PhD Primary Area Computer Engineering Introduction (195.001)

This course (formerly 182.139, now 195.001) is a PhD primary area course, which can optionally be extended to encompass also the 2nd comprehensive exam.

Please enrol via http://ti.tuwien.ac.at/myTI if you want need credits and/or announcement emails for this course. Don't forget to enter your email address in your myTI profile!

 

Aim

Acquisition of the ability to solve practical problems in a relevant field of computer engineering and to develop a proper documentation.



Subject

Developing a solution for a practical problem and writing-up the results in a final report. Teamwork is possible, provided that the individually assigned tasks are clearly identified. A list of topics can be found via the course homepage below; own suggestions for topics within our primary areas of expertise (fault-tolerant distributed real-time systems, embedded systems, VLSI design) are also encouraged. An overview of current computer engineering research topics and potential supervisors of Bachelor thesises at the contributing institutes/working groups is provided in the TI research presentations (http://ti.tuwien.ac.at/teaching/ti-research-presentations).

Course setup: In an initial personal meeting with the advisor, the actual task and a working title, as well as the cornerstones of the final report, are specified; the required prerequisites are also checked on that occasion. Regular meetings during the work are used for presenting and discussing both progress and encountered problems (please report severe problems immediately, though). Towards the end of the work, a detailed structure of the to be written final report must be negotiated with your advisor. A presentation of the major results in a talk (preferably including a demonstration) usually concludes the course.



Lecturer

Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Schmid Ulrich

Homepage

https://ti.tuwien.ac.at/ecs/teaching/practicals

 

[TISS-Seite] [Syllabus] [Aims and Scope] [Enrolling] [Grading] [Schedule] [Papers] [Other resources]


AIMS AND SCOPE

This is a PhD-level course ("primary area course") devoted to an introduction to scientific research in Computer Engineering (CE), in German: Technische Informatik (TI). Its purpose is to encourage you to digest a suite of seminal papers in some major areas of interest in CE (which also make up the content of the primary area comprehensive exam in our PhD school):  For every selected paper, a short report that summarizes the key issues is to be written; one paper shall be presented and defended (by answering examination questions) in detail. In addition, some scientific papers (e.g. conference submissions) are assigned for reviewing.

Moreover, to assist in selecting a suitable PhD topic and finding a PhD supervisor later on, CE professors will present an overview of their particular research areas.

For passing the 2nd comprehensive exam in CE [only for PhD students who choose CE as their primary area], two seminal papers must have been presented and defended.

Prerequisites are graduate-level knowledge in computer engineering, in particular, in at least one of our major areas dependable systems and circuit design.

ENROLLING

Please enroll via myTI (after first class).

GRADING

Grading will be based on the following components:

  • Reports (50%): Quality of your reports on the papers.
  • Reviews (10%): Quality of the reviews of the assigned reports and/or papers to be reviewed.
  • Paper presentation (40%): Performance in presenting and defending the chosen paper.

In addition, attendance of at least four TI Research Presentations is mandatory.

PAPERS

Please do the following for at least 7 papers out of this list of seminal CE papers:

  • For every selected paper, write a 1-2 pages report summarizing the key content, in the style of a "brief announcement" like this one or that one. You can write the report either in descriptive form ("the authors introduce ...") or, alternatively, from the authors' point of view ("we introduce ..."). There is no need for personal comments (criticism etc.), although you can add such information if you consider it worth the space. Use the Latex IEEE conference style (start from this template) and submit the resulting .pdf for reviewing via myTI by the deadline (please process the papers in list order). Note that you can miss at most three of those deadlines, in which case you can submit the late reports in one of the remaining slots.
  • Choose a paper [and the corresponding time slot] for presentation (detailed procedure still to be fixed).
  • Make a conference-style presentation of your paper (30-45 min. talk + 10-15 min. examination questions concerning the paper content).

In addition, review the reports and/or scientific papers assigned to you [if any] (reports: usually via myTI, papers: individually by email or paper copy) by the deadline; please make sure to apply reasonably reviewing standards and do not reveal your identity in the reviews. Bear in mind that the quality and appropriateness of your review will affect your grade; so please refrain from unduly praising a bad paper [or unduly rejecting a good paper] ...

SCHEDULE (to be constructed ...)

Introduction and students presentations usually take place on Friday at 11:15-12:45 in the library of the Embedded Computing Systems Group (E182-2), Treitlstraße 3, 2nd floor. The schedule for the presentations of the research topics of institutes/working groups contributing to computer engineering (given by potential thesis supervisors) can be found at TI Research Presentations.

Day Date . 
Time . Room
 . Topic . 
Names
 . 

Fri
 12.10.2012
 11:15
 E182-2 Introduction
Schmid, Steininger


Fri
 19.10.2012
 09:00
 EI 6
 Introduction to scientific working (optional)
Steininger
Slides
Fri
 19.10.2012
 23:55
Report paper 1 due



Fri
 26.10.2012
 23:55
Report paper 2 due



Fri
 02.11.2012
 23:55
Report paper 3 due



Fri
 09.11.2012
 23:55
Report paper 4 due



Fri
 16.11.2012
 23:55
Report paper 5 due



Fri
 23.11.2012 23:55
Report paper 6 due



Fri
 30.11.2012
 23:55
Report paper 7 due



Fri
 07.12.2012
 23:55
Report paper 8 due



Fri
 14.12.2012
 23:55
Report paper 9 due



Fri
 21.12.2012
 23:55
Report paper 10 due



Fri
 25.01.2013
 13:15
 E182-2
 Students presentations



 

OTHER RESOURCES


Some recommended additional books:

  • Israel Koren, C. Mani Krishna: Fault-Tolerant Systems, Morgan-Kaufmann, 2007.
  • Nancy A. Lynch, Distributed Algorithms, Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.
  • Hermann Kopetz: Real-Time Systems, Springer, 1997.
  • Carver Mead, Lynn Conway: Introduction to VLSI Systems, Addison Wesley, 1980.
  • Neil H. E. Weste und David Harris: CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective, Addison Wesley, 2004
  • Jan Rabaey, Digital Integrated Circuits - A Design Perspective, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall, 2003.

 

A LaTeX link:


Some useful links for accessing papers online:

 

Some useful links for reviewing hints: