ECE 299.?? Topics in Nanocomputers

Prerequisite: ECE 152 or CS 104, introductory chemistry and physics, or permission of instructor.
[This course satisfies a digital systems (computer engineering) area of concentration requirement]

Materials

Participation

Evaluations

Presentations

Projects

Grading

Course Schedule

Synopsis

This course will cover the design and analysis of nanoscale computing systems. Topics include nanoelectronic devices (e.g., carbon nanotube transistors, quantum dots, etc.), computational paradigms (conventional von Neumann, quantum cellular automata, quantum computing, etc.), microarchitecture and instruction set architecture for nano-scale systems, defect and fault tolerance, fabrication techniques (e.g., self-assembly), modeling and simulation methods. This course relies on current literature for information on state-of-the-art nanoscale computing systems.

Course Material

    - Research papers drawn from conference proceedings and journals.

Class participation

The goal of this course is to develop an understanding of the issues surrounding the impact of nanotechnology on computer system design. Students are encouraged to lead discussions, ask questions, point out weaknesses and make observations on all topics. The homework (paper evaluations) are designed to facilitate this discussion. Good research ideas come from lots of discussion.

Paper Evaluations

Evaluations should be emailed to me with a subject line ECE 299.?? Evaluation <Date>, where Date is the class date, e.g., Jan 19. Please send only one email for each class containing all TEXT  evaluations for the appropriate class (no attachments, please). Do not submit evaluations if you are auditing the class.

The evaluations must be completed before each class begins. The paper evaluations are to ensure active participation by all students and to test for understanding of material. It is also important to develop the ability to critique other research.

Each evaluation will be a maximum of 1/2 page (two to three paragraphs) and should conatin 1) the three most important things the paper says, 2) the biggest problem or weakness of the paper, and 3) a conclusion you draw from the work with respect to the overall course. You may end up with different answers at the end of class, which is fine and expected.

Evaluation scores will range from 0-3. Late homework will not receive credit for any reason. The evaluations/summaries should reflect your understanding of the paper. It is not acceptable to turn in a summary if you have not made an honest effort to read the paper. That is, do not simply submit the papers abstract, introduction, or conclusion.
You may skip up to 1/4 of the evaluations and still receive full credit if all other evaluations are completed to my satisfaction.

Class Presentations

The class presentations should cover 1 to 3 papers on a single topic. I will provide a set of topic areas and a schedule for you to present. Some topics will span more than one class/student. I will provide initial pointers to get you started, but each student should research the topic and identify any additional or replacement papers to discuss. I am perfectly happy to see topics covered that are of interest to the students, but that I may not have listed. These topics must however fall under the broad umbrella of nanocomputing.

Each presentation will be graded on a score of 0-5. The presentation should focus on encouraging class discussion and should include the following:

1. Problem statement,
2. Related work,
3. Methodolgy,
4. Results and interpretation of results,
5. Contributions of work,
6. Weakness of work,
7. General conclusions to draw from the work.

Course Projects

The major portion of this course will consist of a term research project performed in groups of two- or individually.
At the end of the semester each group will present their research in a talk and a paper. See me if you want to work in a different size group.

Some project ideas will be provided as starting points, but I encourage you to define your own projects as long as it is related to the course. Be sure you are excited and passionate about your project, that is one of the most important aspects of choosing a project.

The project will make up the bulk of the course. Students will spend the first part of the course defining the project and researching related work. The actual work on the project will be completed in the last half of the course.

Grading

    + 30%: Class participation
    + 30%: Paper presentations
    + 40%: Group project (w/ presentations and documentation)