CSEP590B/F Smartphone Mobile Computing – Winter 2011

Course Goals

Smartphones are the first truly ubiquitous computing device in the sense that we carry them with us almost everywhere we go.  These phones are the convergence of simpler voice and messaging phones and some of the capabilities of laptop computing.  They now provide access to user context – location, physical activity, communication activity – that can greatly affect how applications provide access to relevant information. 

 

In this course, we will focus on the properties of smartphones and how they have changed the range of possible computing and web applications we can now imagine.  We will survey the field through a collection of readings from both academic and popular publications.  We will group projects to propose new applications of our own which we then move forward to paper and/or functional prototypes. 

 

The course assumes no prerequisites besides general knowledge of a range of computing devices and intermediate programming skills including the ability to adapt to new languages and development environments.  The course projects can cover a huge range from low-level sensing and communication protocols to cloud-based proxies so there should be topics of interest and compatibility to every background.

 

Course Syllabus

Mobile computing touches on many aspects of computer science and engineering.  In a quarter, there is no way that we will be able to touch upon every one of these facets.  Rather, we will focus on the ones that are the most different about mobile computing vis-à-vis laptop or desktop computing.

 

The approximate list of topics we’ll discuss:

 

•         Programming environments for smartphones

•         Sensing and location

•         Communication methods

•         Participatory sensing and citizen science

•         Applications in health care

•         Applications in transportation and logistics

 

Workload

The course consists of the following elements:

  1. Lectures: There will be 8 Monday evening lectures of approximately 3 hours duration.
  2. Assignments: There will be an assignment due every week we meet (see the calendar).  As we recognize the pressures of your work schedules, there will be some flexibility in the number of assignments that you will be required to complete.  Assignment instructions will include details.
  3. Group Project: During the third week, groups of 2-4 students will form around a project idea.  By the end of the quarter, the project will be demonstrated in video form at the end of the quarter.  There will be mid-term and final reports that will describe details of the implementation and the design decisions made along the way.  This is the major activity during the quarter and everyone will be required to participate in a project.
  4. Readings: There will be assigned reading each week to help spur in class discussion of the topic for the week.  These will consist of a few articles from academic and/or popular sources.
  5. Exams: There will be no formal exams for this course.

We will try to ensure that the workload is typical for a four-credit course, namely, nine to ten hours per week outside of the lectures. If we do not succeed at keeping this to this level or lower, please let us know in whichever way you feel the most comfortable (person-to-person, e-mail, feedback form) and explain which parts of the course are causing you to spend too much time non-productively.

Grading

We will compute your course grade as follows: