CS577 PROJECT GUIDELINES

DATES
May 2		Initial proposals due
May 9 		Final proposal approval required
May 23		Progress report due
June 1/6	Project oral presentations (optional)	
June 10		Project writeups due
(Note: Take-home final exam will be given out on Wed. June 1 and due on Wed. June 8.)

INITIAL 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: 
	    What register allocation scheme should be used for JIT compilation of Java byte code on an X86?
 	    Can register-based VM architectures compete with stack-based architectures in interpreter performance?
            Does garbage collection algorithm XYZ make the Jikes optimizing JVM run faster than existing GC's?
	    What are the best known techniques for minimizing power consumption of generated code?
   	    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.


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 very good idea to 
discuss topics with me in advance.

PROGRESS REPORT

A 1-2 page intermediate progress report will be required about two weeks into the project.
This is intended to help keep projects on track.

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.)

PROJECT WRITEUP

All projects, even those whose primary product is code, must include a written summary of methods
and results.