Course pages 2011–12

Advanced Topics in Computer Systems

For most of this course you'll be expected to read 2-3 papers per week and provide a review in a particular format. You need to submit at least one review every week, and in total you need to submit 10. Of course you may submit more than 10, in which case your overall grade will be based on the best of these. My suggestion is that, each week, you first read each paper in outline, and then choose two of those to write reviews for. On topics you are less interested (or where the material is more challenging), write just one review. Each review should be less than 1,000 words (and can be considerably shorter): there is advice in-line in the review form about what is expected for each section.

The reviews are due by 4pm on the Tuesday prior to the class. I will aim to get them marked and returned to student admin within 2 days, but due to processing, it is unlikely they will be back in your hands in time for the class. In addition, for the weeks marked with a *, I will be travelling, and hence there will be an additional delay in getting things returned.

• Assignment 1 due 4pm Tuesday 11th October
• Assignment 2 due 4pm Tuesday 18th October
• Assignment 3 due 4pm Tuesday 25th October (*)
• Assignment 4 due 4pm Tuesday 1st November (*)
• Assignment 5 due 4pm Tuesday 8th November
• Assignment 6 due 4pm Tuesday 15th November
• Assignment 7 due 4pm Tuesday 22nd November

Reviews will be graded out of 100, with 60 corresponding to a passing grade. Be sure to familiarize yourself with the University's rules on plagiarism, as this is one sure way to attain a failing grade ;-)

In previous years, marks were also awarded for presentations. However to simplify things, this is no longer the case. Nonetheless, at the end of course it would be much appreciated if you would forward me copies of any presentations so that I can put them on the web page as examples for next year's class.