Term Paper

Each student has to work on a term paper in this course. Term papers should be technical in nature, appropriate for an audience knowledgeable in computer security (at the graduate level). The length of the term paper should be about 5000 words (15 pages single column, single line spacing 12pt font, with 1 inch margins).

Term paper organization format (Minimum requirements)

The final term paper should have an abstract of about 300 words that summarizes (i) the motivation for the work and (ii) the contributions made. It should be followed by a list of keywords. The Introduction section should begin by elaborating on the motivation. Next comes an overview of your work followed by summary of contributions made. The last paragraph of the introduction should describe how the rest of the term paper is organized. A required section in the term paper should be called Related Work that should describe some of the published works on the same topic. The term paper should also have a Conclusion section that (i) summarizes the term paper and (ii) indicates what are some of the avenues of future work along the lines of the term paper. Last but not the least the term paper should contain a set of references.

If you are new to technical writing or would like to brush up your skills, here is an excellent document to  help you, courtesy of Professor H.J. Siegel  of C.S.U's ECE department.

Once you have picked a topic that sounds interesting, search for publications in the related area at the main computer security venues:

Term paper / Term project Evaluation

The term paper will be evaluated on its technical merit and depth, description of and comparison with related work, originality and presentation, as is typically done in peer-reviewed conferences and journals.

Other Requirements

The student shall work individually on the term paper. The student shall identify a topic by the end of the second week of classes (please refer to the course web page under schedule for important deadlines). The student shall discuss the topic with the instructor before starting work on it. A two page abstract of the term paper is due by the end of the fourth week. This abstract should adequately motivate the topic and describe the work to be performed for the term paper. Some intial references (about 5) should also be included in the two page writeup.

Term papers should be submitted electronically by email to the instructor in PDF format.