| author | Christian Urban <urbanc@in.tum.de> | 
| Tue, 11 Jun 2019 21:36:37 +0100 | |
| changeset 576 | 0fba53d52491 | 
| parent 465 | 4dac76eb27d9 | 
| permissions | -rw-r--r-- | 
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changeset | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> | 
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changeset | 2 | <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> | 
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changeset | 3 | <HEAD> | 
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changeset | 4 | <TITLE>2015/16 MSc Projects</TITLE> | 
| 465 | 5 | <BASE HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/"> | 
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changeset | 6 | <script type="text/javascript" src="striper.js"></script> | 
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changeset | 7 | <link rel="stylesheet" href="nominal.css"> | 
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changeset | 8 | <script type="text/javascript" src="http://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML"> | 
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changeset | 9 | </script> | 
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changeset | 10 | </HEAD> | 
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changeset | 14 | VLINK="#51188E" | 
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changeset | 15 | ALINK="#FF0000" | 
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changeset | 16 |       ONLOAD="striper('ul','striped','li','first,second')">
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changeset | 17 | |
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changeset | 20 | <TABLE WIDTH="100%" | 
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changeset | 21 | BGCOLOR="#4169E1" | 
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changeset | 22 | BORDER="0" | 
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changeset | 23 | FRAME="border" | 
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changeset | 24 | CELLPADDING="10" | 
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changeset | 25 | CELLSPACING="2" | 
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changeset | 26 | RULES="all"> | 
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changeset | 27 | |
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changeset | 28 | <TR> | 
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changeset | 30 | WIDTH="75%" | 
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changeset | 31 | VALIGN="TOP"> | 
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changeset | 32 | |
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changeset | 33 | <H2>2015/16 MSc Projects</H2> | 
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changeset | 34 | <H4>Supervisor: Christian Urban</H4> | 
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changeset | 35 | <H4>Email: christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk, Office: Strand Building S1.27</H4> | 
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changeset | 36 | <H4>If you are interested in a project, please send me an email and we can discuss details. Please include | 
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changeset | 37 | a short description about your programming skills and Computer Science background in your first email. | 
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changeset | 38 | I will also need your King's username in order to book the project for you. Thanks.</H4> | 
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changeset | 39 | |
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changeset | 40 | <H4>Note that besides being a lecturer at the theoretical end of Computer Science, I am also a passionate | 
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changeset | 41 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)">hacker</A> … | 
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changeset | 42 | defined as “a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and | 
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changeset | 43 | stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum | 
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changeset | 44 | necessary.” I am always happy to supervise like-minded students. | 
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changeset | 45 | |
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changeset | 46 | <p>In 2013/14, I was nominated by the students | 
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changeset | 47 | for the best BSc project supervisor and best MSc project supervisor awards in the NMS | 
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changeset | 48 | faculty. Somehow I won both. In 2014/15 I was nominated again for the best MSc | 
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changeset | 49 | project suporvisor, but did not win it. ;o)</H4> | 
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changeset | 50 | |
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changeset | 51 | <ul class="striped"> | 
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changeset | 52 | <li> <H4>[CU1] Regular Expression Matching, Lexing and Derivatives</H4> | 
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changeset | 53 | |
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changeset | 54 | <p> | 
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changeset | 55 | <B>Description:</b> | 
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changeset | 56 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression">Regular expressions</A> | 
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changeset | 57 | are extremely useful for many text-processing tasks, such as finding patterns in texts, | 
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changeset | 58 | lexing programs, syntax highlighting and so on. Given that regular expressions were | 
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changeset | 59 | introduced in 1950 by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cole_Kleene">Stephen Kleene</A>, | 
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changeset | 60 | you might think regular expressions have since been studied and implemented to death. But you would definitely be | 
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changeset | 61 | mistaken: in fact they are still an active research area. For example | 
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changeset | 62 | <A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">this paper</A> | 
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changeset | 63 | about regular expression matching and derivatives was presented just last summer at the international | 
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changeset | 64 | FLOPS'14 conference. The task in this project is to implement their results and use them for lexing.</p> | 
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changeset | 65 | |
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changeset | 66 | <p>The background for this project is that some regular expressions are | 
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changeset | 67 | “<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReDoS#Examples">evil</A>” | 
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changeset | 68 | and can “stab you in the back” according to | 
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changeset | 69 | this <A HREF="http://peterscott.github.io/2013/01/17/regular-expressions-will-stab-you-in-the-back/">blog post</A>. | 
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changeset | 70 | For example, if you use in <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A> or | 
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changeset | 71 | in <A HREF="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/">Ruby</A> (or also in a number of other mainstream programming languages) the | 
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changeset | 72 |   innocently looking regular expression <code>a?{28}a{28}</code> and match it, say, against the string 
 | 
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changeset | 73 | <code>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa</code> (that is 28 <code>a</code>s), you will soon notice that your CPU usage goes to 100%. In fact, | 
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changeset | 74 | Python and Ruby need approximately 30 seconds of hard work for matching this string. You can try it for yourself: | 
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changeset | 75 | <A HREF="http://www.dcs.kcl.ac.uk/staff/urbanc/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/re.py">re.py</A> (Python version) and | 
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changeset | 76 | <A HREF="http://www.dcs.kcl.ac.uk/staff/urbanc/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/re.rb">re.rb</A> | 
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changeset | 77 | (Ruby version). You can imagine an attacker | 
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changeset | 78 | mounting a nice <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack">DoS attack</A> against | 
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changeset | 79 | your program if it contains such an “evil” regular expression. Actually | 
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changeset | 80 | <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A> (and also Java) are almost immune from such | 
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changeset | 81 | attacks as they can deal with strings of up to 4,300 <code>a</code>s in less than a second. But if you scale | 
