CPSC 601.40: Foundations of Access Control

Winter 2012

Prerequisite

There is no explicit prerequisite for the course. Students, however, are expected to have a graduate level of mathematical maturity, and feel comfortable working with abstract formalisms.

Marking Scheme

Syllabus and Reading Materials

There is no textbook for this course. Materials are mainly taken from research publications. The syllabus and reading materials of this course can be found at the following link:

CPSC 601.40: Syllabus and Reading List

The part of the course on Formal Logic is partly based on the following reference:

Michael Huth and Mark Ryan. Logic in Computer Science: Modelling and Reasoning about Systems (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press, 2004. Mnemonic: H&R.

A copy of this book has been placed on reserve in the University Library.

Tentative Lecture Plan

The course is mostly lecture based, except for those classes in which students take turn to present course materials (see below).

Students are expected to have read the papers cited in the reading list prior to attending a lecture.

Lecture slides will be posted at the course web site as the course progresses.

Presentations (20%)

Each student is expected to take up the presentation of one or more topics. A tentative plan is to have each student take up one lecture. During the first few weeks of the class, students may sign up for a preferred topic.

The topics of presentation must be taken from the lecture topics that have been marked as "Student presentation".

Consult the articles surveyed in the following document for guidelines on research presentations.

Philip W. L. Fong. Presentation Guidelines for CS Students: A Survey.

Term Project (80% = 6% + 14% + 20% + 40%)

A major component of coursework is a term project. The term project is staged into multiple deliverables: pre-proposal, paper reviews, project proposal and project report. The project topic must be approved by the instructor.

The following deliverables are expected from students.

1. Project Pre-proposal (6%)
   Due Sunday, Feb 12, 11:59 PM (midnight).

   The role of the project pre-proposal is analogous to a Letter of Intent to Apply for a Grant: a pre-proposal outlines a preliminary research topic, and argues why it is appropriate to undertake the proposed project in the context of this course. The intention is that this component helps students identify a project topic.

   The student is free to formulate his or her project topic, so long as it is approved by the instructor. A list of recommended project topics (with a good success probability and publication opportunity) can be found at the following link:

   CPSC 601.40: Suggested Project Topics (To be posted)

   The pre-proposal should be formatted using the ACM SIG Proceedings Template (Option 1), in no more than two US Letter pages in total. The use of Latex and Bibtex is highly recommended.

   The pre-proposal shall address the following questions:

   • What is the research problem? Why is it significant?

   • What approach is proposed to address this problem?

   • What are the anticipated results?

   • Why is the research topic relevant to this course? Do so by identifying the expected learning experiences generated by the project, and arguing that they match the learning objectives of the course.

   • What are two research papers that the student plans to review as key related work for this project (see below for the criteria of paper selection)? Identify other key related work if possible.

   The submission package shall include both the pre-proposal and the two research papers proposed to be reviewed.

   To facilitate the approval of project topic, it the student shall schedule a meeting with the instructor prior to the submission of the pre-proposal.

2. Paper Reviews (14%)
   Due Sunday, Feb 24, 11:59 PM Sunday, March 4, 11:59 PM (midnight).

   The goal of this component is to help students gain an in-depth understanding of key related work for the proposed project topic.

   Students are expected to write 2 paper reivews. Each review shall cover a research paper that is a key related work for the project to be undertaken by the student. It is expected that the two papers are the ones identified in the student's pre-proposal and subsequently approved by the instructor.

   The papers reviewed shall not be technically trivial. That rules out all papers that are shorter than 10 pages. A good heuristic is that if the paper contains mostly words and few mathematical formalisms, it probably is a trivial paper.

   Guidelines on the format of paper reviews, as well as a marking scheme, is given in the following article:

   Philip W. L. Fong. How to Read a Computer Science Research Paper? Inroads -- SIGCSE Bulletin, 41(2):138-140, June 2009.

3. Project proposal (20%)
   Due Sunday, March 11, 11:59 PM Sunday, March 25, 11:59 PM (midnight).

   The goal of proposal writing is to assist students in carefully thinking though the project details, and devising a work plan for the project. A good proposal should read almost like an interim report.

   Consult the following document for guidelines and marking scheme.

   Philip W. L. Fong. Guidelines on Writing Term Project Proposals.

   Format: The proposal should be formatted using the ACM SIG Proceedings Template (Option 1 or 2), in no more than six US Letter pages in total (excluding bibliography and any appendices). The use of Latex and Bibtex is highly recommended.

4. Project report (40%)
   
   Due Wednesday, Apr 25.

   Consult the following bibliography on how to write a computer science research paper.

   Philip W. L. Fong. How to Write a CS Research Paper: A Bibliography.

   Format: The project report should be formatted using the ACM SIG Proceedings Template (Option 1 or 2), in 10 US Letter pages excluding the bibliography and any well-marked appendices, and 12 pages in total. The appendices will not be graded, and so the paper should be intelligible without them. The use of Latex and Bibtex is highly recommended.

Administrative Policies

The following apply to the submission of pre-proposal, paper reviews, project proposal and project report.

• Please submit your work electornically (i.e., by email) as PDF files.

• Unless stated otherwise, submissions are due at noon.

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