Introduction

This course primarily centers around learning OS design internals and conducting research in operating systems, with the key component structured as a final project. A successful project should entail a novel contribution, avoiding mere replication of existing systems or ideas. It’s permissible if your project aligns with your graduate research, as long as it intersects with the course themes.

Collaboration is essential; projects should be undertaken in pairs. Assessment of projects will encompass a final presentation, such as a video demonstration, along with a comprehensive project write-up.

Milestones

  • Project Proposal (9/15 11:59pm): Share a brief proposal describing your project idea, how you plan to evaluate it, and your teammate.

  • Midterm Project Report (11/3 11:59pm): Share your project report, focusing on the design and implementation of your system, an initial evaluation, etc.

  • Final Project Report and demo (TBD): Send us a complete version of your write up, including improvements upon the draft plus an evaluation of your system.

Proposal (DDL: 9/15 11:59pm)

The proposal should be sent to instructor via Email with the subject line “CS5204: Project Proposal.” by 11:59pm on 9/15.

In your proposal, please provide concise explanations for the following:

  1. The overarching question you intend to address.
  2. The context, background, and significance of the problem.
  3. A high-level overview of your proposed solutions to tackle the issue.
  4. A timeline outlining key milestones for project completion.
  5. An evaluation plan detailing metrics, approaches, and experiments for validating your design.
  6. Your anticipated outcomes and expected results.

Please utilize the LaTeX template available at this link for your proposal, midterm report, and final report. The proposal should be no more than 2 pages.

If your project has any connection to (Operating) Systems, that’s perfectly fine with me. This way, you won’t have to invest extra time in starting a completely new project, which might not be very realistic to accomplish. Your system/OS hacking skills will naturally improve through the ongoing labs throughout the semesters, and these labs will serve as a bridge between the theoretical knowledge imparted in lectures.

Project Midterm Report (DDL: 11/3 11:59pm)

Please submit your report via Email addressed to huaicheng@cs.vt.edu, with a title “CS5204: Midterm Report”, attach your pdf report, by 11:59pm on 11/3.

Please use the latex template you used for the proposal.

  1. Problem statement: what is the specific question you’re try to tackle
  2. Recap of your high-level steps you plan to approach your solution and clear statement of where you’re NOW in terms of the proposed timeline/milestone
  3. Detailed write-up about your achieve so far, including but not limited to:
    • The functionalities/design you have implemented or getting close to be done with
    • The initial results if any (figures, tables, etc.)
    • What’s the experimental setup? workloads? results?
  4. Initial conclusions

Project Final Report (DDL: 12/10 11:59pm)

You need to submit (1). a 6-page final report for your course project, and (2). link to a 10-15min recorded video.

Please submit your report via Email addressed to huaicheng@cs.vt.edu, with a title “CS5204: Final Report”, attach your pdf report and video presentation link, by 11:59pm on 12/10.

Please use our latex template you used for the proposal.

Please write your final paper in the format of research papers that you present in class.

Project Ideas

You’re welcome to choose your own project ideas. If not, please schedule a meeting with the instructor to figure out one.