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changeset | 82 | the regular expression and string further to, say, 4,600 <code>a</code>s, then you get a <code>StackOverflowError</code> | 
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changeset | 83 | potentially crashing your program. Moreover (beside the "minor" problem of being painfully slow) according to this | 
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changeset | 84 | <A HREF="http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Regex_Posix">report</A> | 
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changeset | 85 | nearly all regular expression matchers using the POSIX rules are actually buggy. | 
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changeset | 86 | </p> | 
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changeset | 87 | |
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changeset | 88 | <p> | 
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changeset | 89 | On a rainy afternoon, I implemented | 
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changeset | 90 | <A HREF="http://www.dcs.kcl.ac.uk/staff/urbanc/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/re3.scala">this</A> | 
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changeset | 91 | regular expression matcher in Scala. It is not as fast as the official one in Scala, but | 
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changeset | 92 | it can match up to 11,000 <code>a</code>s in less than 5 seconds without raising any exception | 
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changeset | 93 | (remember Python and Ruby both need nearly 30 seconds to process 28(!) <code>a</code>s, and Scala's | 
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changeset | 94 | official matcher maxes out at 4,600 <code>a</code>s). My matcher is approximately | 
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changeset | 95 | 85 lines of code and based on the concept of | 
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changeset | 96 | <A HREF="http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/2293">derivatives of regular expressions</A>. | 
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changeset | 97 | These derivatives were introduced in 1964 by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Brzozowski_(computer_scientist)"> | 
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changeset | 98 | Janusz Brzozowski</A>, but according to this | 
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changeset | 99 | <A HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~so294/documents/jfp09.pdf">paper</A> had been lost in the “sands of time”. | 
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changeset | 100 | The advantage of derivatives is that they side-step completely the usual | 
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changeset | 101 | <A HREF="http://hackingoff.com/compilers/regular-expression-to-nfa-dfa">translations</A> of regular expressions | 
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changeset | 102 | into NFAs or DFAs, which can introduce the exponential behaviour exhibited by the regular | 
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changeset | 103 | expression matchers in Python and Ruby. | 
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changeset | 104 | </p> | 
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changeset | 105 | |
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changeset | 106 | <p> | 
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changeset | 107 | Now the authors from the | 
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changeset | 108 | <A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">FLOPS'14-paper</A> mentioned | 
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changeset | 109 | above claim they are even faster than me and can deal with even more features of regular expressions | 
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changeset | 110 | (for example subexpression matching, which my rainy-afternoon matcher cannot). I am sure they thought | 
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changeset | 111 | about the problem much longer than a single afternoon. The task | 
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changeset | 112 | in this project is to find out how good they actually are by implementing the results from their paper. | 
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changeset | 113 | Their approach to regular expression matching is also based on the concept of derivatives. | 
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changeset | 114 | I used derivatives very successfully once for something completely different in a | 
| 465 | 115 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/rexp.pdf">paper</A> | 
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changeset | 116 | about the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myhill–Nerode_theorem">Myhill-Nerode theorem</A>. | 
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changeset | 117 | So I know they are worth their money. Still, it would be interesting to actually compare their results | 
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changeset | 118 | with my simple rainy-afternoon matcher and potentially “blow away” the regular expression matchers | 
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changeset | 119 | in Python and Ruby (and possibly in Scala too). The application would be to implement a fast lexer for | 
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changeset | 120 | programming languages. | 
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changeset | 121 | </p> | 
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changeset | 122 | |
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changeset | 123 | <p> | 
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changeset | 124 | <B>Literature:</B> | 
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changeset | 125 | The place to start with this project is obviously this | 
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changeset | 126 | <A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">paper</A> | 
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changeset | 127 | and this <A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/ppdp12-part-deriv-sub-match.pdf">one</A>. | 
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changeset | 128 | Traditional methods for regular expression matching are explained | 
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changeset | 129 | in the Wikipedia articles | 
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changeset | 130 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFA_minimization">here</A> and | 
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changeset | 131 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerset_construction">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 132 | The authoritative <A HREF="http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/ialc.html">book</A> | 
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changeset | 133 | on automata and regular expressions is by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullmann (available in the library). | 
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changeset | 134 | There is also an online course about this topic by Ullman at | 
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changeset | 135 | <A HREF="https://www.coursera.org/course/automata">Coursera</A>, though IMHO not | 
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changeset | 136 | done with love. | 
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changeset | 137 | Finally, there are millions of other pointers about regular expression | 
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changeset | 138 | matching on the Web. I found the chapter on Lexing in this | 
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changeset | 139 | <A HREF="http://www.diku.dk/~torbenm/Basics/">online book</A> very helpful. | 
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changeset | 140 | Test cases for “<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReDoS#Examples">evil</A>” | 
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changeset | 141 | regular expressions can be obtained from <A HREF="http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Regex_Posix">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 142 | </p> | 
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changeset | 143 | |
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changeset | 144 | <p> | 
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changeset | 145 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
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changeset | 146 | This is a project for a student with an interest in theory and some | 
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changeset | 147 | good programming skills. The project can be easily implemented | 
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changeset | 148 | in functional languages like | 
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changeset | 149 | <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>, | 
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changeset | 150 | <A HREF="http://fsharp.org">F#</A>, | 
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changeset | 151 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_ML">ML</A>, | 
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changeset | 152 | <A HREF="http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell">Haskell</A>, etc. Python and other non-functional languages | 
