Reproduction Project

REPRODUCTION PROJECT (50%)

Working in teams of two, you will reproduce a key result from a published networking systems paper and write a structured critical assessment informed by that experience.

Reproducing research results lets you gain a detailed, in-depth understanding of an important paper, the research area and underlying concepts, and its key results. You concentrate your energy on the most rewarding part of the research effort — building a prototype or experimental framework and carrying out the experiments — knowing that the problem is interesting and can deliver.

You will start by selecting a paper you are interested in learning more about. After choosing a paper and sketching the idea of your project (what part of the work you want to reproduce and how you may go about it), you are strongly encouraged to contact the original authors, informing them of your intended project and asking for advice and suggestions. We will be happy to help you with this.

Inspired by Stanford CS244 and the Reproducing Network Research blog.

THE CRITIQUE SECTION

The final report must include a dedicated critique section (~2 pages) grounded in what you found during reproduction. Address:

  1. Claim fidelity. Which claims held up? Which could not be verified, and why?
  2. Hidden conditions. What must be true for the result to hold that the paper does not state explicitly?
  3. Underspecification. What did the authors leave ambiguous, and how did you resolve it?
  4. Generalizability. Does the result extend beyond the paper’s specific setup?
  5. Reviewer’s assessment. Knowing what you now know, what would you ask the authors to change?

A reproduction that succeeds but reveals underspecified conditions is just as valuable as one where the result fails to replicate.

DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES

DeliverableDue
Team formationWeek 1 Thu
Paper selection + project proposalWeek 3 Tue
In-class proposal pitch (5 min)Week 4 Thu
Midpoint reportWeek 6 Tue
Final report (incl. critique section)Week 9 Thu
Project presentationsFinals Week

Format: 6 pages max, HotNets format, appendices allowed.