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(CS/EE 146) Advanced networking: Green IT

Course details

The course meets TR 2:30-3:55pm in Annenberg 213.

Course Description

CS/EE 146 is a topics course in networking and this is the version is offered in Spring 2011. Our focus will be on energy-efficient designs of computer systems at all levels: including data centers, speed scaling, routing, storage, etc.

Instructor

Adam Wierman, adamw@caltech.edu

Teaching Assistant

Zhenhua Liu, zliu2@caltech.edu

Course structure

This will be a research oriented course and the organization will be focused around reading papers. During each class we will plan to have a presentation and discussion of 2 related papers. A student will give the presentation and lead the discussion, though I'll help to promote discussion.

Every student is expected to have read the papers before the class. To enforce this each student will need to turn in 1/2-1 page summaries of the papers to be discussed by email to Adam before 1pm the day the papers are being presented.

Grading

This is a preliminary breakdown that may change during the term. Note that the class participation is a significant component of the course since the in-class discussions are fundamental to the success of the class. Attendance is mandatory, though valid excuses such as interview/conference travel and sickness are acceptable.


Grading of summaries: Each summary will get a check plus (5 pts), a check (4 pts), or a check minus (2 pts). Getting a check on every one is enough to get you an "A" for the summaries component of the grade.


Grading of presentations: At the end of each presentation all students will submit comments and grades for the speaker using this form. The grades for the presentations will then be a weighted combination of the grades from the students and Adam's grade for the presentation.

Late Policy

Nothing will be accepted late. I want people to have read the papers before the classes and I want to see your thoughts before the discussions, and none of this is accomplished if you turn things in late. There are enough paper summaries that if you miss a couple your grade won't suffer too much.

Lecture plan

How to write your paper summaries

There is a lot of reading for this course and some of the more mathematical papers may require concepts that some of you haven't learned... But, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to get something out of each of the papers. The summaries are meant to ensure that everyone has, at least, read enough to understand the context and goals of the papers, and can actively participate in the discussions about the papers.


A good summary should include:


The summaries do not need to be longer than 1/2 - 1 page. So, I encourage you to be precise and to think critically about the papers. The papers are picked to provide either an introduction to an area or a starting point for our discussions. Hopefully, each section can leave us with a bunch of interesting research questions to pursue.

How to plan your presentations

The job of the presenter is much more involved than what is needed to write the paper summaries. I expect that the presenter will not only read the paper assigned but a 2-3 other papers that are related (and maybe cited by the paper assigned). Often the papers in a class are very related, so it makes sense for the speakers to plan the presentations jointly, to some extent, to ensure that the same background is not covered multiple times.


The goal of the presenter should be to


When writing the presentation the speaker should feel free to use whatever slides they can find online to help with the presentation. Often authors will post slides from their talks about the papers. Also, there was a course organized by Kirk Pruhs where a number of the papers we will discuss were presented. Feel free to use such slides, but be sure to add your own insights and thoughts.


A typical talk should be ~30min and lead to discussion ~15min of discussion either during or afterwards.