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changeset | 153 | can be also used, but seem much less convenient. If you attend my Formal Languages and | 
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changeset | 154 | Automata module, that would obviously give you a head-start with this project. | 
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changeset | 155 | </p> | 
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changeset | 156 | |
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changeset | 157 | <li> <H4>[CU2] A Compiler for a small Programming Language</H4> | 
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changeset | 158 | |
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changeset | 159 | <p> | 
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changeset | 160 | <b>Description:</b> | 
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changeset | 161 | Compilers translate high-level programs that humans can read and write into | 
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changeset | 162 | efficient machine code that can be run on a CPU or virtual machine. | 
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changeset | 163 | A compiler for a simple functional language generating X86 code is described | 
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changeset | 164 | <A HREF="https://github.com/chameco/Shade">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 165 | I recently implemented a very simple compiler for an even simpler functional | 
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changeset | 166 | programming language following this | 
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changeset | 167 | <A HREF="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dpw/papers/tal-toplas.pdf">paper</A> | 
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changeset | 168 | (also described <A HREF="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dpw/papers/tal-tr.pdf">here</A>). | 
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changeset | 169 | My code, written in <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>, of this compiler is | 
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changeset | 170 | <A HREF="http://www.dcs.kcl.ac.uk/staff/urbanc/compiler.scala">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 171 | The compiler can deal with simple programs involving natural numbers, such | 
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changeset | 172 | as Fibonacci numbers or factorial (but it can be easily extended - that is not the point). | 
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changeset | 173 | </p> | 
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changeset | 174 | |
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changeset | 175 | <p> | 
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changeset | 176 | While the hard work has been done (understanding the two papers above), | 
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changeset | 177 | my compiler only produces some idealised machine code. For example I | 
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changeset | 178 | assume there are infinitely many registers. The goal of this | 
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changeset | 179 | project is to generate machine code that is more realistic and can | 
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changeset | 180 | run on a CPU, like X86, or run on a virtual machine, say the JVM. | 
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changeset | 181 | This gives probably a speedup of thousand times in comparison to | 
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changeset | 182 | my naive machine code and virtual machine. The project | 
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changeset | 183 | requires to dig into the literature about real CPUs and generating | 
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changeset | 184 | real machine code. | 
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changeset | 185 | </p> | 
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changeset | 186 | <p> | 
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changeset | 187 | An alternative is to not generate machine code, but build a compiler that compiles to | 
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changeset | 188 | <A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/js/">JavaScript</A>. This is the language that is supported by most | 
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changeset | 189 | browsers and therefore is a favourite | 
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changeset | 190 | vehicle for Web-programming. Some call it <B>the</B> scripting language of the Web. | 
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changeset | 191 | Unfortunately, JavaScript is also probably one of the worst | 
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changeset | 192 | languages to program in (being designed and released in a hurry). <B>But</B> it can be used as a convenient target | 
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changeset | 193 | for translating programs from other languages. In particular there are two | 
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changeset | 194 | very optimised subsets of JavaScript that can be used for this purpose: | 
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changeset | 195 | one is <A HREF="http://asmjs.org">asm.js</A> and the other is | 
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changeset | 196 | <A HREF="https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/wiki">emscripten</A>. | 
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changeset | 197 | There is a <A HREF="http://kripken.github.io/emscripten-site/docs/getting_started/Tutorial.html">tutorial</A> for emscripten | 
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changeset | 198 | and an impressive <A HREF="https://youtu.be/c2uNDlP4RiE">demo</A> which runs the | 
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changeset | 199 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine">Unreal Engine 3</A> | 
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changeset | 200 | in a browser with spectacular speed. This was achieved by compiling the | 
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changeset | 201 | C-code of the Unreal Engine to the LLVM intermediate language and then translating the LLVM | 
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changeset | 202 | code to JavaScript. | 
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changeset | 203 | </p> | 
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changeset | 204 | |
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changeset | 205 | <p> | 
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changeset | 206 | <B>Literature:</B> | 
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changeset | 207 | There is a lot of literature about compilers | 
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changeset | 208 | (for example <A HREF="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/papers/cwc.html">this book</A> - | 
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changeset | 209 | I can lend you my copy for the duration of the project, or this | 
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changeset | 210 | <A HREF="http://www.diku.dk/~torbenm/Basics/">online book</A>). A very good overview article | 
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changeset | 211 | about implementing compilers by | 
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changeset | 212 | <A HREF="http://tratt.net/laurie/">Laurie Tratt</A> is | 
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changeset | 213 | <A HREF="http://tratt.net/laurie/tech_articles/articles/how_difficult_is_it_to_write_a_compiler">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 214 | An online book about the Art of Assembly Language is | 
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changeset | 215 | <A HREF="http://flint.cs.yale.edu/cs422/doc/art-of-asm/pdf/">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 216 | An introduction into x86 machine code is <A HREF="http://ianseyler.github.com/easy_x86-64/">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 217 | Intel's official manual for the x86 instruction is | 
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changeset | 218 | <A HREF="http://download.intel.com/design/intarch/manuals/24319101.pdf">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 219 | Two assemblers for the JVM are described <A HREF="http://jasmin.sourceforge.net">here</A> | 
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changeset | 220 | <A HREF="https://github.com/Storyyeller/Krakatau">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 221 | An interesting twist of this project is to not generate code for a CPU, but | 
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changeset | 222 | for the intermediate language of the <A HREF="http://llvm.org">LLVM</A> compiler | 
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changeset | 223 | (also described <A HREF="http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html">here</A>). If you want to see | 
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changeset | 224 | what machine code looks like you can compile your C-program using gcc -S. | 
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changeset | 225 | </p> | 
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changeset | 226 | <p> | 
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changeset | 227 | If JavaScript is chosen as a target instead, then there are plenty of <A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/js/">tutorials</A> on the Web. | 
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changeset | 228 | <A HREF="http://jsbooks.revolunet.com">Here</A> is a list of free books on JavaScript. | 
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changeset | 229 | A project from which you can draw inspiration is this | 
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changeset | 230 | <A HREF="http://jlongster.com/Outlet--My-Lisp-to-Javascript-Experiment">Lisp-to-JavaScript</A> | 
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changeset | 231 | translator. <A HREF="https://bitbucket.org/ktg/parenjs/overview">Here</A> is another such project. | 
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changeset | 232 | And <A HREF="https://github.com/viclib/liscript">another</A> in less than 100 lines of code. | 
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changeset | 233 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoffeeScript">Coffeescript</A> is a similar project | 
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changeset | 234 | except that it is already quite <A HREF="http://coffeescript.org">mature</A>. And finally not to | 
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changeset | 235 | forget <A HREF="http://www.typescriptlang.org">TypeScript</A> developed by Microsoft. The main | 
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changeset | 236 | difference between these projects and this one is that they translate into relatively high-level | 
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changeset | 237 | JavaScript code; none of them use the much lower levels <A HREF="http://asmjs.org">asm.js</A> and | 
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changeset | 238 | <A HREF="https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/wiki">emscripten</A>. | 
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changeset | 239 | </p> | 
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changeset | 240 | <p> | 
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changeset | 241 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
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changeset | 242 | This is a project for a student with a deep interest in programming languages and | 
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changeset | 243 | compilers. Since my compiler is implemented in <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>, | 
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changeset | 244 | it would make sense to continue this project in this language. I can be | 
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changeset | 245 | of help with questions and books about <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>. | 
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changeset | 246 | But if Scala is a problem, my code can also be translated quickly into any other functional | 
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changeset | 247 | language. | 
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changeset | 248 | </p> | 
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changeset | 249 | |
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changeset | 250 | <p> | 
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changeset | 251 | <B>PS:</B> Compiler projects consistently received high marks in the past. | 
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changeset | 252 | I have suprvised five so far and none of them received a mark below 70% - one even was awarded a prize. | 
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changeset | 253 | </p> | 
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changeset | 254 | |
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changeset | 255 | <li> <H4>[CU3] Slide-Making in the Web-Age</H4> | 
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changeset | 256 | |
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changeset | 257 | <p> | 
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changeset | 258 | The standard technology for writing scientific papers in Computer Science is to use | 
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changeset | 259 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX">LaTeX</A>, a document preparation | 
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changeset | 260 | system originally implemented by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth">Donald Knuth</A> | 
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changeset | 261 | and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport">Leslie Lamport</A>. | 
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changeset | 262 | LaTeX produces very pleasantly looking documents, can deal nicely with mathematical | 
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changeset | 263 | formulas and is very flexible. If you are interested, <A HREF="http://openwetware.org/wiki/Word_vs._LaTeX">here</A> | 
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changeset | 264 | is a side-by-side comparison between Word and LaTeX (which LaTeX “wins” with 18 out of 21 points). | 
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changeset | 265 | Computer scientists not only use LaTeX for documents, | 
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changeset | 266 | but also for slides (really, nobody who wants to be cool uses Keynote or Powerpoint). | 
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changeset | 267 | </p> | 
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changeset | 268 | |
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changeset | 269 | <p> | 
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changeset | 270 | Although used widely, LaTeX seems nowadays a bit dated for producing | 
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changeset | 271 | slides. Unlike documents, which are typically “static” and published in a book or journal, | 
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changeset | 272 | slides often contain changing contents that might first only be partially visible and | 
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changeset | 273 | only later be revealed as the “story” of a talk or lecture demands. | 
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changeset | 274 | Also slides often contain animated algorithms where each state in the | 
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changeset | 275 | calculation is best explained by highlighting the changing data. | 
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changeset | 276 | </p> | 
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changeset | 277 | |
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changeset | 278 | <p> | 
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changeset | 279 | It seems HTML and JavaScript are much better suited for generating | 
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changeset | 280 | such animated slides. This <A HREF="http://www.impressivewebs.com/html-slidedeck-toolkits/">page</A> | 
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changeset | 281 | links to slide-generating programs using this combination of technologies. | 
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changeset | 282 | However, the problem with all of these project is that they depend heavily on the users being | 
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changeset | 283 | able to write JavaScript, CCS or HTML...not something one would like to depend on given that | 
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changeset | 284 | “normal” users likely only have a LaTeX background. The aim of this project is to invent a | 
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changeset | 285 | very simple language that is inspired by LaTeX and then generate from code written in this language | 
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changeset | 286 | slides that can be displayed in a web-browser. An example would be the | 
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changeset | 287 | <A HREF="https://www.madoko.net">Madoko</A> project. | 
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changeset | 288 | </p> | 
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changeset | 289 | |
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changeset | 290 | <p> | 
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changeset | 291 | This sounds complicated, but there is already some help available: | 
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changeset | 292 | <A HREF="http://www.mathjax.org">Mathjax</A> is a JavaScript library that can | 
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changeset | 293 | be used to display mathematical text, for example | 
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changeset | 294 | |
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changeset | 295 | <blockquote> | 
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changeset | 296 | <p>When \(a \ne 0\), there are two solutions to \(ax^2 + bx + c = 0\) and they are | 
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changeset | 297 |  \(x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}\).</p>
 | 
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changeset | 298 | </blockquote> | 
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changeset | 299 | |
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changeset | 300 | by writing code in the familiar LaTeX-way. This can be reused. | 
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changeset | 301 | Another such library is <A HREF="http://khan.github.io/KaTeX/">KaTeX</A>. | 
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changeset | 302 | There are also plenty of JavaScript | 
