The paper should offer an in-depth exploration of a focused research topic on (1) cloud computing; and (2) the use of game theory and economic markets in the analysis of large-scale system behaviour. The paper serves as a tool to help you digest a number of papers in a relatively short period of time, and to think independently. The main goal is that the paper should involve some creative exploration of a topic at hand. While the paper should certainly contain citations, it should not just be a literature review that summarizes the contents of other prior work; the paper should contain some novel discussion or analysis of the topic. What constitutes "novel discussion or analysis?" It can mean any of a number of things: it can be mainly qualitative or mainly quantitative, depending on your interests and background; it could be an analysis that shows how our understanding of some real-world problem benefits from the ideas introduced in the literature related to this topic; it could be a discussion that relates ideas from a range of papers in a non-obvious way; it could involve a critique and generalization of mathematical models in existing papers in the literature, potentially with some mathematical analysis or a discussion of the applicability of the model. In the first deliverable, called the "midterm paper draft," you are asked to write at least 4 pages, using the format required below. This draft does not have to be thorough, but it does need to show progress towards the ultimate possibility of finishing a complete and high-quality course paper at the end of the course. The second (and final) deliverable, called the "final course paper," represents a high-quality paper that can potentially be published in academic venues (perhaps as a book chapter, tutorial paper, or survey paper). It demonstrates your in-depth understanding and knowledge in a narrowly-focused research topic, developed over the course of the term by reading related academic literature. There are no upper limits with respect to the number of pages you can use, feel free to write as much as you wish. The final paper does need to be at least 8 pages in length. You are required to strictly follow the formatting requirements described later in this course syllabus. The worst way to write a paper is to present summaries of existing work in the area in question. Though your paper may not include any of your original research contributions, it should still be original, in the sense that it should not be just a categorical listing and summaries of existing work, it should reflect your critical and creative thinking. When a capable reader takes the time to read your paper, he/she should be able to learn something beyond existing papers. For example, you may provide insights on how existing work are linked and are similar with each other, or how they are different from each other. Do they use seemingly identical but subtly different assumptions or system models? It takes time to sit back and think about these papers, before you can start writing about them. With respect to formatting, it is required that you use LaTeX (it is available as free downloadable tools regardless of your operating system of choice), as well as the IEEE Transactions LaTeX template (version 1.7a, released March 5, 2007). You are also required to use the IEEE Transactions BibTeX style for bibliography and citations (version 1.12, released January 11, 2007). Both are downloadable from the maintainer`s web site, and from numerous other sites on the Web (such as CTAN mirrors). Do not change the default parameter settings of these templates. Use 11 point font, and two columns per page. This implies that you should start your LaTeX source file with the line: documentclass[11pt,twocolumn]{IEEEtran}