Seminar on Consensus Algorithms and Applications

Distributed computation has enabled great scalability in various application areas, e.g., Big Data, Machine Learning, etc., but the correct operation of a large number of compute nodes requires reliable coordination and (meta)data replication. In this seminar we take a deep dive in the underlying algorithms and protocols for coordination and replication, namely consensus algorithms. The seminar is based on research paper reading at home and discussions/presentations in class. For the first part of the seminar, your instructor will present the seminal works and lead the discussion. In the second part of the seminar, you will take the lead and present the state-of-the-art protocols and discuss their benefits/drawbacks in practice. This seminar will be useful for students aiming for an industry job or research career in the general area of distributed systems. Familiarity with consensus protocols and understanding of the underlying core concepts is fundamental for building safe, reliable and efficient distributed systems!