Tentative Grading/Schedule
The grading for the course will be done as follows:

• Presentation of Assigned Topics (20%): Each of you (possibly paired up) registered for the course will be assigned a topic from the readings early in the course. You (and your partner) will be required to make a presentation of that material on an assigned day. Note that the specific day of the presentation may need to be modulated slightly based on the pace of the course. If by any chance, you fail to show up on the day of your assigned presentation, you will not just loose the 20% of the total grade, but you will also incur an additional 20% deduction (i.e. your entire score for the course will be graded only on 60%) since the others stand to loose because of this. Please note that only a few selected readings are highlighted within each topic.In addition to presenting the technical contents/ideas of these specific readings, you are also expected to more extensively research the background for each of these topics (collecting more references), and need to give a 10-15 minute survey of the area during (either before or after) your presentation. The assigned grade will depend on (i) your understanding of these papers as well as the associated background, and (ii) the quality of your presentation.Note that there would be questions from the audience and responses such as ``this is what the authors say'' (rather than basing them on your understanding of the material) would lead to grade deductions.
• Midterm (25%): There will be a midterm sometime during the week of April 4, based on material covered until then.
• Survey Paper (25%): You (possibly paired up) can pick one of the topics in storage, and write a detailed survey of all the related work on that topic. Note that a survey does NOT imply ``paper A talks about x, paper B talks about y, etc.''. Rather, you need to categorize all the related work, compare and contrast between them, and use your analytical abilities to argue their relative merits. Typically, such an exercise can itself suggest new research issues for you to work on. The grade will reflect how much effort you have put into it in terms of (i) coverage of related work, (ii) categorization of this work, (iii) evaluation of pros and cons of the previous studies, and (iv) quality of the writing.
• Course Project (30%): You (possibly paired up) should identify a project in any of the storage topics early in this course, and work on it over the duration of the semester and turn it in during the week before finals. It is preferable that you do this is in the same area as your survey paper, since that will make sure you have the background. The project could be theoretical modeling studies, simulations, actual implementations, or a combination of these. A project report with results should be turned in during the last week to earn your grade.