Final Report - Format
2 Columns, 10pt font on 12pt
leading in standard ACM paper
format
Letter-sized paper
LaTeX and Word templates
provided on course webpage
LaTeX strongly preferred over
Word
Common Examples for Format
Violation
Using a different template (e.g., one-column article)
Required: standard ACM format
Incorrect font size
Required: 10pt font on 12pt leading
Change the margins
Required: 9.25" by 3.33" for each column, with 0.33" space
between columns
Your PDF will be checked by an automated format
checker and manually (to confirm format violation)
You lose points if formats are violated
Page Limit
Minimum # pages (excluding Reference and
Individual Contribution sections) is 6
No upper limit of # pages
You lose points if the main body of the paper is less
than 6 pages
You lose points if obvious attempt of inflating
pages is found
Paper Content
Structure of a paper
Abstract
Introduction
Related work
Problem statement and Solution overview
Design / Methodology
Implementation
Evaluation / Findings
Discussion
Conclusion
Reference
Introduction
Give the big picture and motivate the problem
What is the problem?
Why is this problem important? Why do people care?
Briefly review the state-of-the-art
[System] At high-level, what are the existing approaches to
address this problem? What are their limitations?
[Measurement] At high-level, what are the common sense
of this problem?
Optionally, present some use cases / motivating
examples
Briefly describe the key idea your approach
Any challenges addressed?
Briefly summarized the key results / findings
Mentioning some numbers will be helpful
Related Work
Dont need to be long (~1/2 page is fine)
Discuss some (e.g., 5~6) popular existing papers /
approaches
Comment on strengths / weaknesses
Compare to your approach / findings
Problem Statement and
Solution Overview
Optional
Problem statement: need if the problem itself is
complex
Solution overview: need if the solution itself is
complex
Using a architectural diagram / flowchart might be
helpful
Usually do not need a separate section (but
sometime people do)
Design / Methodology
Very important Section
[System] Describe each component of your system
How does it work?
Justify your design: why do you choose this design over
others?
Any key tradeoffs?
[Measurement] Describe your measurement
methodologies
Implementation
Describe any implementation details
Usually at most 1 page. Do not put in too much
details
Usually do not needed for measurement paper
Evaluation / Findings
Very important Section
[System] Evaluate different aspects of your systems
[Measurement] Describe your measurement
findings
Need take-away message for each conducted
measurement
This usually takes most pages of a measurement paper
Discussion and Conclusion
Discussion
Optional
Briefly comment on any other issues not
mentioned before, be short.
Conclusion
Usually a short paragraph
Can use 1-2 sentences to discuss any future work
Reference
Does not count into the required 6 pages
Making each reference item compact is fine
Paper Content
Structure of a paper
Abstract
Introduction
Related work
Problem statement and Solution overview (optional)
Design / Methodology
What a solid paper always
Implementation
have (plus great ideas)
Evaluation / Findings
Discussion (optional)
Conclusion
Its not necessary that each part
Reference
takes one section.
Tailor this structure to your paper
Use existing papers as examples
Individual Contribution
Include an Individual Contribution section to
describe the role of each team member
Who did what
Does not count into the required 6 pages
What to submit
You need to submit everything
Final report due at 23:59:59 on 5/1
Project report in PDF
Project report source (doc or latex source with images)
Other materials due at 15:59:59 on 5/4
All raw data and intermediate results
Source code and binary code (with instructions of how
to run your code)
Presentation slides
Instructions of uploading them will be posted soon
Recap
Strictly respect to the format requirements
Carefully think about how to structure the report
[System] Design and evaluation are the important parts
[Measurement] Findings and take-aways are important
Need an individual contribution section
Submit everything before the corresponding deadlines
