Course Project

IERG 5310 · First Term 2026–27

You will spend the term on one problem in the security and privacy of cyber systems, in groups of up to three students. Grading takes group size into account and a larger group is expected to achieve proportionally more.

What to work on

Anything that bears on the security or privacy of cyber systems is considered in-scope. Projects can take two shapes:

• Research-oriented: ask a question nobody has answered yet, and answer it. E.g., measure something at scale, attack a system in a way no one has tried, or design and analyse a defence.
• Replicability study: take a published result and check whether it still holds. Does the attack work against today's deployments? Do the numbers reproduce on fresh data, or in this part of the world?

We strongly encourage the research-oriented shape: novel, original results (output of a research-oriented project) will earn bonus points.

If you are having trouble settling on a topic, come to office hours.

Deliverables

Written proposal

Two to three pages, including at least the following:

• Group — names of all members.
• Title — what you would call the eventual paper or system.
• Problem — what you are addressing, and why it matters.
• Background — what is already known, and past approaches.
• Approach — how you intend to solve it, and how that differs from prior work.
• Evaluation — how you will know whether it worked.
• Scope — what you expect to have finished by the end of the term.

Checkpoint report

0.5-1 page on where things stand, like what you have done, what is left, what surprised you, and any early results. This is a chance to get feedback while there is still time to change course. The report will not be part of the grade.

In-class presentation

Each group gives a short conference-style talk on its results in our final session, followed by questions.

Final paper

Write it as you would a workshop paper — the kind we have been reading all term. It should include at least the following:

• An abstract that summarises the work.
• An introduction that motivates the problem and states your contributions.
• Related work that makes clear what is yours and what is not.
• A description of your method or system.
• Results and evaluation, with data or figures behind the claims.
• Limitations and future work.
• References.

Roughly six to eight two-column pages, excluding references and appendices. LaTeX with a standard conference template (for example USENIX or PoPETs) is strongly encouraged.

On writing well, see Simon Peyton Jones's How to Write a Great Research Paper and Henning Schulzrinne's Writing Technical Articles.