solutions (4-5 pages): This section forms the meat of your term paper. I expect you to demonstrate that you have understood the space of existing techniques and solutions, including those from the research literature. Your paper should give me a good picture of what's been done to address the problem.
  • Suggestions (1-2 pages): I expect about a page or two of your thoughts on suggestions for future work. How can the current situation be improved?
  • Conclusions (1 page): Summarize your findings in the first paragraph, and in the second paragraph conclude with your philosophical ruminations about the problem, what needs to be done, and where we stand.
  • Bibliography/References (1 page): Plagiarism will not be tolerated. In any scholarly paper, you must cite all your sources in your main text, and include a reference to the bibliography for details.

Late reports?

Manage your time well, and start early!

You have an automatic 3-day extension for each of the proposal, status, and final reports. You will be penalized 25% for every day it is late beyond this extension.

Topic ideas

You can work on any topic related to network security and privacy. Please come talk to me for specific topic ideas.