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changeset | 303 | libraries for graphical animations (for example | 
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changeset | 304 | <A HREF="http://raphaeljs.com">Raphael</A>, | 
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changeset | 305 | <A HREF="http://svgjs.com">SVG.JS</A>, | 
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changeset | 306 | <A HREF="http://bonsaijs.org">Bonsaijs</A>, | 
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changeset | 307 | <A HREF="http://jsxgraph.uni-bayreuth.de/wp/">JSXGraph</A>). The inspiration for how the user should be able to write | 
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changeset | 308 | slides could come from the LaTeX packages <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamer_(LaTeX)">Beamer</A> | 
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changeset | 309 | and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGF/TikZ">PGF/TikZ</A>. A slide-making project from which | 
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changeset | 310 | inspiration can be drawn is <A HREF="http://maciejczyzewski.me/hyhyhy/">hyhyhy</A>. | 
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changeset | 311 | </p> | 
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changeset | 312 | |
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changeset | 313 | <p> | 
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changeset | 314 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
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changeset | 315 | This is a project that requires good knowledge of JavaScript. You need to be able to | 
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changeset | 316 | parse a language and translate it to a suitable part of JavaScript using | 
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changeset | 317 | appropriate libraries. Tutorials for JavaScript are <A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/js/">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 318 | A parser generator for JavaScript is <A HREF="http://pegjs.majda.cz">here</A>. There are probably also | 
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changeset | 319 | others. If you want to avoid JavaScript there are a number of alternatives: for example the | 
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changeset | 320 | <A HREF="http://elm-lang.org">Elm</A> | 
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changeset | 321 | language has been especially designed for implementing with ease interactive animations, which would be | 
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changeset | 322 | very convenient for this project. | 
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changeset | 323 | </p> | 
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changeset | 324 | |
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changeset | 325 | <li> <H4>[CU4] An Online Student Voting System</H4> | 
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changeset | 326 | |
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changeset | 327 | <p> | 
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changeset | 328 | <B>Description:</B> | 
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changeset | 329 | One of the more annoying aspects of giving a lecture is to ask a question | 
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changeset | 330 | to the students and no matter how easy the question is to not | 
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changeset | 331 | receive any answer. The online course system | 
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changeset | 332 | <A HREF="http://www.udacity.com">Udacity</A>, in contrast, made an art out of | 
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changeset | 333 | asking questions during lectures (see for example the | 
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changeset | 334 | <A HREF="http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs253/CourseRev/apr2012">Web Application Engineering</A> | 
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changeset | 335 | course CS253). | 
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changeset | 336 | The lecturer there gives multiple-choice questions as part of the lecture and the students need to | 
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changeset | 337 | click on the appropriate answer. This works very well in the online world. | 
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changeset | 338 | For “real-world” lectures, the department has some | 
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changeset | 339 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_response">clickers</A> | 
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changeset | 340 | (these are little devices which form a part of an audience response systems). However, | 
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changeset | 341 | they are a logistic nightmare for the lecturer: they need to be distributed | 
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changeset | 342 | during the lecture and collected at the end. Nowadays, where students | 
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changeset | 343 | come with their own laptop or smartphone to lectures, this can | 
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changeset | 344 | be improved. | 
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changeset | 345 | </p> | 
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changeset | 346 | |
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changeset | 347 | <p> | 
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changeset | 348 | The task of this project is to implement an online student | 
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changeset | 349 | polling system. The lecturer should be able to prepare | 
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changeset | 350 | questions beforehand (encoded as some web-form) and be able to | 
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changeset | 351 | show them during the lecture. The students | 
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changeset | 352 | can give their answers by clicking on the corresponding webpage. | 
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changeset | 353 | The lecturer can then collect the responses online and evaluate them | 
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changeset | 354 | immediately. Such a system is sometimes called | 
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changeset | 355 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_response#Smartphone_.2F_HTTP_voting">HTML voting</A>. | 
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changeset | 356 | There are a number of commercial | 
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changeset | 357 | solutions for this problem, but they are not easy to use (in addition | 
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changeset | 358 | to being ridiculously expensive). A good student can easily improve upon | 
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changeset | 359 | what they provide. | 
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changeset | 360 | </p> | 
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changeset | 361 | |
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changeset | 362 | <p> | 
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changeset | 363 | The problem of student polling is not as hard as | 
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changeset | 364 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voting">electronic voting</A>, | 
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changeset | 365 | which essentially is still an unsolved problem in Computer Science. The | 
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changeset | 366 | students only need to be prevented from answering question more than once thus skewing | 
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changeset | 367 | any statistics. Unlike electronic voting, no audit trail needs to be kept | 
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changeset | 368 | for student polling. Restricting the number of answers can probably be solved | 
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changeset | 369 | by setting appropriate cookies on the students | 
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changeset | 370 | computers or smart phones. | 
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changeset | 371 | </p> | 
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changeset | 372 | |
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changeset | 373 | <p> | 
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changeset | 374 | <B>Literature:</B> | 
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changeset | 375 | The project requires fluency in a web-programming language (for example | 
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changeset | 376 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript">JavaScript</A>, | 
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changeset | 377 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(programming_language)">Go</A>, | 
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changeset | 378 | <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>). However JavaScript with | 
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changeset | 379 | the <A HREF="http://nodejs.org">Node.js</A> extension seems to be best suited for the job. | 
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changeset | 380 | <A HREF="http://www.nodebeginner.org">Here</A> is a tutorial on Node.js for beginners. | 
