DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING

CS 4992: Seminar in Computer Science

Fridays, 1:00pm-1:50pm — Smith 109

Organizer: Ren Quinn

About

The Seminar in Computer Science is designed for students seeking to deepen their understanding of research in the field of computer science. This course provides an overview of prominent research areas through the reading and discussion of scholarly papers. We particularly encourage students considering graduate studies or those interested in engaging in undergraduate research to attend.

Schedule

Spring 2025

Week Date Topic Paper
01 1 / 10 Class Introduction
02 1 / 17 Reading Research Papers How to read a paper
03 1 / 24 Parallel Computing Parsl: Pervasive Parallel Programming in Python (1st pass)
04 1 / 31 Parallel Computing Parsl: Pervasive Parallel Programming in Python (2nd pass)
05 2 / 7 Networks A Call for Decentralized Satellite Networks (1st pass)
06 2 / 14 Networks A Call for Decentralized Satellite Networks (2nd pass)
07 2 / 21 Graph Algorithms A Learning-based Method for Computing Shortest Path Distances on Road Networks
08 2 / 28 Graph Algorithms A Learning-based Method for Computing Shortest Path Distances on Road Networks
09 3 / 7 Programming Languages Towards an API for the Real Numbers
10 3 / 14 No Meeting Spring Break
11 3 / 21 Programming Languages Towards an API for the Real Numbers
12 3 / 28 Side-Channel Attacks Optical Cryptanalysis: Recovering Cryptographic Keys from Power LED Light Fluctuations
13 4 / 4 Side-Channel Attacks Optical Cryptanalysis: Recovering Cryptographic Keys from Power LED Light Fluctuations
14 4 / 11
15 4 / 18

Fall 2024

Week Date Topic Paper
01 Aug 23 Class Introduction
02 Aug 30 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
03 Sep 06 Data Mining Themis: Detecting Anomalies from Disguised Normal Financial Activities
04 Sep 13 Data Mining Themis
05 Sep 20 Type Systems A Flexible Type System for Fearless Concurrency
06 Sep 27 Type Systems
07 Oct 04 Robotics Agents of Autonomy: A Systematic Study of Robotics on Modern Hardware
08 Oct 11 HCI Organic or Diffused: Can We Distinguish Human Art from AI-generated Images?
09 Oct 18 No Class Fall Break
10 Oct 25 AI A General Black-box Adversarial Attack on Graph-based Fake News Detectors
11 Nov 01 Network Monitoring Trumpet: Timely and Precise Triggers in Data Centers
12 Nov 08 No Class ACM ICPC regional at BYU
13 Nov 15 Network Monitoring Trumpet
14 Nov 22 Bioinformatics Baylee Christensen will present her research to us
15 Nov 29 No Class Thanksgiving Break
16 Dec 6 No Class End of semester

Spring 2024

Week Date Topic Paper
01 Jan 12 Class Introduction
02 Jan 19 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
03 Jan 26 Polynomial Codes Over Certain Finite Fields
04 Feb 02 Stochastic-Depth Ambient Occlusion
05 Feb 09
06 Feb 16 Free2CAD: Parsing Freehand Drawings into CAD Commands
07 Feb 23
08 Mar 01 mReader: Concurrent UHF RFID Tag Reading
09 Mar 08
10 Mar 15 No Meeting Spring Break
11 Mar 22 Detecting Counterfeit Liquid Food Products in a Sealed Bottle Using a Smartphone Camera
12 Mar 29
13 Apr 05 FlexOS: towards flexible OS isolation
14 Apr 12
15 Apr 19 No Meeting Research Symposium

Fall 2023

Week Date Topic Paper
01 Aug 25 Class Introduction
02 Sep 01 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
03 Sep 08 Software-Defined Networking OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks
04 Sep 15 Computer Architecture The Case for Reduced Instruction Set Computer
05 Sep 22 Computer Architecture 1st pass of Meltdown: Reading Kernel Memory from User Space
06 Sep 29 Computer Architecture Meltdown, 2nd pass
07 Oct 06 Network Testbeds FIT IoT-LAB: A Large Scale Open Experimental IoT Testbed
08 Oct 13 No Meeting Fall Break
09 Oct 20 Data Center Systems 1st pass: Hey, You, Get Off of My Cloud: Exploring Information Leakage in Third-Party Compute Clouds
10 Oct 27 Data Center Systems 2nd pass: Hey, You, Get Off of My Cloud: Exploring Information Leakage in Third-Party Compute Clouds
11 Nov 03 No Meeting ACM ICPC
12 Nov 10 Databases 1st pass: MillWheel: fault-tolerant stream processing at internet scale
13 Nov 17 No Meeting Code Camp
14 Nov 24 No Meeting Thanksgiving Break
15 Dec 01 Databases 2nd pass: MillWheel
16 Dec 08 Conclusion

Spring 2023

This semester we will read a selection of classic CS papers as published in Harry Lewis’ book, Ideas That Created the Future: Classic Papers of Computer Science.

