Topics

latest security hacks, reverse engineering, scripting language design, programming tools for finding errors, large operating system development, open-source software, large-scale web applications.

Coursework

papers

Papers may be handed out before or after talks. Students are required to read papers 'before lecture. Students will also have a chance to discuss what they learn among themselves as well. Papers will also serve as resource for write-ups and the final project.

write-ups

For each lecture, a single group of 1-2 students from the class will be responsible for creating a write-up for the lecture. These write-ups will posted on the web page, and will serve as an information resource for other students as well as others not directly participating in the class.

Students will create the write-up by directly editing a wiki page (on this website) that is provided by the TA. We employ the same wiki software used by Wikipedia. The syntax for editing wiki pages is fairly straightforward, and some comprehensive documentation on editing is available online.

When creating the write-up, students will be expected to augment the information in their write-ups with links to outside resources that relate to the presented material (see example write-ups). Students are also encouraged to engage the speaker directly with follow-up questions to complete the write-up. In a sense, the write-up consists of both detailed note-taking from the talk as well a synthesis of content to glue the ideas discussed in the lecture together. To help encourage direct interaction with the speaker, students performing the write-up will usually have the chance to go out to lunch with speaker after class.

Final Project

A paper describing the result of your research in some topic of your choice. You may choose to do some programming, interviewing, paper reading, paper writing. It is up to you. (More details pending)