The class syllabus, indicating lecture topics, reading, and project information, will be posted on the class Web page and will be continually updated throughout the semester. You should make it a regular habit to consult the syllabus. (Note: Since the syllabus is constantly updated, make sure you explicitly reload the page to ensure that you are looking at the latest version of the page. ) All project information will be made available via the Web page for the class. Individuals will be responsible for preparing a Web notebook of project deliverables.

Grading

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		Class presentation		10%
		Paper summaries and lecture notes		15%
		Research project		60%
		Class participation		15%

Class Presentation

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The class presentation will give you the experience of reading, synthesizing, and presenting a collection of people's research in a specific sub-area of ubiquitous computing. You will present at least once during the semester. However, depending on the size of the class you may be asked to present more than once OR you may be asked to co-present with a colleague. Your presentation should last at least 45 minutes and at most 60 minutes, after which you will be in charge a leading a 20 minutes open discussion. Your discussion should cover (at the least) the required readings as well as the optional readings listed for that topic. You should prepare in advance a short list of issues or questions that you would like to address over the discussion period. In addition to or instead of presenting the required/optional reading, you could, for example:

• demonstrate software from the readings
• conduct a breakout session, where different parts of the class discuss a different key question from the readings
• design a class exercise for the class, based on the readings
• critique a particular design from the reading

Class Participation & Attendance

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The course will be conducted as a reading seminar. Students are expected to do the assigned readings before class and to actively participate in the discussionof the day's topic. A good portion of the learning in this class will come from intelligent discussion involving the instructor and the students. Consequently, some portion of your grade will be determined by class participation. If you do not attend class, you cannot participate, and your grade will reflect that. I expect that each student will make an effort to attend all lectures and contribute constructively to the discussion. I want to know who you are, so please make an effort to speak in class and talk to me outside of class.

Research Paper Summaries

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For each class period, in which you are not presenting, you will write a 4 paragraph summary and thoughts about the work, for each required paper. Briefly summarize the work in the first paragraph (i.e., describe what the authors did). In the second paragraph, discuss the insights and/or contributions of the paper. In the third paragraph, talk about some limitations of the work and how you would do address those issues (if they exist). In the fourth paragraph, list some interesting relevant research questions that can be explored in the future, or some discussion points that you would like to bring up with the class. These writeups are due at 8pm the night before class, to allow the class' speakers time to work interesting questions into their presentation.

Class Notes

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For each class period, a student will be assigned to take notes of the discussion. After class, the assigned student should send those notes to me for posting to the class.

Research Project

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The purpose of the project is to gain experience doing original research in ubiquitous computing, synthesizing your results in written form, and presenting them in public. You are required to develop a project in an area related to ubiquitous computing. The results of this project should be reported in a 10 page long manuscript following conference style guidelines. The project will also be presented to the class in a workshop-like session at the end of the semester.

The focus of the class projects will be on using the new-ish Google Android mobile platform to develop on, combined with the campus mostly-wireless sensor network, Sensor Andrew. While this is the focus, I will accept other project ideas as well for the course. I will talk more about this and ohter project issues in class. As I expect and hope for a wide set of backgrounds of the students taking the course, the kinds of projects that you propose/work on will vary in scope. For example, your project could be:

• Design-oriented: conducting formative user studies (interviews, surveys, and observations), creating mockups of user interfaces, evaluating the mockups with uers, and iterating several times, resulting in a useful, usable, and desirable design of a ubiquitous computing application
• Implementation-oriented: creating or extending a ubiquitous computing system or application
• Evaluation-oriented: designing a user study and conducting the user study on an existing system

Other Policies	[top]

Students are expected to attend all lectures on time. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner. This expectation includes submitting assignments at the appointed time. Deliverables will be marked down 10% for each full day (rounded up) it is late, with or without an excuse. If any portion of the deliverable is submitted online and modified after the due date, it will be marked late (regardless of how little the change, no exceptions). Any conflicts with deadlines should be brought to the instructor's attention as soon as possible and in all cases PRIOR to that date. Students are expected to follow the university's code of academic conduct. Cases of suspected academic misconduct will be immediately forwarded to the University Committee on Discipline, and will be pursued to resolution. This is an unpleasant process for all involved, so please do not put yourself in this situation. Group projects are expected to be done collaboratively.