A6: Students-led Paper Presentation and Discussion

Part 0: Meet your teammates and select one research paper

This is group work. First, enter your email address in this sheet and get to know your teammates if you have not already.

Next, work with your teammates to select one research paper from this list. The paper should not be any of the required reading materials for lectures or assignments. Optional readings with the “*” mark are allowed. Additionally, a few more papers are excluded in the list below. After deciding on a paper, register it in the Google sheet. Note that you cannot choose a paper already selected by another group.

You are free to select a paper outside the provided list, as long as it is related to a topic covered in this course. In this case, you must obtain the instructor’s approval.

You should complete this part by midnight November 19th. Note that November 19th is the deadline, not the date you should begin working on this project. You should start as early as possible, as the paper selection requires careful effort.

Excluded papers

  • All papers from the required readings for lectures except for optional readings
  • StackGuard @Security1998
  • SoK @Oakland2013
  • ShadowStack @AsiaCCS2015
  • Checked C@Secdev18

Start by reading the abstract. If it interests you, proceed to the introduction and skim through the framework of the paper to gain an overview. Take notes during the paper selection phase, and compare the notes to decide which paper your group will be working on.

Part 1 (15 points): Read the paper and answer questions

Read the selected paper. You can and you should discuss the paper with your teammates, as this is intended to be teamwork. However, you should answer the following questions independently.

  1. (2 points) What problem does this paper try to solve?
  2. (1 points) Why is the problem important?
  3. (6 points) What is the paper’s solution to the problem? If it is an offense paper, what is the technique to launch attacks?
  4. (2 points) What are existing solutions to this problem, and what are this paper’s strengths compared to prior work?
  5. (2 points) What are the limitations/weaknesses of ths paper’s solution/technique?
  6. (2 points) What is the key insight or take-away message of the paper?

Some papers may not present information for certain questions. If you believe this applies to your paper, you may simply write “N/A” for the question.

Part 2: (10 points) In-class paper presentation

Work with your teammates to create slides for the paper. The slides should at least include the following sections:

  • Background on the problem
  • (Optional) Background on the techniques used by the paper
  • Core solution proposed by the paper to the problem
  • Evaluation of the solution
  • Conclusion

Of course, you are free to add more materials. The presentation should be approximately 30 minutes (no more than 35 minutes) without Q & A. Other students and the instructor will ask questions during and after your presentation.

Division of labor

You are free to divide the work of creating slides and delivering the in-class presentation as agreed upon by all team members. For example, you may evenly divide both the slides creation and the presentation, or have one or two students take the lead of the presentation, while assigning them less responsibility in creating the slides. However, each group should have at least 2 students present the slides.

Teamwork evaluation (2 points)

As this is a group project, it is important that everyone contributes equally. Each team member will confidentially report on their other team members based on their contribution to the project. Each team member will use the following scale:

  • Excellent (2)
  • Satisfactory (1.5)
  • Needs improvement (1)
  • Unsatisfactory (0.5)
  • No contribution (0)

Grading

Part 1 will be graded individually for each student.

For part 2, everyone in the same group will receive the same points for the slides and presentation (8 points in total); so be responsible and responsive to your teammates.

What you need to submit

Register your selected paper by November 19th and submit your work through Blackboard by 3:30pm December 1st. Each student should submit a PDF with their answers to the questions in Part 1 and teamwork evaluation for each other teammate. In addition, each group should submit a PDF copy of their slides, along with one page of explanation on the division of labor for slides creation and and in-class presentation. Attach the labor division explanation to the beginning of the slides. Note that each group only needs to submit one copy of the slides, and no updates to the in-class presentation slides will be allowed after submission.