GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
CS 700 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN CS

Fall 2018

Prof. Sanjeev Setia
setia at gmu.edu
703-993-4098

Description

Prerequisites: Admission to PhD in CS or PhD in IT programs. Topics include approaches for evaluating, writing, and presenting scholarly papers, research integrity issues, and quantitative models and methods in experimental computer science. Techniques for the use of analytic and simulation models, design of experiments, hypothesis testing, and statistical analysis of data are presented. All incoming CS PhD students are required to take this course in their first year in the program.

Readings

Textbook:

  • David Lilja, Measuring Computer Performance: A Practitioner's Guide,  Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN: 05216-4670-7.

  • Other recommended books:
    1. Raj Jain, The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis, John Wiley, 1991, ISBN: 0-471-50336-3. Please download the errata
    2. Dror Feitelson. Workload Modeling for Computer Systems Performance Analysis.Cambridge University Press, 2016. ISBN: 978-1-107-07823-9
    3. Balachander Krishnamurthy and Mark Crovella, Internet Measurement: Infrastructure, Traffic, And Applications, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2006. ISBN: 04700-1461-x
    4. I. Miller, J. Freund, R. Johnson, Probability and Statistics for Engineers, Sixth Edition, Prentice Hall, 2000, ISBN: 0-13-014158-5.
    5. David M. Levine, Patricia P. Ramsey, Robert K. Smidt, Applied Statistics for Engineers and Scientists: Using Microsoft Excel & MINITAB, Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0134888014.
    6. Averill M. Law and W. David Kelton, Simulation Modeling and Analysis, McGraw Hill, 2000.

    Course Outline

    The following topics will be covered (not necessarily in the order below):

    All CS faculty will be invited to give research overview talks to the class. The faculty research talks will be scheduled multiple times a semester (with perhaps all the faculty working in an area giving talks on the same day).

    All incoming PhD students are required to take CS 701 - Research Experience in CS during their second semester. Students will be matched with faculty for CS 701 during the course of the semester in CS 700.

    Grading

    The grade for the course will be based on the following components: (i) Homework Assignments (50%) (iii) Mid-term exam (25%) (iii) Take home final exam (25%).

    Important Dates

    Mid-term exam: October 26 (tentative)

    Office Hours

    Office hours will be on Thursday from 3-4 pm in my office (Room 4300, Engineering Building), or by appointment.

    Course Material

    All handouts and other course material will be available at the Blackboard page for the class.