Xiaowei Yang
LECTURE 1: COURSE
INTRODUCTION
Roadmap
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Why should you take the course?
Who should take this course?
Course organization
Course work
Grading policy
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Break
◦ Introduce yourself
◦ Tell me more about your expectations
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How to read papers
◦ The question-answer approach
◦ The three pass approach
Why should you take this class?
1.
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Learning new technology trends
Cloud computing, datacenter networks, social
networks, network security, etc.
2.
Helping you find an exciting research project
3.
Discussing other cool ideas with your fellow
students and the instructor
Who should take this class?
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A short answer
◦ Anyone who’s interested in the stuff
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But seriously
◦ Have time to read the assigned readings
before coming to class
◦ Have time for a course project
Course organization
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Meet twice a week
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Assigned readings for each class
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Lecture or Class presentation
◦ Students may sign up for them
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Discussion
◦ The most important/fun part
Course work
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Reading assignments
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Midterm
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A course project
◦ Individual, group of 2~3
◦ I will provide suggestions
 E.g., a cloud application
Grading Policy
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Class participation and presentation: 15%
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Midterm: 15%
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Project: 70%
Break
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Introduce yourself
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Your expectations
HOW TO READ
RESEARCH PAPERS
Reading papers effectively is
challenging
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Written in a condensed style
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Assuming much prior knowledge
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Written for a different purpose than
being course materials
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You have limited time
Learning how to read papers
effectively is important
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Life-time long skill of self-learning
◦ New knowledge is likely to show up in
research papers
How to read paper effectively
1.
Know what you should get out of the
papers
2.
Know where to find them
Structure of a paper
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Introduction
◦ Motivation
◦ Outline the solution
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Body
◦ Solutions in detail
◦ Evaluation to show the solutions are valid
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Conclusion
◦ Recap
◦ Emphasize primary contributions
Questions to answer
What are the motivations for this work?
1.
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People problem: broader impact on society
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Technical problem
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Saved time, increased safety
Why is the people problem difficult?
Why are previous solutions inadequate?
 Research problem: what the paper
addresses
Questions to answer
What is the proposed solution?
2.
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A hypothesis
Why is it believed to solve the problem
Why is it better than previous solutions
Design and implementation
Questions to answer
What’s the work’s evaluation to the
proposed solution
3.
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What argument, implementation, and/or
experiment shows the solution’s better?
What benefits/problems are identified?
Questions to answer
What is your analysis of the identified
problem, solution, and evaluation?
4.
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What are the contributions?
5.
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6.
7.
Is it a good idea? Flaws? Controversial?
Practical?
Insights on the research question, ideas,
software, experimental techniques, …
What are the future directions?
What questions are you left with?
Questions to answer
What’s your take-away message?
8.
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Try to sum up the paper in one sentence
from your own perspective
Answers
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Write your own abstract
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Or annotate the paper
Let’s answer those questions for the
2nd paper
What are the motivations for this work?
2. What is the proposed solution?
3. What’s the work’s evaluation to the
proposed solution
4. What is your analysis of the identified
problem, solution, and evaluation?
5. What are the contributions?
6. What are the future directions?
7. What questions are you left with?
8. What’s your take-away message?
1.
Summary
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Course introduction
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How to read papers
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Next lecture
◦ Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud
Computing