The project is a paper and a class presentation on a topic of your choosing.

Proposal

You submit a proposal for a topic that briefly discusses why you want to work on this topic, the sources you will use for your research, and what you will cover in the presentation.  Note that "How It Works" is a main focus of this course, so you should include that in your paper and talk.

Send your proposal to project@csci6433.org.  As usual, put the proposal into the body of the email, do not send attachments.

Topic

The topic needs to be related to Internet protocols, not be something covered in class, and it needs to deal with how something works, which is the focus of the course. You should include discussion of the future of the technology you talk about vs. the alternatives that compete with it.

Any time you come across a topic of interest you can submit a proposal. Once it's approved you can start work on your project. Your request for approval should be sent to project@csci233.org. Please include a description of the topic, sources you will use for research, why you are interested in this topic.

Length

The papers should be long enough to cover the project in reasonable detail. The goal is to have short papers that cover the material, not lengthy recitations of unnecessary details. As a target, five pages is a good length, but the topic might need more discussion, or perhaps even less. Figures tend to add to the length of a paper.  So "five pages" here is not an upper limit, but is offered as an answer to the question "How long should my paper be."

The class presentations are limited to 15 minutes, allowing 5 minutes for discussion. As a guideline, if you do two minutes per chart you can cover 5 charts. Use your discretion on how many charts you use, but experience shows that students who have many more than 5 charts typically don't finish their presentations.

Submission

Papers are to be submitted as a pdf attached to an email. You can make a pdf using PDF Creator, which is a free open source program.

The Syllabus shows a due date for your project topic, but you can submit your choice earlier if you wish.