CS577 PROJECT GUIDELINES


DATES

April 22 	Initial proposals due
May 1  		Final proposal approval required
June 3/5/12	Project oral presentations (optional)
June 14 	Project writeups due


PROPOSAL CONTENTS

Your initial proposal should be one page.  It should describe the following:

o Project topic.  This should be described by saying what question your project is going to answer.
	(Examples: Which commercially available Java JIT produces the fastest-running code? 
		   Does garbage collection algorithm XYZ make the Jikes optimizing JVM run faster than existing GC's?
		   How can optimizers inline functions even in the presence of dynamically loaded code?)

o Approach.  Are you doing experimental comparison, implementation, or a research paper survey? 
	     What methodology will you use?  

o Deliverables.  What do you plan to hand in?  Just a paper?  Experimental results? Code?

o Materials.  If you're doing an experimental comparison or implementation, what existing software and
		tools will you work with?  If you're doing a research comparison, list three key papers
		you plan to include in your literature survey.

o Do you plan to make a class presentation?  This is not required, but is a good thing to do.  It can
		only help your grade.  (But note that presentations need to be made well in advance
		of the final project due date.)


Proposals should be submitted in hard copy in class on the due date.  I will give feedback on them as
quickly as possible.   I may encourage you to narrow your topic, use a different approach, or use
different tools.  In rare cases, I may require you to change your topic.  It is a good idea to 
discuss topics with me in advance.