CS 584 Syllabus

Spring 2016

This course will cover seminal recent research papers across topics in distributed computer systems, with a focus on managing big data. Topics may include communication paradigms, process management, naming, synchronization, consistency and replication, fault tolerance, storage architectures, high-performance file systems, data provenance, and next-generation storage devices and architectures, including those at Google, Yahoo, and Amazon.  Throughout the course, we will discuss the tradeoffs made between performance, reliability, scalability, robustness, and security.  

Instructor

Prof. Avani Wildani (Dr. Will)

http://www.mathcs.emory.edu/~avani          Email: avani@mathcs.emory.edu

Office:  MSC W412                                        Office Hours: T 4-6pm, Th 9-11am + by appt         

Textbook

“Principles of Computer Systems Design: An Introduction” - Saltzer et al.        

Exercises will be assigned out of this book, and it’s a good first resource                          

Discussion

All discussion will be on Piazza at https://piazza.com/emory/spring2016/cs584/home

Grading                                                

• Participation (50%)

• Paper Summaries
• Paper Presentation
• Discussion                                                

• Class Project (50%)                                                                                          

Summary Writing Instructions                                        

A major component of this course will be the in-class discussion of papers on research in operating systems. Typically, you will need to read one paper per class; the reading list is available online, and all of the papers are available as links from the reading list. These papers should be read carefully, and a short (1-2 paragraph) summary of each article and a few questions or insightful comments about the material (at least 3 per paper) prepared for the class meeting in which the paper will be discussed. The summary of each article consists of brief answers to the following five questions, and three comments or questions about the paper (the sixth item):

1. What is the problem the authors are trying to solve
2. Why is it interesting, relevant, and/or important?
3. What other approaches or solutions existed at the time that this work was done?
4. What was wrong with the other approaches or solutions?
5. What is the authors' approach or solution, and how does it compare to earlier approaches or solutions?
6. Three or more comments/questions about the paper.                                                

Class Project

Students in the class must complete a research project in the general area of operating systems. Both a paper describing the project and a poster presentation will be required. This project should be the results of experimental research (strongly preferred) or a strong survey of prior art in a focused area.

Your project should take approximately 60–80 hours over the course of the quarter, including time to read background material, build and run your experiments, and write up your results.

If you want to work with someone else in the class on your project, you may do so with prior approval (i.e., please see me before doing this). If you work with a partner, the expectations for the scope of your project will be adjusted accordingly.

There will be checkpoints during the semester to keep you on schedule to complete your project. The checkpoints are:

• February 11th - Project proposals (1 paragraph)
• March 15th - Bibliography
• March 31st - Research plan / Implementation outline
• April 25th - Final papers + posters due

Course Schedule