This is a question you may wonder about when defining your class project, especially if you are new to research. This article summarizes common types of research contributions (in HCI, but also relevant to systems and networking). You may also review the Call for Papers (CFP) of target venues (e.g., HotNets '24 CFP).
Here are some pointers from Pat Hanrahan, Peter Pietzuch, Irene Zhang, Lin Zhong, and Henning Schulzrinne (who also included many other references). You should also study well-written or award-winning papers from past HotNets, SIGCOMM, and NSDI as examples. Pay attention to their structure and details. In addition, you should also consider leveraging the free writing assistance provided by the Writers Workshop, which is available to all students in the University of Illinois community.
You are welcome to reuse and adapt the
example
plotting scripts (based on matplotlib) provided by the
instructor. Output figures in PDF format to include in LaTeX.
To draw system diagrams and illustrations, consider
the following tools for creating vector graphics (SVG):
PowerPoint (figures can be easily reused later with added animations
in presentations), Figma (free and available on the web),
Inkscape (open-source and available on Linux but a bit hard to use),
TikZ/Graphviz (programming-based), or other commercial
vector graphics software (such as Adobe Illustrator, OmniGraffle, and
Affinity Designer).
Use Git for version control of code (see Git best practices) with a cloud-based hosting service like GitHub, and back up data routinely on cloud storage services. To promote open and reproducible research, researchers often release these artifacts publicly upon the publication of their paper, along with detailed steps to replicate the main results (such as primary figures). We strongly recommend that you follow this practice. Refer to SIGCOMM '24 Artifact Evaluation for more details.
We recommend using Overleaf (with the UIUC license), an online collaborative LaTeX editor. Read the guide to learn LaTeX in 30 minutes. Alternatively, you may use Visual Studio Code with the extension LaTeX workshop to edit and compile your files.