Term Paper

General Information

The main body of term paper should be no longer than 10 pages in IEEE Transactions Format, single column, excluding references and appendices. Only the first 10 pages (plus the list of references) will be read for marking. Appendices will not be taken into account for marking papers, and should be used to provide supplementary material.

Papers will be evaluated on the quality of the idea originality, the implementation of the idea, and the quality of the writing.

Students are encouraged to use the term paper template: MS-Word, LaTeX.

Group Formation Rules

  1. Students form groups by themselves. Teaching staff does not assign students to groups.
  2. You should work in a small group of 1-4 students. If you have trouble finding project partners please use the term project discussion topic on the course discussion forum to find students seeking teammates.
  3. Each group could have no more than one PhD student.
  4. PhD students, if they want, can do their term projects individually. However, they should do all group assignments in groups formed according to the above rules.

Evaluation of the Team Members

See the course syllabus.

Types of Papers

Any term paper must be in either one of these categories:

  1. Design papers attempt to solve some interesting problem by proposing a design; implementing a prototype; and using the implementation as a basis for evaluating the proposed system architecture. In a good design project, the authors have:
    • addressed a significant problem
    • devised an interesting and practical solution
    • clearly described what they have and have not implemented
    • demonstrated the benefits of their solution
    • articulated the advances beyond previous work
    • drawn appropriate conclusions

2. Analysis papers might, for example, study some previously-proposed implementation technique, existing system, or class of systems; evaluate its security properties; find flaws, or strengths, in it; and provide new insight into how to build secure systems.

3. Survey Papers

4. Implementation Papers

Term Paper Topics

The topic should be relevant to cyber security and privacy, but this will be interpreted broadly. You are encouraged to find topics of interest to you; feel free to be creative in selecting a paper topic. You’re welcome to pick a topic that is connected to your research or technical interests.

Instructions for paper proposals.

Hints For Writing Your Project Report and Giving Your Talk at the End of the Course