Seminar in Distributed Computing (HS 2008)

• Summary
• Organization
• Schedule of Presentations
• Suggested Papers

 

Summary

In the upcomming fall semester we will try something new for our "Seminar in Distributed Computing" – an ETH Zurich edition! The seminar will cover work by ETH professors in the area of distributed computing. A variety of topics, such as systems, networking, wearable, mobile, security, algorithms, data management, programming, both practice and theory, will be adressed. The only common denominator will be "distributed".

Each professor selected a list of papers co-authored by him/her. Some papers come in groups and cover a common topic, others can be presented on their own. The authors will be invited to attend the students' talks, and (if the schedule meets their availability) the attendees will be able to ask questions and discuss the presented material with them.

The idea is to introduce some of the best reasearch produced at ETH to the students and enable more vivid discussions, which will hopefully be enriched by the proximity of the authors.

Organization

 

When & Where: Wednesdays, 15:15-17:00 @ ETZ G 91

Coordinators:

• Roger Wattenhofer
• Olga Goussevskaia

 

As a seminar participant, you are invited to

• present two or three research papers assigned to your presentation date, and lead the discussion;
• attend all talks of the seminar and actively participate in the discussions.

 

In order to obtain credit points for the seminar, you have to make a presentation. Since only one presentation per week of the semester can take place, there is a limited number of slots (topics) that can be presented (usually 13 or 14). Therefore, we encourage you to contact us as early as possible (by email) to claim your presentation slot.

 

Presentation

Below we have a series of suggested papers (or groups of papers) which will be assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Your presentation should cover the motivation for the problem as well as some technical parts of the paper(s) in detail. Assume that the other participants know nothing about the subject. You are not supposed to present the whole paper(s), but just the aspects that were most intriguing to you. We encourage you to deviate from the logical structure of the paper(s) and strive for the most lucid presentation of the topic. It can also be helpful to go beyond the list of your papers and look at related work.

We further expect the presentation to motivate a lively discussion. Your presentation should not be a mere transfer of knowledge, but inspire an animated debate among the seminar participants.

Your slides and talk should be in English. The presentation should last 45 minutes plus about 15 minutes of discussion.

 

Discussion

We encourage discussion during and after a presentation as a main objective of this seminar. The extent to which your own presentation instigates discussion as well as your own participation in the other presentations will influence your grade in this course.

 

Evaluation

Following the technical part of the presentation and discussion, we will briefly evaluate the quality of the presentation as a group. Below are the criteria according to which we judge a good presentation. They were inspired by the common questionaire handed out to ETHZ students where they are asked to evaluate their professors.

• Motivated Talk
  The speaker was motivated and kept the audience interested throughout the presentation.
  R1: Der Dozent / die Dozentin bot einen engagierten Unterricht.
• Clearly Explained
  The speaker made the material clear and comprehensible.
  R2: Der Dozent / die Dozentin vermochte den Stoff verständlich und anschaulich zu erklären.
• Knowledge Transfer
  The (awake and participating) audience learned something.
  S2: Der Wissenstransfer fand statt im Zusammenhang mit der Vorlesung.
• Difficulty
  The presentation was (too) difficult, easy, or just right to follow.
  S4: Die Vorlesung war [zu] schwierig/einfach, gerade richtig.
• Prior Knowledge
  The speaker did not assume inappropriate prior knowledge.
  S6: Die Vorlesung baute auf bekannten Vorkenntnissen auf.
• Structure
  The presentation had a clear concept and discernable structure.
  S8: Der Dozent / die Dozentin präsentierte seinen/ihren Unterricht strukturiert (Aufbau, Transparenz, roter Faden).
• Encouraged Participation
  The speaker actively encouraged participation and successfully led the discussion.
  S9: Der Dozent / die Dozentin ermutigte aktive Mitarbeit und ging gut auf Fragen und Bemerkungen ein.
• Media
  The speaker made good use of the available presentation tools such as overhead, whiteboard, etc.
  S10: Der Dozent / die Dozentin setzte die verwendeten Hilfsmittel, wie Wandtafel, Overhead und Demonstrationen, gut und hilfreich ein.

 

For signed-up students:

 

Please contact your mentor early enough before your presentation date, in time to make the corrections and/or improvements he/she suggests. We expect an electronic copy of your slides by the presentation date.

Schedule of Presentations

Suggested Papers

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