General

• Instructors: Marcel Weisgut, Florian Schmeller, Prof. Dr. Tilmann Rabl
• The course will be conducted on-site at HPI. The sessions will take place on Tuesdays, 13:30 - 15:00 in room F-1.11.
• All seminar announcements and course materials will be shared through Moodle
• The course is limited to 8 students.
• If, for any unforeseen reasons, you must drop the course, this needs to happen by 1st November 23:59.
• If you have any questions, please contact us.

Description

In this project seminar, we will discuss data processing techniques on modern hardware. Specifically, we will focus on modern CPUs, lightweight operating systems as hardware abstraction layer, memory (buffer) management, as well as hash-based database operations and their performance on modern CPU architectures. We will survey current trends, read and present research papers, and work on small research projects in which you implement and experimentally evaluate selected approaches.

Structure

Project

This course will be structured around group research projects of the students' choices in the focus areas (see above). Students will work in groups of two. The students should develop, implement, and evaluate project ideas. The progress of the project is discussed in weekly meetings with one of the seminar supervisors and is presented to the seminar participants in the form of

(1) a proposal presentation,

(2) an intermediate presentation,

(3) a final presentation.

At the end of the course, the students should hand in a written report on their project. Ideally, we aim to publish the results at relevant conferences in this field.

Paper Presentations & Discussions

To develop a solid understanding around the focus areas, we want to discuss state-of-the-art research papers on a regular basis. Each student should prepare such discussion sessions and lead them. This involves studying the paper in detail, presenting it, preparing potential discussion topics, and moderating the following discussion. To be adequately prepared for this, we will beforehand discuss the best practices for reading, writing, and presenting scientific papers. Ideally, the papers that will be presented in our sessions will cover the related work of the chosen project topics.

Grading

• Project + report: 50%
• Paper presentations: 30%
• Project presentations: 20%
• One-pagers: pass/fail - they will not be included in the final grade but are required to pass

One pager: a brief summary and questions about a paper to be read

Prerequisites

Successful completion of the course Hardware-conscious Data Processing (in 2022, 2023, or 2024)

Basic Requirements

• Good programming skills (ideally C/C++)
• Interest in modern hardware
• Interest and previous knowledge in database systems (e.g., DBS II, BDS, DYOD)