EPFL thesis/project report LaTeX template

Template for IC EPFL (BSc, MSc, or doctoral) theses and semester projects. The template contains a rough structure with some hints for systems-oriented projects but the same structure is easily adaptable to other research projects as well.

Check out the compiled example document if you want to see how it is rendered.

License and acknowledgement

The source code and LaTeX package is licensed under the LPPL. This work may be distributed and/or modified under the conditions of the LaTeX Project Public License, either version 1.3 of this license or (at your option) any later version. The latest version of this license is in http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

We would appreciate if you acknowledge the use of this template and where you got it from in your report.

Contact

Contact Mathias Payer with bug reports or questions.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have the necessary LaTeX packages installed. For Ubuntu/Debian, the installation instructions are as follows:

sudo apt install make texlive-base texlive-bibtex-extra texlive-latex-base \
                 texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-recommended \
                 texlive-science texlive-lang-german texlive-lang-french \
                 texlive-bibtex-extra biber rubber texlive-fonts-extra

Editing

You will edit the files thesis.tex (this is where you write your report) and thesis.bib (this is where you add all your references). Add figures in a ./figures directory. To create the PDF of your thesis, run make.

Writing Tips

Writing is hard. Here, have some help.

I. Punctuation

1. Use the Oxford comma for enumerations: We talk about a, b, and c (see the comma before and)
2. We use commas around e.g. and i.e.: foo, e.g., or, i.e., bar
3. This is a sentence with a footnote\footnote{In the footnote we use a full sentence as well.}.

II. Weasel words and bad writing

1. Never use "is able to", "is not able to". These expressions can always be removed
2. Don't use passive voice (or minimize passive voice as much as possible)
3. Don't use abbreviations (no don't won't it's) in a paper
4. Don't use weasel words (Up to sixty percent, Clearly, The vast majority)
5. Run a spell check and grammar check on the document before every commit
6. Don't use Discuss about link
7. For the "Related Work" section, use consistency. Always cite the work after introducing the name
8. Always add a space after parentheses "foo (bar)", not "foo(bar)", this is not a function call!
9. Be careful about the correct spelling of benchmark and other systems: SPEC CPU2006

III. LaTeX do's and don'ts

1. Use \autoref not \ref when referring to a section. When you refer to a specific section add label{sec:mysec} and then refer to it as \autoref{sec:mysec}. LaTeX will turn this into, e.g., Section 2. Same goes for Figures, Tables, or Listings.
2. Use a non-breaking space (\~) before, e.g., \cite (foo\~\cite{bar}), \autoref as in foo\~\autoref{fig:foo}; don't use a breaking space before a non-breaking space as this defeats the purpose of non-breaking spaces. Do not use non-breaking spaces for free-standing text such as XXX. \autoref{fig:foo} shows....
3. For providing inline comments while iterating over the paper, you can use the todonotes LaTeX package. This allows for turning off the comments using a simple disable flag. Sample provided below:

    \usepackage[disable]{todonotes} %disables all todonotes
    \newcommand{\ali}[1]{\todo[inline,color=red!40]{alice: #1}} % inline comment block

4. Use \emph while introducing keywords and for proper nouns, e.g., \emph{Control-Flow Integrity} (CFI)

IV. Paper writing

1. Start with an outline of the paper
2. For each section/subsection outline each paragraph and what you want to say. Keep this information as comments above the paragraphs
3. Continue to expand (write text for the individual paragraphs) and compact (condense the text to remove fluff), then expand again to figure out a better wording.
4. Figures are important, each major concept should be described through a self-explaining Figure; take care of reasonable captions!
5. Tables and graphs are important too, take care to show the advantages of your system; make sure the captions are helpful!
6. Goal: someone reading just the outline and looking at the Figures/Graphs should get a good idea what the paper is about.

V. Benchmarking

1. Always use all programs in a benchmark set, report the full performance overhead
2. Memory overhead may be important too
3. For figures: show the baseline, start x/y axis at 0, show label axes
4. When presenting results in a table: (i) right align numbers, left align text, (ii) use commas as delimiter for large numbers: 1,000,000; not 1000000, (iii) label your columns/rows, (iv) the caption should explain any abbreviations, (v) the table must be referenced in text, explaining the main takeaway but not just repeating results.

VI. Discussing Related Work

Think who is the most likely expert reviewer of your paper. How critically should you discuss their work? Orthogonally, their work is already published and contributed to the field. Always talk about related work in a positive way. Highlight the positive aspects when you introduce related work, then iterate over why your work is different.

Foo et al. introduced the first zero-overhead CFI instrumentation based on an optimized set check\~\cite{FoosWork}. While \sysname leverages a similar runtime check, it combines a static analysis with a dynamic modification scheme that allows on-the-fly adjustments of target sets while Foo's target sets were purely static.

VII. Repositories and Linting

Note that these are hard rules that we will enforce in the group :)

• Push your code to a git repository, add a link to this repository in your slack channel and/or in the wiki of the project
• Add a Makefile that builds the paper with rubber (or pdflatex). The repository contains an example Makefile.
• Always use vector images, never rasterize (i.e., no JPG/PNG but rather export to PDF then embed PDF)
• The full text of the paper is in a single file for easier editing/searching (the repository will take care of merging)
• Break lines at 80 characters

Presentation tips

General rules:

• Around one slide per minute of presentation.
• If the presentation is shorter than 15 minutes, no need for an overview of the content.
• Always finish your presentation on the conclusion slide. You want your listener to read it again while you answer questions and not look at a blank "Q&A" slide.
• Add slide numbers for easier referencing when your listeners ask questions.
• Aim for consistency in fonts, letter case, color among slides.
• Short word sequences, not necessarily full sentences

Figures:

• Make sure figures are readable (do not go under 10pt).
• Google Slides does not allow for SVG import, make sure your PNG are big enough to not look fuzzy on the projector.
• Add labels and units to figures, graphs, axes.

Giving the talk

• Specify if you want questions during or after the talk
• Watch the audience (pick 2-3 faces throughout the room and let your eyes wander during the talk)
• Modulate your voice, speak clearly and make breaks between sentences/slides
• Hold your hands still and don't constantly jump around, let the audience focus on the slides