6.829 AdminisTrivia (Fall 2004)

Schedule

Lectures are TuTh 11:30-1:00 in 32-141.
Detailed schedule is here.

Prerequisites

Undergraduate systems or networks course covering basic networking concepts (e.g., 6.033 or equivalent). Consent of instructor if you're an undergraduate.

If your networking background is rusty, you should page material in from one of these excellent books. In particular, we highly recommend the book by Peterson and Davie or the book by Kurose and Ross.

Knowledge of elementary probability (e.g., 6.041, 6.042, or equivalent) will be helpful.

If you feel you know enough about networking, an alternative subject to 6.829 is 6.824. 6.824 is a graduate equivalent of 6.829, but focuses on the engineering of computer systems. If you are a graduate (esp. PhD) student in systems or networking, we recommend that you take both classes during your graduate career at MIT. You must not take them both in the same term, though, since both have heavy-duty projects.

If you're an undergraduate and want practical experience with computer systems, consider 6.097, where you'll learn how to build a stripped-down functioning kernel from scratch.

Course structure

Lectures will discuss assigned readings from the literature. 6.829 will emphasize the practical aspects of computer networks and the Internet, and will be centered around discussions and arguments! Class participation is therefore very important and will count towards your grade.

Grading

The largest contributor to the final grade is a significant course project with a research emphasis. The project has four components:
  1. A proposal which describes your problem, why it is important, prior work, your plan for tackling the problem, and how you are going to evaluate the solution. The proposal should not be more than 3 pages. We will read your proposal and give you feedback.
  2. Project interim status which explains your initial results and why you believe you are on the right track to solving the problem. It also includes the material in the proposal after you had the chance to update it based on our feedback. The project interim status will contribute 15% of your grade.
  3. A final report: At the end of the term, students will submit a conference-style paper describing the project and its key contributions/findings, and make a 5-minute presentation of their work. This will constitute 30% of your grade. Start early!

In addition, there will be a few problem sets assigned during the term. Problem sets will constitute 20% of your grade.

We will have two in-class quizzes, currently planned for Nov 2, 2004 and Dec 2, 2004. These count for 30% of your final grade.

Finally, class participation and performance in surprise quizzes (we reserve the right to hand out a few of these during the term) counts for 5% of your grade.

In summary: 

Course project (2 papers + presentation)  45% 
Problem sets  20% 
Two quizzes 30%
Class participation, enthusiasm and energy-level! 5% 

Remember, this is a graduate class and grades shouldn't be your primary or only motivator! What matters is how much you learn about research in networking and how much it excites you. We hope that this class and the project you work on meet that goal.

Last update: Wed Sep 14 22:29:26 EDT 2004 (6.829 staff)