LECTURE 1: COURSE INTRODUCTION Xiaowei Yang

Roadmap Why should you take the course? Who should take this course? Course organization Course work Grading policy Break Introduce yourself Tell me more about your expectations How to read papers The question-answer approach The three pass approach

Why should you take this class? 1. Learning new technology trends Cloud computing, datacenter networks, social networks, network security, etc. 2. Helping you find an exciting research project 3. Discussing other cool ideas with your fellow students and the instructor

Who should take this class? A short answer Anyone whos interested in the stuff But seriously Have time to read the assigned readings before coming to class Have time for a course project

Course organization Meet twice a week Assigned readings for each class Lecture or Class presentation Students may sign up for them Discussion The most important/fun part

Course work Reading assignments Midterm A course project Individual, group of 2~3 I will provide suggestions E.g., a cloud application

Grading Policy Class participation and presentation: 15% Midterm: 15% Project: 70%

Break Introduce yourself Your expectations

HOW TO READ RESEARCH PAPERS

Reading papers effectively is challenging Written in a condensed style Assuming much prior knowledge Written for a different purpose than being course materials You have limited time

Learning how to read papers effectively is important Life-time long skill of self-learning New knowledge is likely to show up in research papers

How to read paper effectively 1. Know what you should get out of the papers 2. Know where to find them

Structure of a paper Introduction Motivation Outline the solution Body Solutions in detail Evaluation to show the solutions are valid Conclusion Recap Emphasize primary contributions

Questions to answer 1. What are the motivations for this work? People problem: broader impact on society Saved time, increased safety Technical problem Why is the people problem difficult? Why are previous solutions inadequate? Research problem: what the paper addresses

Questions to answer 2. What is the proposed solution? A hypothesis Why is it believed to solve the problem Why is it better than previous solutions Design and implementation

Questions to answer 3. Whats the works evaluation to the proposed solution What argument, implementation, and/or experiment shows the solutions better? What benefits/problems are identified?

Questions to answer 4. What is your analysis of the identified problem, solution, and evaluation? Is it a good idea? Flaws? Controversial? Practical? 5. What are the contributions? Insights on the research question, ideas, software, experimental techniques, … 6. What are the future directions? 7. What questions are you left with?

Questions to answer 8. Whats your take-away message? Try to sum up the paper in one sentence from your own perspective

Answers Write your own abstract Or annotate the paper

Lets answer those questions for the 2 nd paper 1. What are the motivations for this work? 2. What is the proposed solution? 3. Whats the works evaluation to the proposed solution 4. What is your analysis of the identified problem, solution, and evaluation? 5. What are the contributions? 6. What are the future directions? 7. What questions are you left with? 8. Whats your take-away message?

Summary Course introduction How to read papers Next lecture Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing