Computer Architecture for Software Engineers

ENGR 3420: Computer Architecture for Software Engineers

Spring 2018

Research Assignment # 1

Due 3/15/2018, soft copy on BB (link will be made available later)

The article “DARPA funds six centers working on computer design alternatives,” (https://www.techrepublic.com/article/darpa-funds-six-centers-working-on-computer-design-alternatives/) discusses the works of six centers funded to explore possibilities to create design alternatives for computers. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is

1. Pick one of the centers discussed 2. Find more information about the center selected 3. Find two published journal or conference papers discussing any of the methods, technologies or

approaches that the center considers. 4. Write a short paper discussing

a. The center you selected (what it is, where, what do they do, their goals, etc.) b. The method, technique or approach you selected (what it is, how it works, is it done yet or just a

design, etc.) c. Your opinion about the center and method you discussed

Your paper should adhere to the following requirements

1. A minimum of 2 pages 2. Single spaced, 11 point “Times New Roman” or similar font. 3. Following proper formatting for a research article (as you read through the references you select, you can mimic

the format they are using). You should have a title, introduction, main sections (one or more depending on how you organize your topic), conclusion and references.

4. References must be cited at the proper location in your text using numbers between square brackets, e.g. [1] or [2], etc.

5. References must be listed at the end of the paper following the Chicago citation format (see note on finding and citing references below).

6. Two references must be scholarly articles (conference or journal papers). You can use as many additional references as you see necessary. I see at least one additional reference that you will need and that is the one you will use to talk about the center itself.

Notes:

7. Download and keep copies of the article(s) you use for this assignment. You may need to refer to them later for the second research assignment.

8. The best place to find articles is in Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.com/) and the RMU online library search (http://library.rmu.edu/). Your articles can be conference or journal articles or chapters in other books.

9. To get the Chicago format for a citation, when you find an article you will use, you will see a double quote symbol under the reference description (see Figure 1). When you click on that you will see a box appear with the reference citation in various formats. Click on the Chicago format and copy it to your document.

Figure 1. Example showing where to find the reference citation information.