All students in this course will be required to complete a project throughout the semester. Students can work in groups of three students (more maybe allowed after discussing with the instructor). The scope of the project will scale with the size of the group. Project topic should be relevant to known real-world privacy incident or issue. Your task can be: 1) analyze the privacy incident/problem highlighting how the incident happened, its impact and ways to solve it; 2) conduct measurement studies to showcase the prominence of a known privacy issue; 3) develop counteremasures to an existing privacy issue; or 4) conduct user oriented studies to highlight gaps in the mental model of common users.

Schedule

The various project assignments are designed to make sure you make proper progress on your project. These assignments will enable you to obtain early feedback on your ongoing work. All project related assignments will be graded within one to two weeks if they are submitted on time. No late assignments will be accepted, except for legitimate reasons. Students may also submit these assignments early for early feedback.

Deliverables

Topic Selection

One submission per group through a Google form. You are expected to submit your own topic ideas (provide a small paragraph describing the topic you want to work on). Please submit two to three ideas using the following Google Form. You can propose to work in groups of three students.

Project Progress Discussion

You will get 10-15 minutes to present your ongoing project work. Project presentation is an opportunity for you (and your team) to get early feedback on your ongoing work. To ensure you make the best use of this opportunity, please outline your presentation to include the following items (this is a rough outline, so feel free to modify as you see fit):

• Motivation for the project and problem statement (1-2 slide)
• Proposed approach (2-3 slides)
• Progress thus far (1 slide)
• Next steps (1-2 slides)
• Questions (1 slide)

Grading rubric

Final Project Elevator Pitch

You will get 3 minutes to present your ongoing project work. To ensure you make the best use of this opportunity, please outline your presentation to include the following items (this is a rough outline, so feel free to modify as you see fit):

• Motivation for the project and problem statement (1 slide)
• Proposed approach (1-2 slides)
• Findings (1 slide)

Grading rubric

Final Report

One submission per group. After title provide all the team member names and unity IDs. Submission should be in PDF. Final report should contain link to GitHub or Google drive for relevant code and data.

Here are some things we will be looking for in your report:

• A well-structured report with appropriate sections with following sections:
  • Introduction and motivation
  • Related literature/work
  • Proposed research
  • Findings (explanation followed by highlighted takeaway message statement)
  • Future directions (in bullet points)
  • Team contribution (who lead what parts)
  • Reference (IEEE or ACM format)
• Properly formatted bibliography with an appropriate number of references (most reports should have at least 10 references; references can include online blogs, and conference or journal papers).
• Paper that has been spell checked and proof read. If English is not your native language, please request a friend to help you proof-read your final paper before you submit it. Also, take advantage of word processors with spell checkers and grammar checkers. There are also writing centers on campus with tutors who can assist you.
• Well formatted paper (adequate margins and spacing, proper font size, clear figures with appropriate captions, etc.).

Please submit your final paper in PDF format.

Grading rubric