Course Project

Your class project is an opportunity for you to explore an interesting cybersecurity topic in more detail, with hands-on experience. This project should involve some form of implementation (coding, app development, virtual environment) and the scope of the project should reflect the size of the group.

Project Deliverables

  • Meeting with Dr. Polanco, Week 3 - Friday (5%)
  • Topic Selection, Week 3 - Friday (5%)
  • Midway Report, Week 6 - Friday: 3-5 pages (25%)
  • Presentation, Week 10 - Sunday: (25%)
  • Final Report, Week 11 - Monday : 6-8 pages (40%)

Note: You should try to make all the write-ups in the form of Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), IEEE style, or in two-column format (for IEEE or column format, the number of pages will be half: 1-3 for the midway report and 3 for the final report). I can also assist with anyone interested in learning or using Overleaf (this is a good tool if you like writing but with a "coding" twist).

Meeting with Dr. Polanco (Due Date: Week 3 - Friday)

This meeting will be a completion grade, but is intended for an indiviaul (or a group) to either begin brainstorming or refine a course project idea. This meeting is for your benefit, the more you prepare the more productive it can be. These are some things you can brainstorm prior to the meeting:

  • Project Idea (3 would be great!)
  • Software you will need
  • Necessary skills needed to complete
  • Teammate and work division (if applicable)

Topic Selection (Due Date: Week 3 - Friday)

This needs to be a clear definition of what you are going to accomplish for this project.

Midway Report (Due Date: Week 6 - Friday)

It serves as a checkpoint. By this date, you should have done the background work necessary and completed an environment setup for the projecct. The report should be around 3-5 pages (double spaced, half for single spaced) and include:

  • Background section describing the problem
  • Description of the method(s) used
  • Experiment section detailing the task and results
  • Optional: Related work section

You can find a few more details here.

Presentation (Date: Week 10 - Monday - Friday)

All project members should be present during all presentation times. Each team will have:

  • 8-10 minutes to present their work (per person)
  • 5 minutes for questions

*This may seem like a large amount of time, but remember you may need to assist your fellow students with background knowledge necessary to understand the work.

Final Report (Due Date: Week 11 - Wednesday)

I will take a look at a a draft of your final report ONCE, but it is due Week 10 Wednesday by midnight.

The structure of the final report is similar to that of the midterm report, in fact it should build on your midway report (to a degree). By this time, you should have completed the task originally intended and included success/failure. This should be 6-8 pages (double spaced, half for single spaced) and include:

  • Introduction
  • Results
  • Future Work
  • Conclusions

Sample Project Ideas

  • Cybersecurity Incident Response Simulation Tool
  • Phishing/Cybersecurity Awareness Simulation Tool
  • Machine Learning-based Intrusion Detection
  • Firewall Implementation Simulator