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changeset | 381 | For web-programming the | 
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changeset | 382 | <A HREF="http://www.udacity.com/overview/Course/cs253/CourseRev/apr2012">Web Application Engineering</A> | 
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changeset | 383 | course at <A HREF="http://www.udacity.com">Udacity</A> is a good starting point | 
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changeset | 384 | to be aware of the issues involved. This course uses <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A>. | 
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changeset | 385 | To evaluate the answers from the students, Google's | 
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changeset | 386 | <A HREF="https://developers.google.com/chart/image/docs/making_charts">Chart Tools</A> | 
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changeset | 387 | might be useful, which is also described in this | 
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changeset | 388 | <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZtgT4jgnE8">youtube</A> video. | 
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changeset | 389 | </p> | 
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changeset | 390 | |
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changeset | 391 | <p> | 
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changeset | 392 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
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changeset | 393 | In order to provide convenience for the lecturer, this project needs very good web-programming skills. A | 
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changeset | 394 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)">hacker mentality</A> | 
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changeset | 395 | (see above) is probably also very beneficial: web-programming is an area that only emerged recently and | 
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changeset | 396 | many tools still lack maturity. You probably have to experiment a lot with several different | 
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changeset | 397 | languages and tools. | 
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changeset | 398 | </p> | 
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changeset | 399 | |
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changeset | 400 | <li> <H4>[CU5] Raspberry Pi's and Arduinos</H4> | 
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changeset | 401 | |
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changeset | 402 | <p> | 
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changeset | 403 | <B>Description:</B> | 
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changeset | 404 | This project is for true hackers! <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi">Raspberry Pi's</A> | 
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changeset | 405 | are small Linux computers the size of a credit-card and only cost £26 (see picture on the left below). They were introduced | 
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changeset | 406 | in 2012 and people went crazy...well some of them. There is a | 
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changeset | 407 | <A HREF="https://plus.google.com/communities/113390432655174294208?hl=en">Google+</A> community about Raspberry Pi's that has more | 
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385diff
changeset | 408 | than 197k of followers. It is hard to keep up with what people do with these small computers. The possibilities | 
| 383 
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changeset | 409 | seem to be limitless. The main resource for Raspberry Pi's is <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org">here</A>. | 
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changeset | 410 | There are <A HREF="https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/">magazines</A> dedicated to them and tons of | 
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changeset | 411 | <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=39">books</A> (not to mention | 
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changeset | 412 | floods of <A HREF="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=raspberry+pi">online</A> material, | 
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changeset | 413 | such as the <A HREF="https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi-issues/Projects_Book_v1.pdf">RPi projects book</A>). | 
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changeset | 414 | Google just released a | 
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changeset | 415 | <A HREF="http://googlecreativelab.github.io/coder/">framework</A> | 
| 
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changeset | 416 | for web-programming on Raspberry Pi's truning them into webservers. | 
| 
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changeset | 417 | </p> | 
| 
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changeset | 418 | |
| 
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changeset | 419 | <p> | 
| 
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changeset | 420 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino">Arduinos</A> are slightly older (from 2005) but still very cool (see picture on the right below). They | 
| 
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changeset | 421 | are small single-board micro-controllers that can talk to various external gadgets (sensors, motors, etc). Since Arduinos | 
| 
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changeset | 422 | are open-software and open-hardware there are many clones and add-on boards. Like for the Raspberry Pi, there | 
| 
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changeset | 423 | is a lot of material <A HREF="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=arduino">available</A> about Arduinos. | 
| 
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changeset | 424 | The main reference is <A HREF="http://www.arduino.cc">here</A>. Like the Raspberry Pi's, the good thing about | 
| 
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changeset | 425 | Arduinos is that they can be powered with simple AA-batteries. | 
| 
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changeset | 426 | </p> | 
| 
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changeset | 427 | |
| 
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changeset | 428 | <p> | 
| 
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changeset | 429 | I have two such Raspberry Pi's including wifi-connectors and two <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/camera">cameras<A>. | 
| 
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changeset | 430 | I also have two <A HREF="http://www.freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/Store/Introducing-the-Freakduino-Chibi-An-Arduino-based-Board-For-Wireless-Sensor-Networking.html">Freakduino Boards</A> that are Arduinos extended with wireless communication. I can lend them to responsible | 
| 
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changeset | 431 | students for one or two projects. However, the aim is to first come up with an idea for a project. Popular projects are | 
| 
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changeset | 432 | automated temperature sensors, network servers, robots, web-cams (<A HREF="http://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/electronics/shard-rain-cam/">here</A> | 
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changeset | 433 | is a <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3547">web-cam</A> directed at the Shard that can | 
| 
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changeset | 434 | <A HREF="http://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/software/shard-rain-cam-quantifying-cloudy/">tell</A> | 
| 
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changeset | 435 | you whether it is raining or cloudy). There are plenty more ideas listed | 
| 
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changeset | 436 | <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=15">here</A> for Raspberry Pi's and | 
| 
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changeset | 437 | <A HREF="http://playground.arduino.cc/projects/ideas">here</A> for Arduinos. | 
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changeset | 438 | </p> | 
| 
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changeset | 439 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 440 | <p> | 
| 
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changeset | 441 | There are essentially two kinds of projects: One is purely software-based. Software projects for Raspberry Pi's are often | 
| 
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changeset | 442 | written in <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A>, but since these are Linux-capable computers any other | 
| 
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changeset | 443 | language would do as well. You can also write your own operating system as done | 
| 
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changeset | 444 | <A HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/">here</A>. For example the students | 
| 
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changeset | 445 | <A HREF="http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=4918">here</A> developed their own bare-metal OS and then implemented | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 446 | a chess-program on top of it (have a look at their very impressive | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 447 | <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-03bouPsfEQ&feature=player_embedded">youtube</A> video). | 
