Download all the papers from the paper list. Read each paper's title and abstract to understand the research field, the research problem, and the contributions claimed. Don't worry if you find some parts hard to comprehend--a full understanding of the technical details is not required at this stage.
Next, identify one paper (or book) that is most closely related to your research topic to serve as a seed. We recommend choosing your seed paper from the list provided, but this is not a requirement.
Find at least 20 papers relevant to your seed by searching the references both backward and forward. Read the titles and abstracts of these papers to form a basic outline of the research field. Tip: Resources like Google Scholar and online databases are quite helpful.
Construct a diagram that illustrates the relationships between the selected 20 papers. Specifically, each node in the diagram should represent a paper. The diagram must be generated from a DSL source code (e.g., Flowchart.js, Tikz, graphviz, etc.). Include a Makefile to generate a PDF file from the command line.
Submit both the diagram PDF and the scripts used to create it.
Ultimately, our goal is for you to read through all the papers on the list throughout the semester, gaining a basic understanding of the concepts and standards of software/systems research.