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<H2>2018/19 MSc Projects</H2>+ −
<H4>Supervisor: Christian Urban</H4> + −
<H4>Email: christian dot urban at kcl dot ac dot uk, Office: Bush House N7.07</H4>+ −
<H4>If you are interested in a project, please send me an email and we can discuss details. Please include+ −
a short description about your programming skills and Computer Science background in your first email. + −
Thanks.</H4> + −
+ −
<H4>Note that besides being a lecturer at the theoretical end of Computer Science, I am also a passionate+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)">hacker</A> …+ −
defined as “a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and + −
stretching their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum + −
necessary.” I am always happy to supervise like-minded students.+ −
</H4>+ −
+ −
<H4>In 2013/14, I was nominated by the students+ −
for the best BSc project supervisor and best MSc project supervisor awards in the NMS+ −
faculty. Somehow I won both. In 2014/15 I was nominated again for the best MSc+ −
project supervisor, but did not win it. ;o)+ −
</H4> + −
+ −
<ul class="striped">+ −
<li> <H4 id="regex">[CU1] Regular Expressions, Lexing and Derivatives</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Description:</b> + −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression">Regular expressions</A> + −
are extremely useful for many text-processing tasks, such as finding patterns in hostile + −
<A HREF="https://www.snort.org">network traffic</A>,+ −
lexing programs, syntax highlighting and so on. Given that regular expressions were+ −
introduced in 1950 by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Cole_Kleene">Stephen Kleene</A>,+ −
you might think regular expressions have since been studied and implemented to death. But you would definitely be+ −
mistaken: in fact they are still an active research area. On the top of my head, I can give+ −
you at least ten research papers that appeared in the last few years.+ −
For example+ −
<A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">this paper</A> + −
about regular expression matching and derivatives was presented in 2014 at the international + −
FLOPS conference. Another <A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/posix.pdf">paper</A> by my PhD student and me was presented in 2016+ −
at the international ITP conference.+ −
The task in this project is to implement these results and use them for lexing.</p>+ −
+ −
<p>The background for this project is that some regular expressions are + −
“<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReDoS#Examples">evil</A>”+ −
and can “stab you in the back” according to+ −
this <A HREF="http://peterscott.github.io/2013/01/17/regular-expressions-will-stab-you-in-the-back/">blog post</A>.+ −
For example, if you use in <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A> or + −
in <A HREF="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/">Ruby</A> (or also in a number of other mainstream programming languages) the + −
innocently looking regular expression <code>a?{28}a{28}</code> and match it, say, against the string + −
<code>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa</code> (that is 28 <code>a</code>s), you will soon notice that your CPU usage goes to 100%. In fact,+ −
Python and Ruby need approximately 30 seconds of hard work for matching this string. You can try it for yourself:+ −
<A HREF="http://talisker.inf.kcl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/catastrophic.py">catastrophic.py</A> (Python version) and + −
<A HREF="http://talisker.inf.kcl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/catastrophic.rb">catastrophic.rb</A> + −
(Ruby version). Here is a similar problem with the regular expression <code>(a*)*b</code> in Java: + −
<A HREF="http://talisker.inf.kcl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/catastrophic.java">catastrophic.java</A> + −
</p> + −
+ −
<p>+ −
You can imagine an attacker+ −
mounting a nice <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial-of-service_attack">DoS attack</A> against + −
your program if it contains such an “evil” regular expression. But it can also happen by accident:+ −
on 20 July 2016 the website <A HREF="http://stackstatus.net/post/147710624694/outage-postmortem-july-20-2016">Stack Exchange</A>+ −
was knocked offline because of an evil regular expression. One of their engineers talks about this in this+ −
<A HREF="https://vimeo.com/112065252">video</A>. A similar problem needed to be fixed in the+ −
<A HREF="http://davidvgalbraith.com/how-i-fixed-atom/">Atom</A> editor.+ −
A few implementations of regular expression matchers are almost immune from such problems.+ −
For example, <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A> can deal with strings of up to 4,300 <code>a</code>s in less than a second. But if you scale+ −
