CSC 400 Graduate Problem Seminar: Assignments

First, internalize the problem...
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The assignments will be posted here after the day's class,
along with the due date.
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date.
In general, no credit will be allowed for for late assignments.
Turn what you have in in for partial credit.
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For any assignment, I expect a well organized
report-style writeup that describes in detail what you did, why you did it,
and what the results were. This includes negative results.
Scratch work and computer code, if requested should be appended to the main
writeup with appropriate pointers.
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Attribute ANY work that is not your own, including software off the
web, text cribbed from other sources, etc.
You are encouraged to look for resources, but not to the extent that
it negates the point of the assignment.
This is sometimes a fine line, especially in programming assignments.
I will try to be specific as to what I expect you to write
as a minimum. If in doubt, ask.
In any case, use of UN-attributed material is plagiarism, and a violation
of the University's academic honesty policy.
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You are encouraged to discuss general techniques and specific approaches
to general problems with your fellow students, or anyone else.
Unless specifically directed in an assignment, however, you are not to
share code you have written, or your written solutions to specific
problems.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
- Class activity: Introductory material, Survey forms.
- Assignment: Create your department web page and put a picture of
yourself on it. You are responsible for finding out how to do this.
Try asking other students, staff about web pages, Marty, vision
students about pics).
Make a version of your picture that is 128 pixels high in jpg format
and copy it to /u/nelson/pics/faces/csc_400_fall_2007 under the name
first_last_128.jpg (e.g. bob_smith_128.jpg).
The directory should be writeable.
Due: Friday, September 7, 2007.
Friday, September 7, 2007
- Class activity: The game of
PLAUSIBILITY.
- Assignment:
Estimation problems.
Handed out in class. The problems listed here prior to the
assignmewnt date may not be the ones actually assigned, but they'll give
you the flavor of the assignment.
Note that these are estimates, so don't give me answers containing
6 significant figures (unless somehow you actually know all the
quantities involved to that accuracy).
Consider providing an indication of the accuracy of your answer.
If you want more fun, consider the following collections.
More estimation problems.
And more estimation problems.
Still more estimation problems.
And even more estimations problems..
Due Wednesday, September 12, 2007. Be prepared to present your solution
to the class.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
- Class activity: Presentation of estimation problem solutions.
- Assignment:
ITRG Miniproposals
Due: Wednesday, September 19, 2007.
Friday, September 14, 2007
- Class activity: Presentation of estimation problem solutions cont.
- Assignment: Prepare 5 minute talk on your
ITRG Miniproposals
Due: Wednesday, September 19 (Pushed to Friday September 21) , 2007.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
- Class activity: Presentation of estimation problem solutions cont.
- Assignment: Find (on the web or elsewhere), read, and understand
the entire Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998
(Final Joint version of House Resolution 2281, also known as Public
Law 105-304). This is not a short document, so you should get busy over
the weekend.
Then prepare reports (written and for presentation) as specified in
DMCA Issues Research
Due: Wednesday, Oct 3, 2007 (presentation and written report)
Friday, September 28, 2007
- Class activity: Parallel puzzle processing experiment.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
- Class activity: DMCA presentations and discussion.
- In preparation for an assignment to be given next Friday, find out
what you can about the crypt function (used for password encryption on
unix/linux). The assignment will involve a password cracking competition
where use of parallel computing resources may be to your advantage
(and there may be competition for these resources).
Friday, October 5, 2007
- Class activity: DMCA presentations and discussion Cont..
- Assignment:
Password cracking competition
Note that the passwords in the assignment prior to Oct. 5 are not what will
be assigned.
Due, Wednesday, October 10, 2007.
The Solution
- Assignment: Individual project proposal.
You should, by now, have identified a potential 400 project and advisor.
Write up the proposed project in a sort document; a couple of pages should
be sufficient at this point. However, you should put down specific goals that
are reasonable to accomplish in the time permitted, and discuss how you
will evaluate the outcome of your project.
As mentioned in class, survey papers are not acceptable, nor are
overly broad areas such as "look at new approaches to resolving P !=? NP"
or "software cache coherance in shared memory multiprocessors".
We will have project proposal presentations beginning Oct 17,
so be prepared.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
- Class activity: Password cracking presentations and discussion.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
- Class activity:
Presentation of initial individual project proposals.
We will not get through them all, as I want there to be time for discussion,
but we will make a start.
Friday, October 19, 2007
- Class activity: Meet your professors:
Kai Shen.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
- Class activity:
Presentation of initial individual project proposals cont.
- Assignment: Look at the descriptions for the team projects.
Find out which project you are on, but read the description of all of them.
Hold a preliminary meeting with your group.
Come to class 2 weeks from today
prepared to participate in a discussion of the project design: potential
issues, modifications, strategies, adequacy of resources, etc.
This year's projects have not yet been set. Following are some projects that
have been used in previous years.
This year's projects may be from the list, or they may be drawn from
the ITRG proposals, if there are any that would make a good team project.
Semantic internet access
Personalized bus sytem
Friday, October 26, 2007
- Class activity: Meet your professors:
Chris Pal.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
- Class activity:
Team Project discussion.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
- Class activity: Group project updates/discussion
Friday, November 16, 2007
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Friday, November 23, 2007
Wednesday November 28, 2007
- Class activity: Group project updates/discussion
Friday, November 30, 2007
- Class activity: Meet your professors:
TBA.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Friday, December 7, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
- Class activity: TBA. Last official day of class
Friday, December 14, 2007
- Special Class: Project Presentations. Meet in room 632 at 9:00 AM.
Monday, December 17, 2007
- Possible Special Class: Meet in room 632 at 9:00 AM.
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