ENEE 759D Security Data Science is an advanced course.
Its primary goal is to teach you how to read research papers with a critical eye and how to apply some of these ideas in practice.
This page is here to help you understand the details of how this course runs.
Please read the whole thing at the start of the semester.
A few of these policies are likely to be different than what you are used to.
Reading assignments
HOMEWORKS ARE DUE at 6 PM the evening before class.
Use the provided BibTeX template to submit the homework; write plain ASCII text -- no HTML! Submit your homework by emailing the instructor. We might switch to a Web based submission system in the future.
Course requirements:
Required reading: is posted on the course web site, and will typically be 1 to 2 papers per class meeting. Some papers will require two or three readings to understand. This is not light pleasure reading. After you get used to this type of reading, most papers can be read in 2-3 hours each.
Homework: summarize papers you have read and hand in before class using a defined written template. You must summarize every paper you read.
Class: stand up and talk about the papers. Volunteers are preferred, but the instructor randomly call upon students when there are no volunteers. You will be expected to critically comment upon both the paper and the ideas in the paper. You will be expected to respond to probing questions from the instructor and your peers to defend your point of view.
You Must Read And Understand The Papers.
We expect you to really read and understand all the papers. Not just skim them. Read them. Understand them. Discuss them intelligently. If this is your goal, you will find this course engaging, rewarding, and extremely useful in your career.
Note that your assignments are graded on whether you got something intelligible out of the reading and not on whether your answers are objectively "right".
The instructor will provide feedback on some of your written critiques, with general suggestions for improvement, but if you do not get an email you may assume that your writeup is satisfactory.
Grading will be perfomed on a "straight scale," out of 100 points:
A: 90% or above
B: 80% or above, but less than an A
C: 70% or above, but less than a B
D: below 70%
Your final grade for the course will be based on the following weights (different standards are applied to graduate and undergraduate students):
50% Written paper critique and class discussion
24 assignments:
0 points: Unsatisfactory participation AND critique missing or late
1 point: Unsatisfactory participation OR critique missing or late
2 points: Satisfactory participation AND critique fully completed on time
2 points for attending the first lecture
50% Projects
30 points: Group project
10 points: Pilot project
5 points: Group-project reviews
5 points: Pilot-project reviews
10% Subjective evaluation
Examples: undergraduates writing
paper reviews at the level of graduate students, graduate students
writing reviews at the level of major conference program committees,
outstanding project work
Expectations for graduate students:
Satisfactory participation means that you can explain the contents of your reading assignment and the underlying reasoning to the rest of the class. (Your reasons don't have to be "right" -- you just have to be able to explain them.)
Unsatisfactory participation means that you weren't able to demonstrate an understanding of the assignment (e.g., because you did not actually read the paper).
Receiving full credit on the projects requires posting the report on the discussion board, reviewing two other posted projects, and, for the group project, presenting the findings in class. All team members must be in class during the presentation and must be ready to answer questions about their contribution to the project. You are expected to answer a security question using data analysis techniques and to providing adequate reasoning for your conclusion.
Expectations for undergraduate students:
Satisfactory participation means that you have a general understanding of the topics discussed in the reading assignment
Unsatisfactory participation means that you didn't have a clue about an assigned paper (i.e., did not actually read the paper)
Receiving full credit on the projects requires posting the report on the discussion board, reviewing two other posted projects, and, for the group project, presenting the findings in class. All team members must be in class during the presentation and must be ready to answer questions about their contribution to the project. You are expected to demonstrate a general understanding of data analysis and security concepts involved.
The above should make it clear that we want you to actually read the papers. There should be no reason that any student qualified to take the course gets less than an "A" in this class unless they slack off and either skip class or fail to actually read the papers. Life brings unexpected situations -- we very strongly urge you NOT to cut things close by skipping classes or failing to turn in homeworks on purpose just because you can do that and still theoretically get an "A."
We have already built in some missed assignments into the grading system -- you can still get an "A" with a few missed assignments.
Accounting for things like waking up sick, or job interview trips, or conference trips, or whatever is your responsibility.
Reserve missed assignments for true emergencies only, and notify the instructor in advance if you will need to miss a class.
Assignments are due at or before the scheduled due date even if you are going to be missing class.
Complete your homework entirely on your own. After you hand in your homework, you are welcome (and encouraged) to discuss it with others.
Discuss the problems and concepts involved in the project, but produce your own project implementation, report and presentation. Group projects are the result of team work, so collaboration among team members is strongly encouraged (and required for a good end result).
Piazza Policy
This course uses the Piazza web site for answering questions. The home Piazza page for this course is at: https://piazza.com/umd/fall2013/enee759d/home. When posting questions on Piazza, students must keep in mind the collaboration guidelines noted above, and use these additional guidelines:
Do post questions related to grading, course logistics, etc.
Do post your project reports and project feedback, as well as general questions related to the projects.
Do not post your paper reviews. We will use a separate system to handle the paper review submissions.