the regular expression and string further to, say, 4,600 <code>a</code>s, then you get a <code>StackOverflowError</code> + −
potentially crashing your program. Moreover (beside the "minor" problem of being painfully slow) according to this+ −
<A HREF="http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Regex_Posix">report</A>+ −
nearly all regular expression matchers using the POSIX rules are actually buggy.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
On a rainy afternoon, I implemented + −
<A HREF="http://talisker.inf.kcl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/repos.cgi/afl-material/raw-file/tip/progs/re3.scala">this</A> + −
regular expression matcher in Scala. It is not as fast as the official one in Scala, but+ −
it can match up to 11,000 <code>a</code>s in less than 5 seconds without raising any exception+ −
(remember Python and Ruby both need nearly 30 seconds to process 28(!) <code>a</code>s, and Scala's+ −
official matcher maxes out at 4,600 <code>a</code>s). My matcher is approximately+ −
85 lines of code and based on the concept of + −
<A HREF="http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/2293">derivatives of regular expressions</A>.+ −
These derivatives were introduced in 1964 by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_Brzozowski_(computer_scientist)">+ −
Janusz Brzozowski</A>, but according to this+ −
<A HREF="https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/sao/documents/jfp09.pdf">paper</A> had been lost in the “sands of time”.+ −
The advantage of derivatives is that they side-step completely the usual + −
<A HREF="http://hackingoff.com/compilers/regular-expression-to-nfa-dfa">translations</A> of regular expressions+ −
into NFAs or DFAs, which can introduce the exponential behaviour exhibited by the regular+ −
expression matchers in Python, Java and Ruby.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
Now the authors from the + −
<A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">FLOPS'14-paper</A> mentioned + −
above claim they are even faster than me and can deal with even more features of regular expressions+ −
(for example subexpression matching, which my rainy-afternoon matcher cannot). I am sure they thought+ −
about the problem much longer than a single afternoon. The task + −
in this project is to find out how good they actually are by implementing the results from their paper. + −
Their approach to regular expression matching is also based on the concept of derivatives.+ −
I used derivatives very successfully once for something completely different in a+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/rexp.pdf">paper</A> + −
about the <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myhill–Nerode_theorem">Myhill-Nerode theorem</A>.+ −
So I know they are worth their money. Still, it would be interesting to actually compare their results+ −
with my simple rainy-afternoon matcher and potentially “blow away” the regular expression matchers + −
in Python, Ruby and Java (and possibly in Scala too). The application would be to implement a fast lexer for+ −
programming languages, or improve the network traffic analysers in the tools <A HREF="https://www.snort.org">Snort</A> and+ −
<A HREF="https://www.bro.org">Bro</A>.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Literature:</B> + −
The place to start with this project is obviously this+ −
<A HREF="http://www.home.hs-karlsruhe.de/~suma0002/publications/regex-parsing-derivatives.pdf">paper</A>+ −
and this <A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/posix.pdf">one</A>.+ −
Traditional methods for regular expression matching are explained+ −
in the Wikipedia articles + −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DFA_minimization">here</A> and + −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powerset_construction">here</A>.+ −
The authoritative <A HREF="http://infolab.stanford.edu/~ullman/ialc.html">book</A>+ −
on automata and regular expressions is by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullmann (available in the library). + −
There is also an online course about this topic by Ullman at + −
<A HREF="https://www.coursera.org/course/automata">Coursera</A>, though IMHO not + −
done with love. + −
There are millions of other pointers about regular expression+ −
matching on the Web. I found the chapter on Lexing in this+ −
<A HREF="http://www.diku.dk/~torbenm/Basics/">online book</A> very helpful. Finally, it will+ −
be of great help for this project to take part in my Compiler and Formal Language module (6CCS3CFL).+ −
Test cases for “<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReDoS#Examples">evil</A>”+ −
