CSCI4176 Fall 2011

Administrivia Assignments Term Project Resources Prerequisites Marking Scheme Final Exam Tentative List of Topics Academic Integrity

Administrivia

Instructor: Alex Brodsky     Office: CS 208
E-mail: prof4176@cs.dal.ca     Office hours: TBA
Class Meeting Time: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 15:35-16:25     Room No: McCain 2170
Lab Time: Wednesday, 9:35-12:25     Room No: Teaching Lab 2
Final Exam: TBA
Course E-mail list: all-cs4176@cs.dal.ca

The course official course outline is available here.

Assignments

There will be three assignments in the first part of the course. All assignments are due at 17:00h on the following non-negotiable due dates:

Description Due Date
Assignment 1 The Search for Cool Mobile Applications September 23, 2011
Assignment 2 Roll the Bones October 14, 2011
Assignment 3 A Mobile Chat Client October 28, 2011

Term Project

There will be a term project (to be done in groups of 1 or 2). The project will have several components. Please see the Project Specifications for description of all the components. All project components are due at 17:00h on the following non-negotiable due dates:

Project Component Due Date
Proposal October 21, 2011
Update 1 November 4, 2011
Update 2 November 18, 2011
Implementation December 7, 2011
Demo December 7, 2011 (during the lab period)

Resources

There are labs for this course, with a corresponding website.

There are not required texts. However, one of the following texts may be helpful for developing your term project.

Additionally, the following resources will be found on-line: As well, two to three research papers for the latter part of the course will be made available here, shortly.

There is a mailing list for the course where you can post and discuss questions that arise from the course material. Please let the instructor know if you wish to be removed from the list. The email address on the list will be your CS email address. If you do not know how to access your CS e-mail account please see http://www.ug.cs.dal.ca/studentservices/faq/technical_services/e-mail/email.php or contact the CS help desk.

Additional resources:

Prerequisites

CSCI-2121, and CSCI-3171

Marking Scheme

A course mark will be assigned based on three assignments, a term project, and a written final examination.

Final Exam

The final exam will be held during the exam period, December 9 - 20.

Photo identification is required. No paper or electronic electronic aids, such as dictionaries, calculators or talking slide rulers, are allowed.

Tentative List of Topics

  • Overview
    • Mobile Technologies
    • Anatomy of a Mobile Device
    • Survey of Mobile Devices
    • Applications of Mobile Computing
  • Application Design
    • Context
    • Information Architecture
    • Design Elements
    • Mobile Web vs Native Applications
  • Development Environments
    • Introduction to Objective-C
    • The Model-View-Controller Model
    • The Delegate Pattern
    • The iPhone, Android, \& Blackberry SDKs
  • The Application Environment
    • Limited Resource Computing
    • Memory Management
    • Low Power Computing
    • Fault Tolerance and Persistence
    • Security Issues
  • Wireless Communication Technologies
    • Celluar networks
    • Wireless (802.11)
    • TCP/IP in the mobile setting
    • Geolocation and Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • The User Experience
    • The Small Screen Problem
    • The Unified Look and Feel Paradigm
    • The iPhone Human Interface Guidelines
    • The Blackberry User Interface Guidelines
    • Common User Interface Guidelines
  • Distributed Computing
    • Consistency and Reliability
    • Security Issues
    • Ad hoc Networks
    • Sensor Networks
  • The Future of Mobile Computing
    • Upcoming Technologies
    • Convergence of Media and Communication Devices

Academic Integrity

NB: Based on the sample statement provided at http://academicintegrity.dal.ca}.

At Dalhousie University, we respect the values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, responsibility and respect. As a student, adherence to the values of academic integrity and related policies is a requirement of being part of the academic community at Dalhousie University.

What does academic integrity mean?
Academic integrity means being honest in the fulfillment of your academic responsibilities thus establishing mutual trust. Fairness is essential to the interactions of the academic community and is achieved through respect for the opinions and ideas of others. "Violations of intellectual honesty are offensive to the entire academic community, not just to the individual faculty member and students in whose class an offence occurs." (see Intellectual Honesty section of University Calendar)

How can you achieve academic integrity?

These examples should be considered only as a guide and not an exhaustive list.

What will happen if an allegation of an academic offence is made against you?
I am required to report a suspected offence. The full process is outlined in the Discipline flow chart, which can be found at: Academic Discipline Process and includes the following:

  1. Each Faculty has an Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) who receives allegations from instructors.
  2. The AIO decides whether to proceed with the allegation and you will be notified of the process.
  3. If the case proceeds, you will receive an INC (incomplete) grade until the matter is resolved.
  4. If you are found guilty of an academic offence, a penalty will be assigned ranging from a warning to a suspension or expulsion from the University and can include a notation on your transcript, failure of the assignment or failure of the course. All penalties are academic in nature.

Where can you turn for help?