DSS [Winter 2025]

Distributed Systems Seminar (DSS) [Winter 2025]

A distributed system consists of a set of independent subsystems that fulfill a specific task in a coordinated fashion. The subsystems rely on a communication network to exchange messages. Besides the basic networking functionality, non-functional aspects such as robustness, dependability and performance need to be provided. This seminar will cover such topics in a conference-style setup.

(This seminar used to be called “Distributed and Networked Systems (DNet)” until Winter 2023. If you attended the DNet seminar already, you cannot attend DSS. Instead, you can attend the Networked Systems Seminar (DSS) in the summer term.)

Organization

  • Audience: B.Sc. and M.Sc. students enrolled in one of the Faculty of Computer Science’s study programs
  • Language of Instruction: English

Learning goals: Students will learn to work with a either a technical or a scientific paper, understand its contents and its context, critically reflect on it, and will learn to present their findings in a concise fashion.

Workflow:

  • get one of the eight place via the faculty’s central allocation system, you will then be enrolled in this seminar’s Moodle course
  • kick-off meeting
  • first common meeting where each participant gives a very brief overview over the assigned paper (approx. two weeks after kickoff meeting)
  • individual meetings with supervisor during the semester (at least one of which will be mandatory)
  • deliverables at the end of the lecture period: survey (text document) and presentation (slides and / or poster)
  • conference day (i.e., seminar presentation day, second common meeting) in the lecture-free period

Schedule

  • Summer 2025: faculty-central allocation (you cannot enroll directly with the DNet group!)
  • 2025-09-2x: Participants will be enrolled into the Moodle course (no self-enrollment here either!)
  • 2025-10-06 to 2025-10-13: Paper Assignment in Moodle: FCFS!
  • 2025-10-14: 1st common meeting: Kickoff in MC 1/54 at 3pm
  • 2025-10-28: 2nd common meeting, pt. 1: Overview presentations of M.Sc. students in MC 1/54 at 3pm
  • 2025-11-04: 2nd common meeting, pt. 2: Overview presentations of B.Sc. students in MC 1/54 at 3pm
  • 2025-11-24 to 2025-12-19: Individual meetings (one per person, TBD)
  • 2026-02-08: Submission of final deliverables
  • Between 2026-03-02 and 2026-03-13: 3rd common meeting: Presentation Day (>= one full day, TBD)

Topics: TBA by 2025 August 01

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Grading Scheme There are two types of requirements for successfully concluding the seminar

  • [binary] need to be fulfilled entirely
  • [weight: XY%] indicates impact on the final grade

I) 1st Common Meeting: Kickoff

  • [binary] Attendance during the entire meeting

II) 2nd Common Meeting: Overview Presentations

  • [binary] Attendance during the entire meeting
  • [binary] Give a meaningful overview presentation within the specified time

III) Individual Meeting

  • [binary] Scheduling and attendance within given deadlines
  • [binary] Selection of sufficient related work papers
  • [weight: 20%] Justification of your related work paper selection

IV) Deliverables: Related Work Survey, Presentation Slides, Poster

  • [binary] Hand in all documents (all their files) before the deadline
  • [binary] Respect requirements (file type, size, format, etc.)
  • [weight: 25%] Related work survey
  • [information] Presentation slides and poster will be graded in conjunction with your presentation day performance, they will not be graded individually without being presented

V) 3rd Common Meeting: Presentation Day

  • [binary] Attendance during the entire meeting
  • [binary] Give your own presentations (not violating specified demands significantly!)
  • [weight: 50%] Your own presentations and ability to discuss / answer questions
  • [weight: 5%] Your active participation in discussions of other papers