| 
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changeset | 448 | The other kind of project is a combination of hardware and software; usually attaching some sensors | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 449 | or motors to the Raspberry Pi or Arduino. This might require some soldering or what is called | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 450 | a <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard">bread-board</A>. But be careful before choosing a project | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 451 | involving new hardware: these devices | 
| 
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changeset | 452 | can be destroyed (if “Vin connected to GND” or “drawing more than 30mA from a GPIO” | 
| 
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changeset | 453 | does not make sense to you, you should probably stay away from such a project). | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 454 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 455 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 456 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 457 | <center> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 458 | <img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 459 | "src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/RaspberryPi.jpg" width="313" height="209"> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 460 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 461 | <img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; | 
| 
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changeset | 462 | "src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Arduino_Uno_-_R3.jpg" width="240" height="209"> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 463 | </center> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 464 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 465 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 466 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 467 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 468 | Well, you must be a hacker; happy to make things. Your desk might look like the photo below on the left. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 469 | The photo below on the righ shows an earlier student project which connects wirelessly a wearable Arduino (packaged | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 470 | in a "self-3d-printed" watch) to a Raspberry Pi seen in the background. The Arduino in the forground takes meaurements of | 
| 
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changeset | 471 | heart rate and body temperature; the Raspberry Pi collects this data and makes it accessible via a simple | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 472 | web-service. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 473 | <center> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 474 | <img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; | 
| 465 | 475 | "src="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/rpi-photo.jpg" width="209" height="313"> | 
| 383 
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changeset | 476 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 477 | <img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in; | 
| 465 | 478 | "src="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/rpi-watch.jpg" width="450" height="254"> | 
| 383 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 479 | </center> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 480 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 481 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 482 | <li> <H4>[CU6] An Infrastructure for Displaying and Animating Code in a Web-Browser</H4> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 483 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 484 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 485 | <B>Description:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 486 | The project aim is to implement an infrastructure for displaying and | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 487 | animating code in a web-browser. The infrastructure should be agnostic | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 488 | with respect to the programming language, but should be configurable. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 489 | I envisage something smaller than the projects | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 490 | <A HREF="http://www.pythontutor.com">here</A> (for Python), | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 491 | <A HREF="http://ideone.com">here</A> (for Java), | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 492 | <A HREF="http://codepad.org">here</A> (for multiple languages), | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 493 | <A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro">here</A> (for HTML) | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 494 | <A HREF="http://repl.it/languages/JavaScript">here</A> (for JavaScript), | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 495 | and <A HREF="http://www.scala-tour.com/#/welcome">here</A> (for Scala). | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 496 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 497 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 498 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 499 | The tasks in this project are being able (1) to lex and parse languages and (2) to write an interpreter. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 500 | The goal is to implement this as much as possible in a language-agnostic fashion. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 501 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 502 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 503 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 504 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 505 | Good skills in lexing and language parsing, as well as being fluent with web programming (for | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 506 | example JavaScript). | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 507 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 508 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 509 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 510 | <li> <H4>[CU7] Implementation of a Distributed Clock-Synchronisation Algorithm developed at NASA</H4> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 511 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 512 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 513 | <B>Description:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 514 | There are many algorithms for synchronising clocks. This | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 515 | <A HREF="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20120000054_2011025573.pdf">paper</A> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 516 | describes a new algorithm for clocks that communicate by exchanging | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 517 | messages and thereby reach a state in which (within some bound) all clocks are synchronised. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 518 | A slightly longer and more detailed paper about the algorithm is | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 519 | <A HREF="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110020812">here</A>. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 520 | The point of this project is to implement this algorithm and simulate networks of clocks. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 521 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 522 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 523 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 524 | <B>Literature:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 525 | There is a wide range of literature on clock synchronisation algorithms. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 526 | Some pointers are given in this | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 527 | <A HREF="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20120000054_2011025573.pdf">paper</A>, | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 528 | which describes the algorithm to be implemented in this project. Pointers | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 529 | are given also <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_synchronization">here</A>. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 530 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 531 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 532 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 533 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 534 | In order to implement a simulation of a network of clocks, you need to tackle | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 535 | concurrency. You can do this for example in the programming language | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 536 | <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A> with the help of the | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 537 | <A HREF="http://akka.io">Akka</a> library. This library enables you to send messages | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 538 | between different <I>actors</I>. <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/node/242">Here</A> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 539 | are some examples that explain how to implement exchanging messages between actors. