ANNOUNCEMENTS
Remember to check this (and Canvas) regularly!
- Quick links: DSCE 2022 | Canvas | Campuswire
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Fabián E. Bustamante
Seely Mudd, 3rd Floor +1 847 491-2745 fabianb@cs…
LOCATION AND TIME
Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays 3:30-4:50PM Tech Institute Lecture Room 4 Professor Office Hours: by appointment
CATALOG DESCRIPTION
This seminar reviews interesting ideas and ongoing projects that are pushing distributed systems into new and challenging domains. The class is structured as a traditional seminar with readings, class discussion and a quarter-long research project.
COURSE PREREQUISITES
CS 340 “Intro to Computer Networking” or CS 345 “Distributed Systems”.
If you have taken similar courses somewhere else or have not taken any of these courses, but would like to register for this seminar, please contact me.
In compliance with Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Americans withDisabilities Act, Northwestern University is committed to providing equal access to all programming. Students with disabilities seeking accommodations are encouraged to contact the office of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at +1 847 467-5530 or ssd@northwestern.edu. SSD is located in the basement of Scott Hall. Additionally, I am available to discuss disability-related needs during office hours or by appointment.
This class will review cool ideas and ongoing projects that are pushing distributed systems into new and challenging domains. This year the course will focus on the Internet’s own challenging environment, from connectivity and censorship to natural disasters and environmental impact.
The class consists of two major components: reading and reviewing papers and doing a research project on your own. For the research part of the course, you will team up to work on a research project throughout the quarter and either reproduce a result from a networking/distributed systems paper or work on an original research project in the area.
TOPICS
- Connecting everyone and remaining connected
- A changing, sometimes disappearing network
- Centralization, from infrastructure to services and applications
- Privacy, security and censorship
- Environmental impact and natural disasters
COURSE ORGANIZATION
The course is organized as a series of paper discussions and a single term-long project.
Most class meetings will be centered around one or two paper presentations and discussions. You should read each paper before coming to class and be prepared to discuss it.
I will post a question in Canvas about each paper 24hr before class. Your answer need only be long enough to demonstrate that you understand the paper. I will check your answers to make sure they make sense and they will count for part of the paper discussion grade. Please make sure to post your answers as private!
The class will run as a mini-conference with you as the Program Committee member. We will use the papers included in the schedule as our set of submissions. Each of you will write reviews for 3-4 of them. We will discuss the papers online and, a subset of them, in a single PC meeting (near the end of the quarter) to decide what paper “should be accepted” for publication.
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
There are a number of communication channels set up for this class:
- We will use the course web site and Canvas to post announcements related to the course. You should check this regularly for schedule changes, clarifications and corrections to assignments, and other course-related announcements.- There is always email for questions that would be inappropriate to post on the newsgroup/discussion-board. When using email to contact the staff please start your subject line with “DSCE: helpful-comment” to ensure a prompt response.
GRADING
I use a criterion-referenced method to assign your grade; in other words, your grade will be based on how well you do relative to predetermined performance levels, instead of in comparison with the rest of the class. Thus, if a test has 100 possible points, anyone with a score of 90 or greater will get an A, those with scores of 80 or greater will get a B, those with scores of 70 or greater will get a C, and so on. Notice that this means that if everyone works hard and gets >90, everyone gets an A.
Total scores (between 0 and 100) will be determined, roughly, as follows:
- Paper discussion participation (and questions) 15%- Paper review and PC meeting participation 25%- Paper presentation 20%- Project 40%