ISP Research Deep Dive

Reminder
You are hypothesizing on a solution to a problem

● One Use Case

● It is okay if your hypothesis is wrong
● No case studies

The goal with an MS in Cybersecurity is to make you into a problem solver.

Competencies from class room + life experiences = problem solver

 Paper Sections
1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Related Research
5. Motivating Example
6. Hypothesis and Empirical Evidence
7. Conclusions and Future Work
8. References
 Abstract
Your abstract should provide a concise summary of the research conducted, the conclusions
reached, and the potential implications of those conclusions, as well as:

● Consist of a single paragraph up to 250 words that communicate clearly, with correct
grammar and unambiguous terminology
● Be self-contained, without abbreviations, footnotes, references, or mathematical
equations
● Highlight what is novel in your work
● Include 3-5 keywords or phrases that describe the research to help readers find your
article

Although the abstract is at the beginning of a published article, most authors write the
abstract last and edit it multiple times before article publication to ensure it accurately
captures the entire article.
 Introduction
1. What is the problem?
2. Why is it interesting and important?
3. Why is it hard? (E.g., why do naive approaches fail?)
4. Why hasn't it been solved before? (Or, what's wrong with previous proposed
solutions? How does mine differ?)
5. What are the key components of my approach and results? Also include any
specific limitations.
 Related Work
● Goal - compare your results to prior results
● At least 3 academic references - Paragraph for each
● How does your method different from each
○ You may be building on what they have done
○ You may be bring their solution to a new domain (i.e. db to web)
○ There may be a use case they cannot handle
 Motivating Example
● Narrative description of a specific use case of the problem you are trying to
solve
● Can include references to figures and tables
● Can include references to non-academic journals
 Hypothesis and Empirical Evidence
What should performance experiments measure? Possibilities:

● Pure running time

● Sensitivity to important parameters
● Scalability in various aspects: data size, problem complexity, ...
● Others?

What should performance experiments show? Possibilities:

● Absolute performance (i.e., it's acceptable/usable)

● Relative performance to naive approaches
● Relative performance to previous approaches
● Relative performance among different proposed approaches
● Others?
 Conclusions and Future Work
Conclusions:

In general a short summarizing paragraph will do, and under no circumstances should
the paragraph simply repeat material from the Abstract or Introduction. In some cases
it's possible to now make the original claims more concrete, e.g., by referring to
quantitative performance results.

Future Work:

This material is important -- part of the value of a paper is showing how the work sets
new research directions.

If you're actively engaged in follow-up work, say so. E.g.: "We are currently extending
the algorithm to... blah blah, and preliminary results are encouraging." This statement
 Peergrade Scaffolding & Sections
Week 5 - Define Problem Domain and 3 Papers - Title, Introduction, Motivating Example, & Related Work

Week 6 - Threat Model

Week 7 - Define Hypothesis and Differences from Current Solutions - Introduction, Related Work

Week 8 - Metric and Chart - Empirical Evidence

Week 11 - Related Research Write-up - Related Work

Week 12 - Introduction Write-up - Introduction

Week 13 - Empirical Evidence Write-up - Empirical Evidence

Week 15 - Paper and Recorded Presentation

Worth Repeating From Last
Time
 Cybersecurity Problems

How do I with one of the following perspectives:

● Confidentiality
● Integrity
● Availability
 You Have Unique Domain Experiences
Leverage your own domain experience
● Financial/Banking Sector
● Government
● Technology
● Education
● Retail
● Manufacturing
 Limiting Scope
Often the hardest part of research is limiting the scope of the work.

● This is just a single extended abstract

● Research is iterative
● This work is your flag in the sand
● Can be combined with other extended abstracts to form conference paper (2)
● Can be combined with conference papers to form journal paper (2)
 Group Work?
● Every students needs to be the primary author on a paper
● You can collaborate with other students (each student is a secondary author
on other student’s work)
● Problem domain can be in common
● Problem should be different or solution should be different
Formating
 Paper Format & Types
IEEE Conference Format
https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html

● Extended Abstract - 2 Page (Flag in the sand)

● Conference - 6 Page
● Journal 10-12 Page
MS Word Features
● Figures
● Tables
● Algorithms
● References
● Citations
● Bibliography
Future Class Webinars
October 3rd @ 7 PM EST - Professor Sloan holds a webinar

October 10th @ 7 PM EST - Just a Check In for Questions on Research, Grades

before your 1st research submission