Communication

Ed discussion is intended for all announcements, general questions about the course, clarifications about assignments, student questions to each other, discussions about the material, and so on.

Canvas is used for submitting paper reviews, project reports, and warm-up assignments.

Course Organization

Paper reading response
The reading list is posted on the schedule page. You are required to post a response to Canvas by 11:59PM the day before the class. The response includes a short summary of each paper, and your opinion of the paper. Here’s an example outline:

  • What is the problem being solved?
  • Why is it a new/interesting problem?
  • What are the key technical insights of the solution?
  • What are a few potential limitations of the current solution?
  • What are a few potential next problems to be solved in this direction?

In-class paper discussion
Students will take turns lead the paper discussion in classes. Presentation slides are encouraged. Student will keep the discussion moving along by providing necessary context and background of the paper. After you present, please upload your slides or any materials to Canvas.

Warmup Assignment The goal of this warmup assignment is to familiarize you with CloudLab, so that you may use it as an experimentation platform for your research project. You will analyze the overheads of different network stacks (Linux’s, RDMA, and DPDK) by measuring round-trip times (RTTs) and throughput between two servers.

Research project
The course project is an open-ended research project, done in groups of one, two or three. A list of potential project will be posted. Students must provide following:

  • Project proposal: a 1–2 page description of the proposed problem, related work, and the solution idea. The proposal must also include a biweekly project timeline.

  • Midterm checkpoint: students will meet with the instructor to discuss the concrete research problem, and progress to date. No written report is required.

  • Final report: a conference-style paper (use the provided template), e.g., with sections such as Introduction, Motivation, Related Work, Design, Implementation, and Evaluation for research-track submissions.

The course will provide cloudlab resources for experiments, and students can also discuss with Jiaxin if they need help with accessing other hardware/software resources.

Grading

  • Paper reading response (20%)
  • In-class paper presentation (15%)
  • Warmup assignment (10%)
  • Research project with a final presentation and reports (45%)
  • In-class discussion participation (10%)

Letter grade assignments

  • 100-93%: A
  • 92.99-90%: A-
  • 89.99-87%: B+
  • 86.99-83%: B
  • 82.99-80%: B-
  • 79.99-77%: C+
  • 76.99-73%: C
  • 72.99-70%: C-
  • 69.99-67%: D+
  • 66.99-63%: D
  • 62.99-60.01%: D-
  • 60-0%: F

Course Policies

Academic integrity
Each student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit will be the student’s own work. The policy can be found on the university’s website here: https://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/academic-integrity/ You are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in lecture and the sections with other students. You can give “consulting” help to or receive “consulting” help from such students. However, this permissible cooperation should never involve one student having possession of a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an email, an e-mail attachment file, or a hard copy. Should copying occur, both the student who copied work from another student and the student who gave material to be copied will both automatically receive a zero for the assignment. Penalty for violation of this Code can also be extended to include failure of the course and University disciplinary action

Excused absences and late submissions
Each student has two late passes. Each pass allows one assignment to be submitted up to 24 hours late without penalty. If, for any reason, you need to miss class, please get in touch with me at least 3 days in advance (unless it is an emergency), and we will find a way to ensure your class participation and reading response grade won’t be affected.

Services for students with disabilities
Your access in this course is important. Please give the instructor your Student Disability Services (SDS) accommodation letter early in the semester so that we have adequate time to arrange your approved academic accommodations. If you need an immediate accommodation for equal access, please speak with me after class or send an email message to me and/or SDS at sds_cu@cornell.edu. If the need arises for additional accommodations during the semester, please contact SDS. You may also feel free to speak with Student & Academic Affairs at Cornell Tech who will connect you with the university SDS office.

Sharing of course materials is prohibited
No materials used in this class that are produced by the instructor or by students may be shared online or with anyone outside of the class without my written permission. Unauthorized sharing of materials may facilitate cheating. The University is aware of the sites used for sharing materials, and any materials found online that are associated with you or any suspected unauthorized sharing of materials will be reported to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students. These reports can result in the initiation of the student conduct process and include charge(s) for academic misconduct, potentially resulting in sanctions, including a grade impact.