regular expressions can be obtained from <A HREF="http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Regex_Posix">here</A>.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
This is a project for a student with an interest in theory and with+ −
good programming skills. The project can be easily implemented+ −
in functional languages like+ −
<A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>,+ −
<A HREF="http://fsharp.org">F#</A>, + −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_ML">ML</A>, + −
<A HREF="http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/Haskell">Haskell</A>, etc. Python and other non-functional languages+ −
can be also used, but seem much less convenient. If you do attend my Compilers and Formal Languages+ −
module, that would obviously give you a head-start with this project.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU5] Grammars and Derivative-Based Parsing Algorithms</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
Parsing is an old nut. Generations of software developers need to do parsing of data or text.+ −
There are zillions of links, tools, papers and textbooks about parsing. One particular+ −
<A HREF="https://dickgrune.com/Books/PTAPG_1st_Edition/BookBody.pdf">book</A> contains something+ −
like 700 different algorithm, nicely analysed and described. Surely, parsing must be a solved problem. Or is it? + −
Laurie Tratt has a blog <A HREF="https://tratt.net/laurie/blog/entries/parsing_the_solved_problem_that_isnt.html">post</A>+ −
about <i>Parsing: The Solved Problem That Isn't</i>. IMHO parsing is still a wide open field and not solved at all.+ −
PEG parsing, error reporting, error correction, runtime to name just a few are aspects that seem to cause headaches+ −
to developers, and to researchers.</p> + −
+ −
<p>+ −
A recent <A HREF="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jdy22/papers/a-typed-algebraic-approach-to-parsing.pdf">paper</A> + −
(not even published yet) follows an idea for regular expressions: it adapts the notion of + −
derivatives of regular expressions to grammars. The idea is to implement in a functional programming language+ −
the parsing algorithm proposed in this paper and to try it out with some sample data.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Literature:</B> <A HREF="https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~jdy22/papers/a-typed-algebraic-approach-to-parsing.pdf">paper</A> + −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> See [CU1].+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU6] Webassembly Interpreter / Compiler</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
Webassembly is a recently agreed standard for speeding up web applications in browsers. In this + −
project the aim is to implement an interpreter or compiler for webassembly. There are already+ −
<A HREF="https://github.com/WebAssembly/spec/tree/master/interpreter">reference interpreters</A>,+ −
but people take different views, for example implement a + −
<A HREF="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.lang.forth/CvNrP_AOmmw">Forth</A> language on top of webassembly. + −
What is good about webassembly is that is a rather simple format, which can be generated quite+ −
easily, unlike Java class files, which need some head-standing when you generate them. + −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
A <A HREF="https://github.com/WebAssembly/spec/tree/master/interpreter">reference interpreter</A> for webassembly. + −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU2] A Compiler for a small Programming Language</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<b>Description:</b> + −
Compilers translate high-level programs that humans can read and write into+ −
efficient machine code that can be run on a CPU or virtual machine.+ −
A compiler for a simple functional language generating X86 code is described+ −
<A HREF="https://libraries.io/github/chameco/Shade">here</A>.+ −
I recently implemented a very simple compiler for an even simpler functional+ −
programming language following this + −
<A HREF="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dpw/papers/tal-toplas.pdf">paper</A> + −
(also described <A HREF="https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~dpw/papers/tal-tr.pdf">here</A>).+ −
My code, written in <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>, of this compiler is + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/compiler.scala">here</A>.+ −
The compiler can deal with simple programs involving natural numbers, such+ −
as Fibonacci numbers or factorial (but it can be easily extended - that is not the point).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
While the hard work has been done (understanding the two papers above),+ −
my compiler only produces some idealised machine code. For example I+ −
