Term Project Description

 
Students enrolled in CIS650 are expected to complete a term project, due on the last day of class. The project can either be an implementation project, or a paper on some topic related to the course.

Implementation project. For example, you could implement an algorithm to track the lineage of data, implement an algorithm to produce auxiliary information to make a view self-maintainable, develop a storage back-end for XML data, or do a side-by-side comparison of diff algorithms over data of some sort. The project should not only be demonstrated but documented, i.e. you should provide a short paper (5 page) describing what you have done and make an appointment with me to demo what you have done.

Critical analysis paper. A critical analysis of some problem area based on recent papers in the database literature such as VLDB and SIGMOD (among others). Examples of problem areas (outside of the ones that have been introduced in class, which are also valid topics to explore in greater detail) are query optimization in semi-structured query languages or indexing and storage of image data. The analysis should attempt to answer the following questions: why is the problem important, what solutions have been proposed, what assumptions have been made, are the assumptions realistic, what are the reasons for making the assumptions, how can results in this area be applied in practise, what are the directions for future research in this area.

Novel solution paper. Presenting your own solution to a problem, e.g. a storage mapping for XML data, or query optimization techniques. The paper should clearly state the problem you are solving, the assumptions you are making, your solution, and a brief survey of related literature. Any claims should be substantiated.

Non-implementation projects will involve a paper roughly 20 pages long (double spaced). In addition to containing the substance of your project, it should contain an abstract (terse 100-200 word summary of the work presented), an introduction (statement of problem and structure of the paper), a conclusion (summary of major contributions and work remaining to be done), and references to related research. The bibilography should be in ACM or IEEE journal format.

Two or three person teams will be allowed on implementation projects, but it is recommended that you be able to partition the work.

A one page description of your project should be emailed to susan@cis.upenn.edu by Feb. 5, 2002.