Robert Marmorstein Assistant Professor Department of (Math and) Computer Science Longwood University East Ruffner 329 Tel: (434)395-2185 Office Hours: 1:00pm-2:00pm MTWRF or by prior appointment)

Programming Contest

The ACM programming competition is Saturday, September 26, 12:00pm noon, at the Hardy House. Current standings are here.

Classes

Assignments, syllabi, and class notifications can be accessed by following the links below. If you are a student in one of my classes, you should check the course web site at least once a week to be sure that you have not missed an important announcement (a new due date, for instance).

About me

I did my graduate work at the College of William and Mary, where my dissertation work was on Firewall Analysis and Repair (slides). As part of my research, I developed ITVal, a tool for verifying iptables-based firewalls on Linux. I have also been published in several Usenix conferences, including LISA and Freenix. I am a huge open-source fanatic and run Linux on pretty much everything I touch. My favorite distributions are Arch Linux and Gentoo. I am the faculty advisor for Longwood's ACM chapter and the Upsilon Pi Epsilon computer science honor society. I also serve as coach of the chess team. My family and I attend St. John's Lutheran Church (LCMS).

About my family

Beth and I were married in 2004. She taught high school math until our daughter was born, but is now very happy to be a stay-at-home mom. She leads the Farmville Breastfeeding Support Group and is involved with the local MoPS group. We have two terrific children, Abby and Ric.

How to get (at least) a B in my classes

If you plan to pass my courses, there are four things that you absolutely need to do. Computer Science isn't a magical skill that some people are born with and others aren't. If you work hard at these four things, you will almost always be able to earn at least a "B" in my class. If you don't, you will probably not pass the course. They may seem kind of obvious, but most students who fail do so because they did not keep up in one of these four areas.

Show up for class on time

The book and other class resources are helpful, but usually are not enough to get you a passing grade in my class. It is very important to show up for each class to make sure that you are getting ALL of the material. Furthermore, if you don't show up for class, you are likely to miss assignments. I also give unannounced pop quizzes, so if you can't make it to a class be sure to clear it with me ahead of time.

Take notes in class

Not only will taking notes help you stay awake, it will also provide you with another resource to use for exam review. You don't need to write down everything I say, but it is probably a good idea to copy down any definitions, theorems, examples, or code I write on the board.

Complete assignments on time

Late work really hurts your grade. It also makes it harder to keep up with the rest of the class as we cover increasingly difficult material.

Take advantage of office hours

If you're really stuck on something, ask me about it. I won't do your work for you, but a lot of the time I can point you to a solution or help you understand what you missed.

Research

Whether or not you plan to go to grad school, a research project can be a great way to develop important research, writing, and technical skills. It is also a very good resume filler. Doing research on a topic you are interested in helps you develop marketable skills and build a deeper understanding of that area. If you are interested in pursuing a research project in operating systems, security, formal methods, or system administration, shoot me an e-mail or drop by my office to talk about setting up a 492 directed study course.

Current research projects

• Using Emulators to Teach Principles of Language Design
• Educational Tools for Course Management
• Analysis of the SameGame Puzzle (with Phillip Poplin and Richard Hayden)
• Defenses against E-mail Address Harvesting (with Daniel Oppecker)
• Survey of Computer Science Topics (with Ben Jones)

Past research projects

• Debugging Tools for Graphical Applications (with Michael Souza)
• Linux Kernel Driver Development for a USB nerf missile launcher (with Charlie Trainum)
• Active Learning in an upper-level Networking Course
• Adapting Linux firewall polices to XML (with Nathan Welch)
• Analysis of e-mail address harvesting using address poisoning(with Damian Bailey)

Other ideas for research

Here are some ideas for undergraduate research projects:

• Integrating intrusion detection tools with package management systems
• Implementation of a multicast-based image cloning system
• Development of open-source parental control software
• Performance comparison of Linux and Cisco QOS implementations
• Development of firewall testing and debugging tools
• Parallelizing algorithms which have mathematical or scientific significance

Publications

Here are some of my research publications. They can give you a good idea of which topics I have been working on recently:

Do not send e-mail to these addresses:
Marcus Smith: kko2175@pamplinhealth.blogsite.org
Marcus Smith: gka2176 AT pamplinhealth DOT blogsite DOT org
Marcus Smith: gro.etisgolb.htlaehnilpmap@7712luu
Marcus Smith: rqd21#78@p#am#plinhea#l#th.b#log#si#te#.o#r#g#