Nova Southeastern University
College of Engineering and Computing
Winter 2025 – Master Level Course
Term Code: 202530 – CRN: 30675 Sec: L01 Cr: 3.0
Dates: 8 weeks: 01/06/2025 – 03/02/2025
MSIT 650 Platform and Network Tech (3 Credits)
Assignment 1 – Research Paper
Please refer to the course calendar and syllabus for assignment due date and
assignment grade percentage.
Your documents must be submitted before or on the due date on the proper
blackboard assignment number (assignment 1)
Your document for this project will be submitted to Canvas (Assignment 1) in one
of the following file formats: ASCII, MS Word, or PDF.
Assignment 1:
In your book, Guide to Operating Systems by Greg Tomsho, each chapter deals
with a specific area within operating systems and networking.
These areas are broken down by chapter
• Operating system theory
• Popular operating systems
• Operating system hardware components
• File systems
• Installing an upgrading operating system
• Configuring input and output devices
• Using and configuring storage devices
• Modems and other communication devices
• Fiber (ISP)
• Network connectivity
• Resource sharing over a network
• Standard operating and maintenance procedures
For this assignment you can write on one of the following areas:
1) Operating Systems evolution (future)
2) File systems evolution (future)
3) CPU evolution (future)
4) Installation and configuration techniques (future)
5) Input output Devices (future)
6) Communications Devices (future)
7) Configuring Storage Devices (future)
8) Resource Sharing over a network (future)
9) OS Maintenance (future)
These 9 areas listed above are currently active areas of research, choose one from
the list of nine, and then write a paper on what changes will be in the future using
current research. Your book covers historical and up to current technologies, your
paper will address where things are going in one of the above listed areas.
You must use proper journals such as IEEE and ACM. You may also use trade
publications, but no web references, book references (except textbook) or white
papers.
Keep your references as current as possible. Be careful not to choose to global
a topic, for example, all the “operating systems” currently being researched is
too global, choose one operating system being researched and research that.
Refrain from using generation references, each reference must pertain to your
paper, not a referenced paper.
Your paper must include a well-defined direction and review of the influential
research that was the basis for your paper. The paper must be between 10-12 pages
and include a minimum of 8 citations, and do not exceed twelve pages. Each
citation in the paper must appear in the reference list. Use proper ACM citation
references (Kane,2023)
This research paper will be evaluated on the content and clarity of each section as
well as the effectiveness with which the document is organized and planned.
Factors affecting the evaluation process include the purpose, significance, merit of
the investigation, detail, focus and flow.
Notes:
Do not make your paper to global, only choose a few papers to review in a
specific topic area. Make sure you define the problem area first and a goal.
An example problem statement:
Current operating systems are not robust enough to address the
changes necessary to support the rapid hardware technology changes
being introduced (Kane,2025).
This paper will provide research that addresses the changes necessary to allow
a more consistent model across many different hardware platforms.
Form and Style.
Your paper should pay close attention to maintaining a consistent flow in form.
The document must be well written and should be proofread for detail. Accuracy
and focus. The paper should follow the basic framework for a scientific paper
should answer the following questions:
What is the Problem?
What research addressed it and what were the results of the research
conducted?
What is the conclusion and what is the future work area?
Further definition of structure would be:
1) Define your problem.
a. (reference your problem with an expert that agrees with you.)
2) State your goal.
3) Why is this work significant and relevant? (as per Webster on the Internet)
a. Significant – having or likely to have influence or effect: important. a
significant piece of legislation. also: of a noticeably or measurably large
amount. a significant number of layoffs. producing significant profits.
b. Relevant – having something to do with the matter being considered or
being important or significant in each situation or to a given person. For
example, you might describe a question as relevant or say that someone
appealed for anyone with relevant information to come forward.
4) Review current research in your area of choice, focusing on your defined
problem
5) Conclusion
6) Future work.
Margins:
Left-hand 1.5 inches, all other 1 inch
Spacing:
Double spacing
Page Numbers:
Arabic numerals in the upper right-hand corner.
Type style.
12 point, Times Roman or similar Serif typeface
Definitions:
Methodology, goal, significant, relevance, summary, conclusion and future
work:
Refer to the Nova Southeastern University Dissertation Guide.
References and Citation:
Follow the APA guidelines for references and citations.
