1. Welcome to EECS 395/495 Networking Problems in Cloud Computing

2. Overview Administrative stuff Classes: Projects: Reading papers
Paper reviews
Presentations/debating
Project topics
Projects:
Topics / contact information

3. Course Overview Seminar class: paper reading + a big project
Each class a new paper
More on the class structure later

4. Teaching Stuff Aleksandar Kuzmanovic (akuzma@northwestern.edu),
Office Hours: by appointment
For projects:
Send an
TA:
Course coordinator: Marc Warrior

5. Prerequisites and Course Materials
Required: CS340 (Intro to computer networking)
Highly Recommended: OS or having some familiarity with Unix systems programming
No required textbook – paper reading!

6. Grading No exams for this class Class: 50% Project 50%
Paper reading summary 15%
In class paper presentation and debating 20%
Class participation and discussion (when you are not directly debating) 15%
Project 50%
Proposal 5% (up to 1 page)
Midterm report 10% (up to 5 pages)
Project presentation 15%
Final report, 10 pages, 20%
Research idea 20%
Optional, up to 3 pages, 20%

7. Communication and Policies
Web page: s16/
Group s16
Send s to the instructor for questions inappropriate in newsgroup
Paper reading summary is due by noon on Mon and Wed
Send it to me and course coordinator; You can miss one paper summary without any consequences

8. Overview Administrative stuff Classes: Projects: Topics
Paper readings and reviews
Presentations/debating
Research ideas
Projects:

9. Course Topics
I tried to pick interesting papers (breadth vs. depth), a combination of old and new papers
Cloud applications
Data-center architectures
Cloud usage
Resource sharing
Data placement
Cloud security and privacy
Software-defined networking
Energy issues in cloud computing

10. Reading papers Why read? Decide what to read
Reading for breadth: build a framework
Reading in depth: Challenge what you read
if you will lead a debate

11. Reviews
Should…
Point out the paper's contributions, strengths as well as weaknesses.
Think in terms of what makes good research?
What qualities make a good paper?
What are the potential future impacts of the work?
Note that there is no right or wrong answer to these questions
A review's quality will mainly depend on its thoughtfulness.
Restating the abstract/conclusion of the paper will not earn a top grade.

12. Writing Reviews (2)
Write a very brief summary of each paper, to be ed to me before the class (.txt please)
Summary should include:
Paper title and its author(s)
A short paragraph summary (what is this paper about?)
A paragraph of the most significant new insight(s) you took away from the paper (what is good? what is the contribution?)
A paragraph of the one or two most significant flaw(s) of the paper (what is bad?)
Explain what reference would you read next and why
Give a grade to the paper (1-5)

13. Overview Administrative stuff Classes: Projects: Topics
Paper readings and reviews
Presentations/debating
Research idea
Projects:

14. Defense (1) 30 minutes; should present as if it were his/her own
The point is to make a compelling case why the contribution is significant.
the context of the contribution,
prior work,
If an older paper: how the work has influenced the research community or industry's directions (impact)
If newer paper: arguments for the potential impact

15. Defense (2) should go well beyond a paper "summary“
The defense should not critique the work other than to try to pre-empt attacks from the offense (e.g., by explicitly limiting the scope of the contribution).
The defense should also try to look up related work to support their case

16. Offense (1) 20 minutes; Should critique the work, and make a case for
missing links, unaddressed issues, lack of impact, inappropriateness of the problem formulation, etc.
The more insightful and less obvious the criticisms the better
While the offense should prepare remarks in advance, they should also react to the points made by the defense.
Hint: The offense should also try to look up related work to support their case

17. Offense (2)
The defense and offense will be allowed follow up arguments,
The class will question either side either for clarifications or to add to the discussions and controversy and make their own points on either side.
Use Powerpoint (feel free to use existing presentations from the Web)

18. Overview Administrative stuff Classes: Projects: Topics
Paper readings and reviews
Presentations/debating
Research ideas
Projects:

19. Research Idea (1)
At the end of semester, you may hand in a research proposal
Up to 3 pages including references
Something that nobody else did before
What would you do?
How would you do it?

20. Research idea (2) Writing the research-idea documents:
What is the main idea?
Why is it important/interesting?
What is the related work?
What would you actually do?
How would you execute the idea:
Modeling, simulations, experiments?
What is the expected outcome?

21. Overview Administrative stuff Classes: Projects: Topics
Paper readings and reviews
Presentations/debating
Research idea
Projects:

22. Project Contacts
Qurat-Ul-Ann Akbar
Marc Anthony Warrior
Uri Klarman
Marcel Flores

23. Timetable
Week 2 (Monday 4/4) Find a partner, choose a topic for your project, and meet with the instructor (or get an agreement via ).
Week 3 (Monday 4/11) Write an introduction describing the problem and how you plan to approach it (what will you actually do?). Include motivation (why does the problem matter?) and related work (what have others already done about it?). 3 pages total.
Week 6 (Monday 5/2) Update your paper to include your preliminary results. 5 pages total. Midterm presentations.
Week 10 (Wednesday 6/1): Final presentations by all groups.
Week 11 (Friday 6/10) Turn in your completed paper. 10 pages total.