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TDDE63 Advanced Project Course: Information Security

Projects

Projects

Contents

Important dates

  • Course start: September 2
  • Deadline for project applications: September 9 (23:59)
  • Project assignment notification: September 12
  • First meeting with supervisor: September 13
  • Half-time presentation: October 21
  • Complete report due: November 29
  • Final presentation: December 16

Project descriptions

Organization

Projects will be carried out in groups of 4-5 students. You will then have until September 9 (23:59) to apply for a project. Details on the application process can be found below. You will be notified of project assignments on September 13 and have your first meeting with your supervisor the next day. See the schedule page for more information on supervision meetings. There are two mandatory seminars in the course, where you will give a presentation to the rest of the class. In addition to other potential deliverables specified by the project supervisor (e.g., an implementation), you will produce a written report on your work.

Scope and expectations

The course is 6 hp/ECTS points. With 4-5 group members, this means 24-30 hp/ECTS worth of total work, i.e., almost as much as an MSc thesis. In practice, the target scope of the projects will be somewhere between a BSc and MSc thesis. To manage this workload, it is essential that you plan and organize the work in a suitable fashion, and distribute the workload evenly among the group members.

Written report

The report should be written in a style similar to a research paper, with a clear motivation and problem statement, a background section, and one or more sections presenting the results. You must also cite relevant sources, using some standard notation, similar to a research paper. We require you to put some effort into creating a high-quality report. (In terms of language and structure, we require a significantly higher quality than, e.g., a lab report.)

The required format for the final reports is a PDF following the IEEE formatting guidelines (double column, font size 10). MS Word and Latex templates are available at the aforementioned link. (Use the A4 version if you choose the Word template.)

We don't state any absolute requirements on page count, but as a rough ball-park figure, at least 10 pages (double-column, conference paper style) is often a reasonable target. Note that less than 10 pages does not mean an automatic fail, and more than 10 pages is not a given pass. It is up to the supervisor to determine what is a reasonable size of the report (as project topics differ in this regard). In the end, it's the contents of the report that will be assessed, not the page count.

Plagiarism and use of generative AI

Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. Your work will be checked using an automatic plagiarism detector (Ouriginal), and any suspected violations will be reported to the disciplinary board. Being found guilty of plagiarism typically results in a ban from taking part in studies at LiU for an extended period of time. Note that Ouriginal is very good at detecting plagiarism even if one attempts to, e.g., replace some words or parts of sentences. Just don't attempt it — chances are very high that you'll get caught!

Generative AI can be a useful tool for initial information search or brainstorming, and it is allowed to use AI in this way for the course. Using AI to get suggestions for improving your language in specific places in the report is also acceptable. However, it is not allowed to generate large swaths of text with AI. That is, it is not allowed to use AI as a substitute for doing your own information gathering/research when writing the report. Note that AI tools are prone to hallucinating (i.e., making up facts or or references) when faced with complex technical questions, so you are quite likely to get caught if you try to cut corners with AI. Such violations will also be reported to the disciplinary board.

Examination

The formal assessment criteria for the project examination are found here (English) and here (Swedish) Make sure to read them carefully!

Project applications

Projects will be assigned based on an application process, where groups need to motivate how they as a group are well-qualified to complete the project. Note that it is not necessary for all members of a group to meet all prerequisite knowledge. Instead, the emphasis in the application should be on how the individual skills and experiences of each member complement each other, so that all memmbers of the group are able to contribute equally to the end result. This is also a factor to keep in mind when forming a project group. If your application is lacking in this regard, you will be less likely to get your first project choice.

Applications must be done using this form and submitted via Lisam, latest on September 9 at 23:59:
Go to the course's Lisam page, click "Submissions" in the menu on the left, and then "Project application".

As an aid when looking for other students to form project groups with, we have set up a discussion forum on Lisam. You can find it under the "Discussion forum" menu item. Here, you can state which projects you are most interested in, and find others to team up with. Keep in mind that Lisam forums are visible to the entire class (there is no private message feature), so if you want to discuss privately, you will have to move the discussion elsewhere.

Milestones and deliverables

There are several milestones and deadlines in the course that must be followed. Below is a list of general milestones and deadlines for deliverables, but note that your supervisor might make adjustments to this list.

  • Until first supervisor meeting (13/9): Read the project description and any introductory material indicated by the supervisor.
  • Until second supervisor meeting (20/9): Prepare an initial draft of the project plan. The final project plan should include
    • A set of requirements to be met at the end of the project (including deliverables).
    • A problem formulation (including research questions, if applicable).
    • A high-level methodology for the completion of the project, including a rough timeline.
    • A description of how the project work will be managed (roles, responsibilities, division of labor, communication, etc.).
  • Until third supervisor meeting (27/9): Complete the project plan based on feedback from supervisor.
  • Until half-time presentation (21/10):
    1. First draft of project report. The draft should include:
      • An introduction section, including a problem statement and method description.
      • A background section, covering necessary theory/preliminaries required to understand the rest of the report.
      • A detailed outline for the rest of the report, including headings for the remaining sections.
    2. The half time presentation will be around 10-15 minutes (depending on number of course participants). It should include:
      • An introduction to the topic (including a bit of background as needed) and a problem statement.
      • The high-level method/approach.
      • Current status and main challenges so far.
      • A work plan for the second half of the project.
  • 29/11: First complete version of report handed to supervisor.
  • Until final presentation (16/12):
    1. Final report, after addressing feedback from supervisor.
    2. The final presentation will be around 15 minutes (again, depending on number of course participants). It should include:
      • Introduction to the topic and problem statement (can be made a bit briefer than half-time presentation).
      • The method/approach.
      • An overview of the most important results.
      • Conclusions.

Page responsible: Ulf Kargén
Last updated: 2024-09-02