assume there are infinitely many registers. The goal of this+ −
project is to generate machine code that is more realistic and can+ −
run on a CPU, like X86, or run on a virtual machine, say the JVM. + −
This gives probably a speedup of thousand times in comparison to+ −
my naive machine code and virtual machine. The project+ −
requires to dig into the literature about real CPUs and generating + −
real machine code. + −
</p>+ −
<p>+ −
An alternative is to not generate machine code, but build a compiler that compiles to+ −
<A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/js/">JavaScript</A>. This is the language that is supported by most+ −
browsers and therefore is a favourite+ −
vehicle for Web-programming. Some call it <B>the</B> scripting language of the Web.+ −
Unfortunately, JavaScript is also probably one of the worst+ −
languages to program in (being designed and released in a hurry). <B>But</B> it can be used as a convenient target+ −
for translating programs from other languages. In particular there are two+ −
very optimised subsets of JavaScript that can be used for this purpose:+ −
one is <A HREF="http://asmjs.org">asm.js</A> and the other is+ −
<A HREF="https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/wiki">emscripten</A>. Since+ −
last year there is even the official <A HREF="http://webassembly.org">Webassembly</A>+ −
There is a <A HREF="http://kripken.github.io/emscripten-site/docs/getting_started/Tutorial.html">tutorial</A> for emscripten+ −
and an impressive <A HREF="https://youtu.be/c2uNDlP4RiE">demo</A> which runs the+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreal_Engine">Unreal Engine 3</A>+ −
in a browser with spectacular speed. This was achieved by compiling the+ −
C-code of the Unreal Engine to the LLVM intermediate language and then translating the LLVM+ −
code to JavaScript.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Literature:</B>+ −
There is a lot of literature about compilers + −
(for example <A HREF="http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/papers/cwc.html">this book</A> -+ −
I can lend you my copy for the duration of the project, or this+ −
<A HREF="http://www.diku.dk/~torbenm/Basics/">online book</A>). A very good overview article+ −
about implementing compilers by + −
<A HREF="http://tratt.net/laurie/">Laurie Tratt</A> is + −
<A HREF="http://tratt.net/laurie/tech_articles/articles/how_difficult_is_it_to_write_a_compiler">here</A>.+ −
An online book about the Art of Assembly Language is+ −
<A HREF="http://flint.cs.yale.edu/cs422/doc/art-of-asm/pdf/">here</A>.+ −
An introduction into x86 machine code is <A HREF="http://ianseyler.github.com/easy_x86-64/">here</A>.+ −
Intel's official manual for the x86 instruction is + −
<A HREF="http://download.intel.com/design/intarch/manuals/24319101.pdf">here</A>. + −
Two assemblers for the JVM are described <A HREF="http://jasmin.sourceforge.net">here</A>+ −
and <A HREF="https://github.com/Storyyeller/Krakatau">here</A>.+ −
An interesting twist of this project is to not generate code for a CPU, but+ −
for the intermediate language of the <A HREF="http://llvm.org">LLVM</A> compiler+ −
(also described <A HREF="http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html">here</A>). If you want to see+ −
what machine code looks like you can compile your C-program using gcc -S.+ −
</p>+ −
<p>+ −
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.+ −
<A HREF="http://jsbooks.revolunet.com">Here</A> is a list of free books on JavaScript.+ −
A project from which you can draw inspiration is this+ −
<A HREF="http://jlongster.com/Outlet--My-Lisp-to-Javascript-Experiment">Lisp-to-JavaScript</A>+ −
translator. <A HREF="https://bitbucket.org/ktg/parenjs/overview">Here</A> is another such project.+ −
And <A HREF="https://github.com/viclib/liscript">another</A> in less than 100 lines of code.+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoffeeScript">Coffeescript</A> is a similar project+ −
except that it is already quite <A HREF="http://coffeescript.org">mature</A>. And finally not to+ −
forget <A HREF="http://www.typescriptlang.org">TypeScript</A> developed by Microsoft. The main+ −
difference between these projects and this one is that they translate into relatively high-level+ −
JavaScript code; none of them use the much lower levels <A HREF="http://asmjs.org">asm.js</A> and + −
<A HREF="https://github.com/kripken/emscripten/wiki">emscripten</A>.+ −
</p>+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
This is a project for a student with a deep interest in programming languages and+ −
compilers. Since my compiler is implemented in <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>,+ −
it would make sense to continue this project in this language. I can be+ −
of help with questions and books about <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>.+ −
