WARNING If you want any of your homeworks back, my office hours next Friday (May 23rd) will be the last chance to get them. I will have all homeworks that I have graded during every office hours up to and including next Friday, then they're getting shredded.

> I have a question concerning the term paper. I'm writing about the
> security features in IPv6. Do I have to write a regular research paper
> on the topic, or do I have to do something like:" ....In this paper he
> explains ..... and then ......Whereas in that paper bla bla
> bla.....". Prof. Konheim says in his lecture notes, "The term paper is
> to include a summary of the papers and your evaluation of the papers'
> contribution".
> What does  he mean by that ???

From: Ted Huffmire

The contribution of an academic paper is the impact of the paper. 
What is the goal of the paper? Did the authors accomplish that goal?
There are a lot of bad computer science papers out there: are their ideas well
formed and clearly explained? Is the paper organized in a logical way?
In the results section, do they present data that backs up their claims? Do
they include graphs that clearly show that their idea is a good one?
How is the paper related to other papers in this area? Does it improve an idea
in some other paper? 

The most important point of a paper is its vision: do they have a future work
section that makes proposals about how to improve this scheme? It's important
for an academic paper to have a vision -- academics are supposed to make an educated
prediction about how this technology will play out in the future.

> I have some rather embarassing questions for you...too embarassing to ask 
> Professor Konheim.  I may have missed this announcement in lecture or maybe 
> missed the event altogether: do we have a midterm sometime?  Hopefully I 

No midterm, no final.

> haven't missed it already.  Oops.  Also, can you tell me the specs of the 
> research paper?  Do we have to get a topic approved before we can begin?  

Yes, Dr. Konheim will announce in lecture when you should be turning in 
your project proposals (more of a topic name than a formal proposal).

He will then approve your project idea, and then you can start writing.

Specs: you will choose at least two papers dealing with some topic in 
cryptology, and write a paper about them.  There is no page limit but 5-10 
double spaced seems reasonable.