An important component of this class is the reading and discussions of systems research papers. To help you with this and to ensure we have a productive discussion in class, you are required to write a concise summary for the required papers before each class and submit the review on the review site.
We have provided a summary template to help you write the review. You do not have to follow the outline. But your review must summarize the key points of the paper and your thoughts. We also include a question for each paper in the assignment column of the schedule page. You need to answer the questions in your summary. If there are two or more required papers listed in one lecture, you are required to write a review for one of them (typically the first listed paper will be discussed extensively, so we suggest you to write review for that paper). You are encouraged to briefly compared and contrast that paper with the others in your review. But note, this choice only applies to the review—you must still read all the required papers.
Your reviews should not copy-paste large chunk of the paper’s descriptions. They must come from your own interpretation and thinking. We encourage you to form a discussion/reading group to more effectively read the papers. But you should write the reviews independently.
You are also welcome to include in your summary the questions that you would like to be discussed in class. If a paper is too confusing to understand, please write a critique to demonstrate your effort to engage, and hopefully encourage discussion from others who struggled similarly.