But if Scala is a problem, my code can also be translated quickly into any other functional+ −
language. Again, it will be of great help for this project to take part in+ −
my Compiler and Formal Language module (6CCS3CFL).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>PS:</B> Compiler projects consistently received high marks in the past.+ −
I have supervised eight so far and most of them received a mark above 70% - one even was awarded a prize.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU3] Slide-Making in the Web-Age</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
The standard technology for writing scientific papers in Computer Science is to use+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX">LaTeX</A>, a document preparation+ −
system originally implemented by <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth">Donald Knuth</A>+ −
and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport">Leslie Lamport</A>.+ −
LaTeX produces very pleasantly looking documents, can deal nicely with mathematical+ −
formulas and is very flexible. If you are interested, <A HREF="http://openwetware.org/wiki/Word_vs._LaTeX">here</A>+ −
is a side-by-side comparison between Word and LaTeX (which LaTeX “wins” with 18 out of 21 points).+ −
Computer scientists not only use LaTeX for documents,+ −
but also for slides (really, nobody who wants to be cool uses Keynote or Powerpoint).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
Although used widely, LaTeX seems nowadays a bit dated for producing+ −
slides. Unlike documents, which are typically “static” and published in a book or journal,+ −
slides often contain changing contents that might first only be partially visible and+ −
only later be revealed as the “story” of a talk or lecture demands.+ −
Also slides often contain animated algorithms where each state in the+ −
calculation is best explained by highlighting the changing data.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
It seems HTML and JavaScript are much better suited for generating+ −
such animated slides. This <A HREF="http://www.impressivewebs.com/html-slidedeck-toolkits/">page</A>+ −
links to slide-generating programs using this combination of technologies. + −
However, the problem with all of these project is that they depend heavily on the users being+ −
able to write JavaScript, CCS or HTML...not something one would like to depend on given that+ −
“normal” users likely only have a LaTeX background. The aim of this project is to invent a+ −
very simple language that is inspired by LaTeX and then generate from code written in this language+ −
slides that can be displayed in a web-browser. An example would be the+ −
<A HREF="https://www.madoko.net">Madoko</A> project.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
This sounds complicated, but there is already some help available:+ −
<A HREF="http://www.mathjax.org">Mathjax</A> is a JavaScript library that can+ −
be used to display mathematical text, for example</p>+ −
+ −
<blockquote>+ −
<p>When \(a \ne 0\), there are two solutions to \(ax^2 + bx + c = 0\) and they are+ −
\(x = {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2-4ac} \over 2a}\).</p>+ −
</blockquote>+ −
+ −
<p> + −
by writing code in the familiar LaTeX-way. This can be reused.+ −
Another such library is <A HREF="http://khan.github.io/KaTeX/">KaTeX</A>.+ −
There are also plenty of JavaScript+ −
libraries for graphical animations (for example+ −
<A HREF="http://raphaeljs.com">Raphael</A>,+ −
<A HREF="http://svgjs.com">SVG.JS</A>,+ −
<A HREF="http://bonsaijs.org">Bonsaijs</A>,+ −
<A HREF="http://jsxgraph.uni-bayreuth.de/wp/">JSXGraph</A>). The inspiration for how the user should be able to write+ −
slides could come from the LaTeX packages <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamer_(LaTeX)">Beamer</A>+ −
and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGF/TikZ">PGF/TikZ</A>. A slide-making project from which+ −
inspiration can be drawn is <A HREF="http://maciejczyzewski.me/hyhyhy/">hyhyhy</A>.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
This is a project that requires good knowledge of JavaScript. You need to be able to+ −
parse a language and translate it to a suitable part of JavaScript using+ −
appropriate libraries. Tutorials for JavaScript are <A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/js/">here</A>.+ −
A parser generator for JavaScript is <A HREF="http://pegjs.majda.cz">here</A>. There are probably also+ −
others. If you want to avoid JavaScript there are a number of alternatives: for example the+ −
<A HREF="http://elm-lang.org">Elm</A>+ −
language has been especially designed for implementing interactive animations, which would be+ −
very convenient for this project. A nice slide making project done by a previous student is + −
