Overview
Readings
Project Ideas (CMU only)
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HCI-899: Research Topics in Ubiquitous Computing
Overview
Instructor: |
Jason Hong (Office NSH3613, send email to jasonh at cs cmu edu) |
Times: |
MW 9-10:30 |
Place: |
NSH 3002 |
Course#: |
05899 |
Pre-requisites: |
This class is a combination of topics covering a wide variety of disciplines
that impact ubiquitous computing. These include human-computer interaction,
distributed systems, databases, machine learning, security, sensors,
with a touch of public policy. While there is no explicit set of pre-requisite
courses for this course, the more of a basic introduction you have to these
various disciplines, the more you will get out of the class (in other words,
you are not expected to be experts in all of these areas, and there are several
overview readings to help bring you up to speed). If you are unsure about
your background feel free to come and talk to me.
This course is open to students from across campus, although it is expected to
consist primarily of SCS students.
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Announcements
- Wed Sep 29 2004 - Project proposals due this Friday
- Wed Sep 29 2004 - Here is a link to the economic models of ubicomp
paper I mentioned in class last week, entitled Payment Support in Ubiquitous Computing Environments
- Thu Sep 23 2004 - Project schedule is up
- Wed Sep 01 2004 - Still need some people to sign up to do the
early presentations coming up later next week
- Tue Aug 24 2004 - First meeting is on Wed Sep 01
- Mon Aug 23 2004 - Course web page created
Course Overview
Over the past decade, there has been an increasing trend towards
integrating sensing, communication, and computation into the physical
world. No longer restricted to the office desktop, computers are
becoming embedded in all aspects of our everyday lives, varying
from electronic toys to smart cars, from augmented classrooms to
intelligent homes. These computers are also becoming increasingly
aware of the environments and situations in which they are used,
from factors as simple as the current humidity and light level,
to as complex as who is using the computer, where it is being
used, and what the user's goal is. This push towards ubiquitous
computing offers tremendous gains in coordination, safety,
and efficiency in domains as diverse as real-time monitoring of
soil conditions, helping patients with Alzheimer's disease, and
support for emergency responders.
In this course, we will take an interdisciplinary look at current
research topics in ubiquitous computing by reading and discussing the
recent literature drawn primarily from conferences (such as SOSP, OSDI,
Ubicomp, Mobicom, Mobisys, WMCSA, CHI, and UIST), as well as from
magazines such as IEEE Pervasive and IEEE Spectrum. Students will
also gain hands-on experience by implementing research projects of
publishable quality.
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Course Topics
Roughly speaking, this course is broken up into five topics:
- Vision and Challenges in Ubiquitous Computing
- Context-Aware Computing, analyzing issues in acquiring
and modeling context, systems for location-awareness, as well
machine learning and UI techniques for handling ambiguity
- Privacy, investigating various risks, design approaches,
and design failures
- System Architectures, examining various forms of
ubicomp, such as broadcast, RFIDs, and sensor nets
- Applications, including smart homes, interactive
workspaces, and protoyping tools
There will also be a strong emphasis on some key problems
facing the research community, including:
- Deployment, getting robust ubicomp systems out there
to help real people with real problems
- Methods and tools that greatly simplify the task of
creating and maintaining ubicomp applications
- Evaluation of ubicomp systems
Project Schedule
- Fri Oct 01 - Form teams (2-3 ppl) and submit 2 page proposals
Proposal should describe motivation for project, basic ideas (what
you want to build and/or evaluate), a rough timetable, and any
special equipment needed
- MTW Oct 04-06 - Project checkpoint meetings
I'll have a signup sheet outside my door the previous week
- Wed Oct 20 - Prototyping Mini-Project due
Do a lo-fi prototype of an interesting ubicomp app
Do a writeup of what you did and what you learned
This can be part of your final project
- ThFri Nov 04-05 - Project checkpoint meetings
I'll have a signup sheet outside my door the previous week
- Wed Dec 08 - Final project presentations
Evaluation Criteria
- Reading Summaries (15%)
- Class participation (15%)
- Class Project (70%)
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