Timeline for my Research Agenda

I. Candidacy

1. Schedule candidacy.
2. Write up a "summary paper" that outlines the ideas expressed in my notes: where we've been, where I want to go, and how I intend to get there from here. Note that this could serve as the basis for the "Introduction" chapter of the PhD thesis.
3. Make slides for candidacy presentation.
4. Study for candidacy.
5. Do candidacy.

II. Investigative Details

1. Investigate existing event models (windowing, operating, component, transaction, and active network) to identify common features.
2. Write the "Related Work" chapter of the PhD thesis which compares and contrasts these different approaches.

III. Strawman

1. Propose a strawman model for events and apply it to some small examples.
2. Modify the strawman as needed, leading to...

IV. Contribution: Event-Oriented Development

1. A rigorous definition of an event model, with a specification language.
2. A walkthrough of these examples with proofs of correctness.
3. Properties proven about the system so that developers can reason locally about the components, events, event handlers, triggers, and local constraint control lists.
4. Write the "GEM" chapter of the thesis, which should also be good enough as a standalone journal paper. This will be the main contribution of this thesis.

V. The Big One

1. Implement the GEM system over infospheres.
2. Pick one of the big applications, and implement it.
3. Write the "DIAMONDS" and "CHEST" chapters of the thesis. Either or both of these could serve as good conference or journal papers.

VI. Finishing Up

1. Write the "Perspectives" and "Conclusions" chapters of the thesis.
2. Schedule the defense.
3. Modify the thesis and its chapters as needed.
4. Defend.
5. Again, modify the thesis and its chapters as needed.