Grading / Course Requirements

Grading will be primarily based on a term paper, although class participation
will also be a factor.  Term paper topics will need approval of the instructor.
Students will also be required to do some reading in advance of each class
and be prepared with questions for each lecturer.  Class participation will be
considered as a part of the grade and class attendance is mandatory.

Due Dates:

Topic Proposal: Wed, April 28 (bring to one of us or submit on email as plain text)
Paper Outline:  Mon, May 10
Final Paper: Wed, June 2

The topic proposal should explain what topic you would like to cover in your term
paper.  You should include details on how you intend to obtain the information
required for your topic.  Be as specific as possible about the scope of your project.
The proposal should be at least 1/2 to 1 page in length.

The overall paper requirement is to accomplish what we agree upon as to the
scope and content of the term paper (as decided upon by approval of your proposal).
The grade will reflect how well you accomplish this.  It is necessary that the term
paper reflect an amount of effort commensurate with a four credit class and it is
necessary that the topic be related high performance computing.  It is not necessary
to closely tie the topic to the material presented in the lectures, but doing so should
make things easier.

Hints:

A (very!) short list of possible paper topics follows.  We really encourage you to
find a topic that intests you and research that.  We will try to post more possible
topics here as they come up in case you are stuck for an idea.

Comparison of the features of different specific supercomputer systems.
Comparison of the features of different supercomputer architectural approaches.
Comparison of the features of personal computers with supercomputers.
Assessment of supercomputer benchmarks.
 

Last Updated:April 24, 1999.
Comments or Questions? hdail@cs.ucsd.edu