<A HREF="http://www.markslides.org">MarkSlides</A> by Oleksandr Cherednychenko. + −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU4] Raspberry Pi's and Arduinos</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Description:</B>+ −
This project is for true hackers! <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi">Raspberry Pi's</A>+ −
are small Linux computers the size of a credit-card and only cost £26, the+ −
simplest version even costs only £5 (see pictures on the left below). They were introduced+ −
in 2012 and people went crazy...well some of them. There is a+ −
<A HREF="https://plus.google.com/communities/113390432655174294208?hl=en">Google+</A>+ −
community about Raspberry Pi's that has more+ −
than 300k of followers. A similar number follow the corresponding <A HREF="https://www.facebook.com/raspberrypi/">group</A>+ −
on Facebook. It is hard to keep up with what people do with these small computers. The possibilities+ −
seem to be limitless. The main resource for Raspberry Pi's is <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org">here</A>.+ −
There are <A HREF="https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/">magazines</A> dedicated to them and tons of+ −
<A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=39">books</A> (not to mention+ −
floods of <A HREF="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=raspberry+pi">online</A> material,+ −
such as the <A HREF="https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi-issues/Projects_Book_v1.pdf">RPi projects book</A>).+ −
Google just released a+ −
<A HREF="http://googlecreativelab.github.io/coder/">framework</A>+ −
for web-programming on Raspberry Pi's turning them into webservers.+ −
In my home one Raspberry Pi has the very important task of automatically filtering out+ −
nearly all advertisments using the + −
<A HREF="https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole">Pi-Hole</A> software+ −
(you cannot imagine what difference this does to your web experience).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<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+ −
are small single-board micro-controllers that can talk to various external gadgets (sensors, motors, etc). Since Arduinos+ −
are open-software and open-hardware there are many clones and add-on boards. Like for the Raspberry Pi, there+ −
is a lot of material <A HREF="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=arduino">available</A> about Arduinos.+ −
The main reference is <A HREF="http://www.arduino.cc">here</A>. Like the Raspberry Pi's, the good thing about+ −
Arduinos is that they can be powered with simple AA-batteries.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
I have several Raspberry Pi's including wifi-connectors and two <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/camera">cameras</A>.+ −
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+ −
students for one or two projects. However, the aim is to first come up with an idea for a project. Popular projects are+ −
automated temperature sensors, network servers, robots, web-cams (<A HREF="http://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/electronics/shard-rain-cam/">here</A>+ −
is a <A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3547">web-cam</A> directed at the Shard that can+ −
<A HREF="http://www.secretbatcave.co.uk/software/shard-rain-cam-quantifying-cloudy/">tell</A>+ −
you whether it is raining or cloudy). There are plenty more ideas listed+ −
<A HREF="http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=15">here</A> for Raspberry Pi's and+ −
<A HREF="http://playground.arduino.cc/projects/ideas">here</A> for Arduinos.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
There are essentially two kinds of projects: One is purely software-based. Software projects for Raspberry Pi's are often+ −
written in <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A>, but since these are Linux-capable computers any other+ −
language would do as well. You can also write your own operating system as done+ −
<A HREF="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/os/">here</A>. For example the students+ −
<A HREF="http://www.recantha.co.uk/blog/?p=4918">here</A> developed their own bare-metal OS and then implemented+ −
a chess-program on top of it (have a look at their very impressive+ −
<A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-03bouPsfEQ&feature=player_embedded">youtube</A> video).+ −
The other kind of project is a combination of hardware and software; usually attaching some sensors+ −
or motors to the Raspberry Pi or Arduino. This might require some soldering or what is called+ −
a <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadboard">bread-board</A>. But be careful before choosing a project+ −
