The course project is an opportunity to apply software security skills to new settings. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate that you can synthesize skills from the class and apply them to a new domain. You will be graded primarily by how well you do thinking about problems, understanding the issues involved, formulating a research plan, and executing on your plan. While many students choose to explore new (i.e., publishable) ideas, you can also do quite well by analyzing, evaluating, and understanding the limits and key concepts of existing research.
The first checkpoint for the course project is to prepare a project proposal. The main purpose of the proposal is for you to commit to a particular project, and think in-depth about what are all the steps that must be accomplished by the end of the semester. One way to think of the proposal is as a contract: after we discuss the proposal and timeline and everything is accepted, if you complete the steps in the timeline, accomplish the goals in the proposal, and write up and present your project weel, you will receive an A on the project.
The proposal should consists of two parts: an introduction to the problem, and a timeline for executing your research. The introduction should be prepared using LaTeX using the template provided on the resources page. The timeline should include steps in as much detail as possible, as well as an explanation when they will be done.
I have found no better way to write an introduction that to follow the advice offered by Jennifer Widom's Tips for Writing a Technical Paper on the resources page. I stress that the proposal should look like the introduction to a research paper such as you have read in class. It should be clear, to the point, and proofread, and well-written. A well-written report will follow the advice from "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White, e.g., you should use the active voice, make each paragraph a single idea, and so on. Further, you should make sure everything you say is correct. While this might seem like it goes without saying, it is very easy to write something you do not mean to say. Again, proofread.
The timeline should include what you will have for each of the project checkpoints, as listed on the schedule, as well as natural, major checkpoints within the scope of the idea.
| Team 1 | Aditya Kali | Rohit Vaswani | Chinmay Joshi | |
| Team 2 | Tim Vidas | Benjamin Mushabe | M.K. Aditya | |
| Team 3 | Anand Poovekurussi | Shishir Yadav | Anusha Nagarajan | |
| Team 4 | Arif Patel | Karan Sheth | Shreyas Udgaonkar | |
| Team 5 | Nishant Dubey | Radhika Karandikar | Mira Thambireddy | |
| Team 6 | Shahriyar Amini | Jason Kong | ||
| Team 7 | Thanassis Avgerinos | Hardik Doshi | Gautam Iyer | |
| Team 8 | Keying Bi | Ruo-Jian Yu | Shao-Yu Wu | |
| Team 9 | Samer Abukheit | Manan Patel |
Presentations will be given on 12/2 (normal place and time, 2 teams) and 12/8 (SH 125, 1pm-4pm). Everyone is expected to be at all presentations.
The presentation order has been determined by a random permutation generator. The order is:
- Team 1
- Team 2
- Team 3
- Team 7
- Team 8
- Team 4
- Team 5
- Team 6
All presenters should upload their slides to blackboard's dropbox before class on the day they present. All presentations have 20 minutes, followed by up to 10 minutes of questions and answers. All students will also fill out feedback forms for all presentations, which will be distributed at the beginning of class.
Please check the resources page for tips on giving effective presentations. The feedback from you will be evaluated with by other students is here.