Class Projects

Students will work on either (1) a term paper or (2) a privacy-related project (written up as a report, with a demo). For projects, teams of two students are required.

Paper/Project Grading

Proposal (Feb 16)

• Section 1, Introduction: Motivate the problem you are trying to solve. Why is it an interesting problem? What have others done? What are some existing tools or solutions to this problem, and why do they fall short?
• Section 2, Approach: Describe your approach for solving the problem. What is new and interesting about this approach? How is it better than existing work?
• Section 3, Deliverables: Describe what you hope to accomplish by the end of the semester.
• Section 4, Schedule: Propose a schedule of milestones, with a 2 week granularity. The goal is to have a plan. It is okay to deviate (within reason) from this plan as the semester progresses.

• 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. Need some preliminary ideas here to show you have a plan.
• Section 3, Deliverables: Describe what you hope to accomplish by the end of the semester. What will your final report look like?
• Section 4, 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.

Status report (Apr 1):

• Introduction: Should be mostly done. (1-2 pages)
• Approach: Should be mostly done. (half page)
• Survey of Existing Techniques/Solutions: Subsection headings, with a few lines in each section listing readings you have identified, and what you plan to put in those sections. You need to demonstrate that you have a clear plan and have identified most of your readings.
• Suggestions: Subsection headings with a few lines about possible ideas that you're considering for this section.
• Conclusions: Empty for now
• Bibliography/References: Whatever references you have already, although it's okay to put the references into the Survey section for now.

• Introduction: Should be mostly done. (1-2 pages)
• Approach: Should be mostly done. (half to 1 page)
• Architecture: Subsection headings, with a few lines in each section listing readings you have identified, and what you plan to put in those sections. You need to demonstrate that you have a clear plan and have identified your readings.
• Discussion and future work: Subsection headings with a few lines about possible ideas that you're considering for this section.
• Conclusions: Empty for now
• Bibliography/References: Whatever references you have already. I do expect to see several references from your Introduction. For example, you may refer to other websites, tools, news articles, research papers, class readings, etc.

Final demos/presentation (Apr 29, presentation PDF due Apr 28):

The presentation PDF must be uploaded to OnCourse by Apr 28, 11:59pm (no extensions).

In addition, projects will be demoed to Prof. Kapadia by appointment on or before Apr 29.

Final report (May 5):

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. 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 the paper 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 maintext, and include a reference to the bibliography for details.

• Introduction (1-2 pages): Motivate the problem/issue you are addressing in your paper. Introduce the tool/software you are building focusing on the motivation.
• Approach (half to 1 page): A brief explanation about your tool for readers who are not interested in the low-level details, but only the big picture.
• Architecture (4-5 pages): Describe what you built. Need at least one schematic diagram outlining the architectural components of your system and how they're related.
• Discussion and future work (1 page): I expect about a page or so of your thoughts on suggestions for future work. How can the current tool be improved?
• Conclusions (1 page): Summarize the paper in the first paragraph, and in the second paragraph conclude with your philosophical ruminations about the problem, your tool, 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 maintext, and include a reference to the bibliography for details.

Late reports?

You have an automatic 3-day extension for the proposal, status, and final reports. You will be penalized 25% for every day it is late beyond this extension. You are required to submit satisfactory versions of these reports within 6 days of the deadline to pass the class.

Project ideas