involving new hardware: these devices+ −
can be destroyed (if “Vin connected to GND” or “drawing more than 30mA from a GPIO”+ −
does not make sense to you, you should probably stay away from such a project). + −
</p>+ −
+ −
<center>+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/RaspberryPi.jpg"+ −
alt="Raspberry Pi"+ −
width="313" height="209">+ −
+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-FL.jpg"+ −
alt="Raspberry Pi Zero"+ −
width="313" height="209"> + −
+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Arduino_Uno_-_R3.jpg"+ −
alt="Arduino"+ −
width="240" height="209">+ −
</center>+ −
+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
Well, you must be a hacker; happy to make things. Your desk might look like the photo below on the left.+ −
The photo below on the middle shows an earlier student project which connects wirelessly a wearable Arduino (packaged+ −
in a "self-3d-printed" watch) to a Raspberry Pi seen in the background. The Arduino in the foreground takes+ −
measurements of + −
heart rate and body temperature; the Raspberry Pi collects this data and makes it accessible via a simple+ −
web-service. The picture on the right is another project that implements an airmouse using an Arduino.+ −
+ −
<center>+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/rpi-photo.jpg"+ −
alt="Raspberry Pi"+ −
width="209" height="313">+ −
+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/rpi-watch.jpg"+ −
alt="Raspberry Pi"+ −
width="450" height="254">+ −
+ −
<img style="-webkit-user-select: none; cursor: -webkit-zoom-in;"+ −
src="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/rpi-airmouse.jpg"+ −
alt="Raspberry Pi"+ −
width="250" height="254"> + −
</center><p>+ −
+ −
+ −
A really cool project using a toy helicopter and two Raspberry Pi's was done by Nikolaos Kyknas. He transformed+ −
an off-the-shelf toy helicopter into an autonomous flying machine. He attached a Raspberry Pi Zero and an ultrasound+ −
sensor to the helicopter for measuring the distance from ground. Another Raspberry Pi is attached to the “ground control+ −
unit” in order to give instructions to the throttle of the helicopter. Both Raspberry Pi's communicate over WiFi for calculating+ −
the next flight instruction. The goal is to find and maintain a steady altitude. Sounds simple? Well, not so fast! + −
First you need to get the balance of the helicopter plus Raspberry Pi plus its power source just right,+ −
otherwise the helicopter will simply take off in random directions. Also the flight instructions need to be just right,+ −
otherwise the helicopter would at best “oscillate” around the set altitude, but never be steady. To solve this problem, + −
Nikolaos used exactly the same algorithm that keeps cars at a steady pace when in cruise control. + −
+ −
<center>+ −
<video width="320" height="576" controls>+ −
<source src="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/h1.mp4" type="video/mp4">+ −
Your browser does not support the video tag.+ −
</video>+ −
<video width="320" height="576" controls>+ −
<source src="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/h3.mp4">+ −
Your browser does not support the video tag.+ −
</video>+ −
</center> + −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU7] An Infrastructure for Displaying and Animating Code in a Web-Browser</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Description:</B>+ −
The project aim is to implement an infrastructure for displaying and+ −
animating code in a web-browser. The infrastructure should be agnostic+ −
with respect to the programming language, but should be configurable.+ −
I envisage something smaller than the projects + −
<A HREF="http://www.pythontutor.com">here</A> (for Python),+ −
<A HREF="http://ideone.com">here</A> (for Java),+ −
<A HREF="http://codepad.org">here</A> (for multiple languages),+ −
<A HREF="http://www.w3schools.com/html/tryit.asp?filename=tryhtml_intro">here</A> (for HTML)+ −
<A HREF="http://repl.it/languages/JavaScript">here</A> (for JavaScript),+ −
and <A HREF="http://www.scala-tour.com/#/welcome">here</A> (for Scala).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
The tasks in this project are being able (1) to lex and parse languages and (2) to write an interpreter.+ −
The goal is to implement this as much as possible in a language-agnostic fashion.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
Good skills in lexing and language parsing, as well as being fluent with web programming (for+ −
example JavaScript).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU8] Proving the Correctness of Programs</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
I am one of the main developers of the interactive theorem prover+ −
<A HREF="http://isabelle.in.tum.de">Isabelle</A>. This theorem prover+ −
