--- a/bsc-projects-12.html Wed Sep 12 16:49:06 2012 +0200
+++ b/bsc-projects-12.html Thu Sep 13 00:41:16 2012 +0100
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
a short description about your programming skills and Computer Science background in your first email.
I will also need your King's username in order to book the project for you. Thanks.</H4>
-<H4>Note that besides being a lecturer in the theory of Computer Science, I am also a passionate
+<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
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@
<ul class="striped">
<li> <H4>[CU1] Automata Minimisation</H4>
- <p><B>Description:</b>
+ <p>
+ <B>Description:</b>
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic_finite_automaton">Deterministic finite automata</A>
have many uses in Computer Science, for example for lexing
program code. In order to improve their run-time, automata need to be minimised, that
@@ -102,7 +103,8 @@
<li> <H4>[CU2] Equivalence Checking of Regular Expressions</H4>
- <p><B>Description:</b>
+ <p>
+ <B>Description:</b>
Solving the problem of deciding the equivalence of regular expressions can be used
to decide a number of problems in automated reasoning. Recently,
<A HREF="http://www.cs.unibo.it/~asperti/">Andreas Asperti</A>
@@ -139,7 +141,8 @@
<li> <H4>[CU3] Machine Code Generation for a Simple Compiler</H4>
- <p><b>Description:</b>
+ <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.
I recently implemented a very simple compiler for a very simple functional
@@ -180,10 +183,12 @@
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="https://wiki.aalto.fi/display/t1065450/LLVM+IR">here</A> and
- <A HREF="http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html">here</A>).
+ <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><B>Skills:</B>
+ <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
@@ -194,7 +199,8 @@
<li> <H4>[CU4] Implementation of Register Spilling Algorithms</H4>
- <p><b>Description:</b>
+ <p>
+ <b>Description:</b>
This project is similar to [CU3]. The emphasis here, however, is on the
implementation and comparison of register spilling algorithms, also often called register allocation
algorithms. They are part of any respectable compiler. As said
@@ -231,11 +237,13 @@
about register allocation algorithms with further pointers.
</p>
- <p><B>Skills:</B>
+ <p>
+ <B>Skills:</B>
Same skills as [CU3].
</p>
<li> <H4>[CU5] A Student Polling System</H4>
+
<p>
<B>Description:</B>
One of the more annoying aspects of giving a lecture is to ask a question
@@ -287,7 +295,9 @@
The project requires fluency in a web-programming language (for example
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript">Javascript</A>,
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP">PHP</A>,
- Java, <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A>, <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(programming_language)">Go</A>, <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>,
+ Java, <A HREF="http://www.python.org">Python</A>,
+ <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_(programming_language)">Go</A>,
+ <A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A>,
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(programming_language)">Ruby</A>)
and possibly a cloud application platform (for example
<A HREF="https://developers.google.com/appengine/">Google App Engine</a> or
@@ -302,7 +312,8 @@
<A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZtgT4jgnE8">youtube</A> video.
</p>
- <p><B>Skills:</B>
+ <p>
+ <B>Skills:</B>
In order to provide convenience for the lecturer, this project needs very good web-programming skills. A
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(programmer_subculture)">hacker mentality</A>
(see above) is probably very beneficial: web-programming is an area that only emerged recently and
@@ -311,12 +322,15 @@
</p>
<li> <H4>[CU6] Implementation of a Distributed Clock-Synchronisation Algorithm developed at NASA</H4>
+
<p>
<B>Description:</B>
There are many algorithms for synchronising clocks. This
<A HREF="http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20120000054_2011025573.pdf">paper</A>
describes a new algorithm for clocks that communicate by exchanging
messages and thereby reach a state in which (within some bound) all clocks are synchronised.
+ A slightly longer and more detailed paper about the algorithm is
+ <A HREF="http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110020812">here</A>.
The point of this project is to implement this algorithm and simulate networks of clocks.
</p>
@@ -328,7 +342,8 @@
are given also <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_synchronization">here</A>.
</p>
- <p><B>Skills:</B>
+ <p>
+ <B>Skills:</B>
In order to implement a simulation of a network of clocks, you need to tackle
concurrency. You can do this for example in the programming language
<A HREF="http://www.scala-lang.org/">Scala</A> with the help of the
@@ -342,9 +357,10 @@
</TR>
</TABLE>
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+Last modified: Wed Sep 12 16:30:03 GMT 2012
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