Week Date Paper
01 Jan 13 Class Introduction
02 Jan 20 A Mathematical Theory of Communication
03 Jan 27 ELIZA–A Computer Program for the Study of Natural Language Communication between Man and Machine
04 Feb 03 Some Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation (1960), Norbert Wiener
05 Feb 10 Programming with Abstract Data Types (1974), Barbara Liskov and Stephen Zilles
06 Feb 17 Computing Machinery and Intelligence (1950), Alan Mathison Turing
07 Feb 24 A Relational Model of Large Shared Data Banks (1970), Edgar F. Codd
08 Mar 03 The Unix Time-Sharing System (1974), Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson
09 Mar 10 A Method for Obtaining Digital Signatures and Public-Key Cryptosystems (1978), Ronald Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Len Adleman
10 Mar 18 No Meeting — Spring Break
11 Mar 24 A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication (1974), Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn
12 Mar 31 Man-Computer Symbiosis (1960), J. C. R. Licklider
13 Apr 07 The Education of a Computer (1952), Grace Murray Hopper
14 Apr 14 Big Omicron and Big Omega and Big Theta (1976), Donald E. Knuth
15 Apr 21 Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits (1965), Gordon Moore

Fall 2022

Week Date Topic Paper
01 Aug 26 Class Introduction
02 Sept 2 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
03 Sept 9 Cryptography My other car is your car: compromising the Tesla Model X keyless entry system
04 Sept 16 Cryptography
05 Sept 23 Data Structures A Simple Implementation Technique for Priority Search Queues
06 Sept 30 Data Structures
07 Oct 7 Algorithms The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web
08 Oct 14 No Meeting Fall Break
09 Oct 21 Algorithms
10 Oct 28 Error Detection/Correction Erasure Coding in Windows Azure Storage
11 Nov 4 Error Detection/Correction
12 Nov 11 No Meeting
13 Nov 18 Data Compression A Universal Algorithm for Sequential Data Compression
14 Nov 25 No Meeting Fall Break
15 Dec 2 Data Compression
16 Dec 9 Conclusion

Spring 2022

Week Date Topic Paper
01 Jan 14 Class Introduction
02 Jan 21 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
03 Jan 28 HCI The Mismeasurement of Privacy: Using Contextual Integrity to Reconsider Privacy in HCI
04 Feb 04 CS Education Python Versus C++: An Analysis of Student Struggle on Small Coding Exercises in Introductory Programming Courses
05 Feb 11 Game Development The effect of operating a virtual doppleganger in a 3D simulation
06 Feb 18 Software Engineering Automatically finding patches using genetic programming
07 Feb 25 No Meeting UCUR
08 Mar 04 Software Engineering Automatically finding patches using genetic programming
09 Mar 11 Security and Privacy The Parrot is Dead: Observing Unobservable Network Communications
10 Mar 18 No Meeting Spring Break
11 Mar 25 Security and Privacy
12 Apr 01 Computer Graphics Realistic Animation of Liquids
13 Apr 08 Computer Graphics
14 Apr 15 Conclusion
15 Apr 22 No Meeting Research Symposium

Fall 2021

Week Date Topic Paper
1 8 / 27 Class Introduction
2 9 / 3 Reading Research Papers How to Read a Paper
3 9 / 10 Networks OpenFlow: Enabling Innovation in Campus Networks
4 9 / 17 Networks A Network in a Laptop: Rapid Prototyping for Software-Defined Networks
5 9 / 24 Systems Hints for Computer System Design
6 10 / 1 Systems Hints for Computer System Design
7 10 / 8 Computer Architecture Meltdown: Reading Kernel Memory from User Space
8 10 / 15 No Meeting Fall Break
9 10 / 22 Computer Architecture Meltdown
10 10 / 29 Virtualization Xen and the Art of Virtualization
11 11 / 5 Virtualization Xen
12 11 / 12 Distributed Systems Scaling Memcache at Facebook
13 11 / 19 Distributed Systems Memcached
14 11 / 26 No Meeting Thanksgiving
15 12 / 3 Conclusion

Last Updated 02/12/2025