has been used to establish the correctness of some quite large+ −
programs (for example an <A HREF="http://ertos.nicta.com.au/research/l4.verified/">operating system</A>).+ −
Together with colleagues from Nanjing, I used this theorem prover to establish the correctness of a+ −
scheduling algorithm, called+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priority_inheritance">Priority Inheritance</A>,+ −
for real-time operating systems. This scheduling algorithm is part of the operating+ −
system that drives, for example, the + −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover">Mars rovers</A>.+ −
Actually, the very first Mars rover mission in 1997 did not have this+ −
algorithm switched on and it almost caused a catastrophic mission failure (see+ −
this youtube video <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyx7kARrGeM">here</A>+ −
for an explanation what happened).+ −
We were able to prove the correctness of this algorithm, but were also able to+ −
establish the correctness of some optimisations in this+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/Publications/pip.pdf">paper</A>.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>On a much smaller scale, there are a few small programs and underlying algorithms where it+ −
is not really understood whether they always compute a correct result (for example the+ −
regular expression matcher by Sulzmann and Lu in project [CU1]). The aim of this+ −
project is to completely specify an algorithm in Isabelle and then prove it correct (that is,+ −
it always computes the correct result).+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
<B>Skills:</B> + −
This project is for a very good student with a knack for theoretical things and formal reasoning.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU9] Anything Security Related that is Interesting</H4>+ −
+ −
<p>+ −
If you have your own project that is related to security (must be+ −
something interesting), please propose it. We can then have a look+ −
whether it would be suitable for a project.+ −
</p>+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>[CU10] Anything Interesting in the Areas</H4>+ −
+ −
<ul>+ −
<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)+ −
<li><A HREF="http://www.smlserver.org/smltojs/">SMLtoJS</A> (a ML compiler to JavaScript; or anything else related to+ −
sane languages that compile to JavaScript)+ −
<li>Any statistical data related to Bitcoins (in the spirit of this+ −
<A HREF="http://people.csail.mit.edu/spillai/data/papers/bitcoin-transaction-graph-analysis.pdf">paper</A> or+ −
this <A HREF="https://eprint.iacr.org/2012/584.pdf">one</A>; this will probably require some extensive C knowledge or any+ −
other heavy-duty programming language)+ −
<li>Anything related to programming languages and formal methods (like+ −
<A HREF="http://matt.might.net/articles/intro-static-analysis/">static program analysis</A>) + −
<li>Anything related to low-cost, hands-on hardware like Raspberry Pi, Arduino,+ −
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubieboard">Cubieboard</A>+ −
<li>Anything related to unikernel operating systems, like+ −
<A HREF="http://www.xenproject.org">Xen</A> or+ −
<A HREF="http://www.openmirage.org">Mirage OS</A>+ −
<li>Any kind of applied hacking, for example the Arduino-based keylogger described+ −
<A HREF="http://samy.pl/keysweeper/">here</A>+ −
<li>Anything related to code books, like this+ −
<A HREF="http://www.joelotter.com/kajero/">one</A>+ −
</ul>+ −
+ −
+ −
+ −
<li> <H4>Earlier Projects</H4>+ −
+ −
I am also open to project suggestions from you. You might find some inspiration from my earlier projects:+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-12.html">BSc 2012/13</A>, + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-12.html">MSc 2012/13</A>, + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-13.html">BSc 2013/14</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-13.html">MSc 2013/14</A>, + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-14.html">BSc 2014/15</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-14.html">MSc 2014/15</A>, + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-15.html">BSc 2015/16</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-15.html">MSc 2015/16</A>, + −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-16.html">BSc 2016/17</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-16.html">MSc 2016/17</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-17.html">BSc 2017/18</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/msc-projects-17.html">MSc 2017/18</A>,+ −
<A HREF="https://nms.kcl.ac.uk/christian.urban/bsc-projects-18.html">BSc 2018/19</A>+ −
</ul>+ −
</TD>+ −
</TR> + −
</TABLE>+ −
+ −
<P>+ −
2018-09-24 12:12:35 by Christian Urban+ −
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