CS 4513 Distributed Computing Systems WPI, D Term 2001
Craig E. Wills Research Project

Introduction

In addition to the regular class work, a research project is required to be completed for BS/MS credit. The goal of the project is to make an in-depth study of a topic relevant for the course. Students have freedom to choose the topic and approach for studying it that is of most interest and best suited to them. It is expected that all projects will require some amount of research and reading. Additional work required for the project will depend on the type of project. A few potential types are (this list is not intended to be exhaustive):

• Research a project in a particular area 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 we expect most students to complete.

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

• Examine the structure/internals of an actual operating/distributed system.

Students need to choose a project and submit a proposal regarding its details.

Due Dates

The project has four due dates:

1.

Proposal (Due: March 30, 2001)

Each person will turn in a typed proposal (one or two pages) defining the project and explaining the work to be done. If the project is a research report students should include a list (and a copy if available) of appropriate papers.

2.

Final Project and Report (Due: May 1, 2001)

The final report should be a well-presented technical report discussing your project. All reports should include a bibliography and be roughly ten pages in length. If your project involved the gathering and reading of literature then your report should synthesize what you read and not be merely a concatenation of individual paper reviews.