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 540 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 541 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 542 | <li> <H4>[CU8] Proving the Correctness of Programs</H4> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 543 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 544 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 545 | I am one of the main developers of the interactive theorem prover | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 546 | <A HREF="http://isabelle.in.tum.de">Isabelle</A>. This theorem prover | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 547 | has been used to establish the correctness of some quite large | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 548 | programs (for example an <A HREF="http://ertos.nicta.com.au/research/l4.verified/">operating system</A>). | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 549 | Together with colleagues from Nanjing, I used this theorem prover to establish the correctness of a | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 550 | scheduling algorithm, called | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 551 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priority_inheritance">Priority Inheritance</A>, | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 552 | for real-time operating systems. This scheduling algorithm is part of the operating | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 553 | system that drives, for example, the | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 554 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover">Mars rovers</A>. | 
| 
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changeset | 555 | Actually, the very first Mars rover mission in 1997 did not have this | 
| 
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changeset | 556 | algorithm switched on and it almost caused a catastrophic mission failure (see | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 557 | this youtube video <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyx7kARrGeM">here</A> | 
| 
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changeset | 558 | for an explanation what happened). | 
| 
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changeset | 559 | We were able to prove the correctness of this algorithm, but were also able to | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 560 | establish the correctness of some optimisations in this | 
| 465 | 561 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/pip.pdf">paper</A>. | 
| 383 
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changeset | 562 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 563 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 564 | <p>On a much smaller scale, there are a few small programs and underlying algorithms where it | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 565 | is not really understood whether they always compute a correct result (for example the | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 566 | regular expression matcher by Sulzmann and Lu in project [CU1]). The aim of this | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 567 | project is to completely specify an algorithm in Isabelle and then prove it correct (that is, | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 568 | it always computes the correct result). | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 569 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 570 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 571 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 572 | <B>Skills:</B> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 573 | This project is for a very good student with a knack for theoretical things and formal reasoning. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 574 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 575 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 576 | <li> <H4>[CU9] Anything Security Related that is Interesting</H4> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 577 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 578 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 579 | If you have your own project that is related to security (must be | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 580 | something interesting), please propose it. We can then have a look | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 581 | whether it would be suitable for a project. | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 582 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 583 | |
| 386 
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385diff
changeset | 584 | <li> <H4>[CU10] Anything Interesting in the Areas</H4> | 
| 383 
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changeset | 585 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 586 | <p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 587 | <ul> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 588 | <li><A HREF="http://elm-lang.org">Elm</A> (a reactive functional language for animating webpages; have a look at the cool examples, or <A HREF="http://pragmaticstudio.com/blog/2014/12/19/getting-started-with-elm">here</A> for an introduction) | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 589 | <li><A HREF="http://www.smlserver.org/smltojs/">SMLtoJS</A> (a ML compiler to JavaScript; or anything else related to | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 590 | sane languages that compile to JavaScript) | 
| 
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changeset | 591 | <li>Any statistical data related to Bitcoins (in the spirit of this | 
| 386 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: 
385diff
changeset | 592 | <A HREF="http://people.csail.mit.edu/spillai/data/papers/bitcoin-transaction-graph-analysis.pdf">paper</A> or | 
| 383 
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changeset | 593 | this <A HREF="https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf">one</A>; this will probably require some extensive C knowledge or any | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 594 | other heavy-duty programming language) | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 595 | <li>Anything related to programming languages and formal methods (like | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 596 | <A HREF="http://matt.might.net/articles/intro-static-analysis/">static program analysis</A>) | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 597 | <li>Anything related to low-cost, hands-on hardware like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 598 | <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubieboard">Cubieboard</A> | 
| 388 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: 
387diff
changeset | 599 | <li>Anything related to unikernel operating systems, like | 
| 383 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 600 | <A HREF="http://www.xenproject.org">Xen</A> or | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 601 | <A HREF="http://www.openmirage.org">Mirage OS</A> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 602 | <li>Any kind of applied hacking, for example the Arduino-based keylogger described | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 603 | <A HREF="http://samy.pl/keysweeper/">here</A> | 
| 439 
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430diff
changeset | 604 | <li>Anything related to code books, like this | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: 
430diff
changeset | 605 | <A HREF="http://www.joelotter.com/kajero/">one</A> | 
| 383 
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changeset | 606 | </ul> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 607 | </p> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 608 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 609 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 610 | <li> <H4>Earlier Projects</H4> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 611 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 612 | I am also open to project suggestions from you. You might find some inspiration from my earlier projects: | 
| 465 | 613 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-12.html">BSc 2012/13</A>, | 
| 614 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-12.html">MSc 2012/13</A>, | |
| 615 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-13.html">BSc 2013/14</A> | |
| 616 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-13.html">MSc 2013/14</A> | |
| 617 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-14.html">BSc 2014/15</A> | |
| 618 | <A HREF="http://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-14.html">MSc 2014/15</A> | |
| 383 
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changeset | 619 | </ul> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 620 | </TD> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 621 | </TR> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 622 | </TABLE> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 623 | |
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 624 | <P> | 
| 439 
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430diff
changeset | 625 | <!-- hhmts start --> Last modified: Mon May 16 11:27:14 BST 2016 <!-- hhmts end --> | 
| 383 
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changeset | 626 | <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer">[Validate this page.]</a> | 
| 
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 Christian Urban <christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk> parents: diff
changeset | 627 | </BODY> | 
| 
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changeset | 628 | </HTML> |