CSCI.4962 Internet Computing -- Fall 2001

Instructor: Carlos Varela
Office: 109 Amos Eaton, x6912
Office Hours: Tu-Fr, 2-3pm; or by appointment
Meeting Place: Rickets Building, Room 211
Meeting Hours: Tu-Fr, 12-2pm
TA: Advait Sane
Office Hours: Tu, 3-5pm; or by appointment
Web Page: http://www.cs.rpi.edu/courses/fall01/ic2001/
WebCT Page: http://webct.rpi.edu/public/CSCI_4962_01/index.html

Breaking News :

Papers Selected and Final dates for paper presentation.
Programming Assignment 3 is now available.

Course Contents

Models of Concurrent and Distributed Computations

Pi-Calculus
Actors
Mobile Ambients, Join Calculus

Programming Languages and Frameworks

Java RMI, Serialization, Concurrency Model
Objective CAML; Jocaml
CSP in Java; Nomadic PICT
Actor Foundry; SALSA

Research Topics

Coordination
Mobility
Naming
Scalability
Heterogeneity
Security

Tentative Course Syllabus

Topics in red color are not going to be covered in this version of the class.

Date	Topic	Grade
08/28	Introduction to Internet Computing Part I -- Models/Theory.
08/31	Pi-Calculus - Introduction
09/04	Pi-Calculus - Operational Semantics
09/07	Pi-Calculus - Bisimilarity and Congruence
09/11	Actors - Introduction
09/14	Actors - Operational Semantics
09/18	Actors - Expression Equivalence
09/21	Mobile Ambients
09/25	Join Calculus
09/28	Partial Exam	20%
10/02	Introduction to Internet Computing Part II -- Programming Languages and Frameworks
10/05	Java RMI, Sockets, URL, Serialization
10/12	Java Concurrency -- Programming Project 1 Due 10/15	10%
10/16	Objective CAML Java Reflection and Security
10/19	JOCAML CSP in Java
10/23	Nomadic PICT -- Programming Project 2 Due 10/29	10%
10/26	Actor Foundry
10/30	SALSA
11/02	WWC -- Programming Project 3 Due 11/08	10%
11/06	Introduction to Internet Computing Part III -- Research Topics -- Selected Paper Critiques and Presentations by Students	20%
11/09	Coordination
11/13	Coordination
11/16	Naming
11/20	Mobility
11/27	Scalability
11/30	Heterogeneity
12/04	Security
12/07	Final Exam	20%
	Class Participation	10%

Reading Material -- Part I

An Introduction to the Pi-Calculus by Joachim Parrow. pp. 3-14, 25-28, 39-42.

In Handbook of Process Algebra, ed. Bergstra, Ponse, Smolka, pages 479-543, Elsevier 2001.
URL: http://www.it.kth.se/~joachim/intro.ps

A Foundation for Actor Computation by Agha, Mason, Smith, Talcott. pp. 1-27.

In Journal of Functional Programming, 1996.
URL: http://osl.cs.uiuc.edu/Papers/actor-semantics.ps

Mobile Ambients by Cardelli and Gordon.

In Theoretical Computer Science, special issue on Coordination, D. Le Métayer Editor. Vol 240/1, July 2000, pages 177-213, Elsevier.
URL: http://research.microsoft.com/Users/luca/Papers/MobileAmbients.US.ps

Join Calculus by Fournet and Gonthier.

"The reflexive chemical abstract machine and the join-calculus". In Proceedings Principles Of Programming Languages 1996.
URL: http://pauillac.inria.fr/~fournet/papers/popl-96.ps.gz

Optional Reading Material -- Part I

A Calculus of Mobile Processes (Part I) by Milner, Parrow and Walker.

URL: http://lampwww.epfl.ch/mobility/papers/ECS-LFCS-89-85.ps.gz

The Polyadic Pi-Calculus: A Tutorial by Milner. pp. 1-17.

URL: http://lampwww.epfl.ch/mobility/papers/ECS-LFCS-91-180.ps.gz

A Brief Introduction to Applied Pi by Sewell. pp 1-15.

URL: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/pes20/mathfit-notes.ps

Additional links: UIUC CS424 Material and Concurrent Systems Archive.

Software Links, Papers, and Tutorials -- Part II

Java

RMI
Sockets
Reflection
Serialization
Concurrency -- Excerpt from Concurrent Programming in Java by Doug Lea.
Security
Online Java Tutorial: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

Jocaml -- Objective CAML
JCSP- Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) in Java
Nomadic PICT
Actor Foundry
SALSA

Research Papers -- Part III

Students will critique and present selected papers from recent journal and conference publications, including but not limited to:

Follow This Link

Academic Integrity

The Rensselaer Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities defines several types of academic dishonesty, all of which are applicable to this class. Students found in violation of academic dishonesty policies may receive a failing grade for this course.

Please contact the instructor if there is any question about academic (dis)honesty.

Last Updated -- November 2nd, 2001.