Fall 2008 - CSE 594 - Special Topics in Embedded Systems

Mobile Computing for Informal Economies

Announcements | Schedule | Reader | Course Links

Instructor: Prof. Jennifer Wong & Prof. Anita Wasilewska

Meeting time and venue: Weds 3:50-5:10pm in Wireless Seminar Room (CS 2311)

Course Description:

There are over 3.5 billion mobile phones in the world and they are proliferating at astounding rates across socio-economic and cultural boundaries. They provide unprecedented opportunities for enabling social change and technical activism. The type of impact can range from individuals (children, elderly, disabled, illiterate, informal businesses, etc) to communal, and in a variety of areas such as economic and social development, education, advocacy, human rights, and healthcare.

This course will discuss embedded systems in general, but will mainly focus on mobile phone platforms. We will discuss and investigate the current research on mobile technology for social implications at all levels of the social and economic pyramid. Projects for the course will focus on building mobile applications on current mobile technology and low-end, older generation phones to address the needs and challenges of informal economies and communities.

Audience:
The course is intended for anyone who is interested in learning about embedded systems and mobile computing. No backgroud knowledge of the subject matter is required. The only prerequisite is knowledge of a programming language for project implementation, preferably C/C++/Java. Previous mobile phone programming experience is not required, but encouraged.

Texts:

Lecture Slides
Research papers and handouts

Grading: (updated 11/5/09)

Group Survey Paper: 25%

Topic related to course project or separate topic. (Topics proposed by students is ok, as long as related to course scope)
5-8 research papers, discussed and evaluated, proposed extensions of research/work
Properly cited bibliography

Group Application/Development Project: 60%

Webpage, containing all code, weekly reports, motivation, etc
Working Demo
Final Project Report

Class Participation: 15%

Starting 11/11/09 Attendance will be taken in the first 10 mins of class, from 3:50-4pm. A point will be given for each lecture to count towards your class participation.
If you arrive after 4pm, you will recieve 1/2 a point.
Absences with sufficent reason/proof and AT LEAST 24 hour e-mail notice to the professors MAY be excused.

Project Requirements:

Each project group is responsible for creating and maintaining a webpage about their project.

Webpages must contain by the end of the semester: a motivation, target users, screenshots, user’s manual, installation instructions for editing project and for on the mobile platform, discussion of pros/cons/limitations of application, links to resources and related references

Each week, a progress update must be posted to the webpage before lecture.
Every other week, groups will present their progress, issues, etc in lecture. Slides for each presentation must be posted on website. (See schedule on webpage)
Each student in the group must give one of the weekly presentations.
At the end of the semester, a working demo of the application will be presented on Weds Dec. 9, an extended lecture will be held to present all projects.
Final project reports, presented in a similar way to the applications paper (see reader on webpage) are due on Monday Dec. 12, 2009.

Announcements

[11/5] Class participation updated on website syllabus.
[10/14] Project webpages are listed here
[10/4] Selected Projects are listed here in red. Use Blackboard discussion boards to form groups for your projects. Groups formed/posted/discussed on the discussion board will be given preference to a particular project (in the case of multiple e-mails). Once you have formed a group for a particular project, send e-mail to Prof. Wong. If a project has been claimed by a group, it will be posted on the projects page and on the discussion board. All groups must be formed by the end of class on Oct 7th. Group size is 3 team members.

[10/1] Potential Projects are listed here. Vote for your favorite 3 projects by Sat Oct 3rd midnight. Selected list of projects will be posted and blackboard discussion boards will be opened for each selected project to form groups. All groups must be formed by the end of class on Oct 7th.

Schedule:

Week	Date	Lecture Topics	Assignments/Readings	Due in Lecture
1	W 9/2	Course Overview [Senegal slides]
2	W 9/9	Senegal Application Introduction [Dictionary Slides]	[1,2]
3	W 9/16	Senegal Application Introduction & Student Introductions [Account Book Slides]		HW #1
4	W 9/23	Student Introductions
5	W 9/30	Student Introductions
6	W 10/7	J2ME Introduction [Slides]		Project Groups Formed
7	W 10/14	Survey Paper Guidelines / Project Proposals [slides]		HW #2
8	W 10/21	Weekly Project Reports (Group I) [lecture notes]		HW #3
9	W 10/28	Weekly Project Reports (Group II) [lecture notes]
10	W 11/4	Weekly Project Reports (Group I) [lecture notes]		HW #4
11	W 11/11	Weekly Project Reports (Group II) [lecture notes]		HW #5 [All images]
12	W 11/18	Weekly Project Reports (Group I)		HW #6
	F 11/20			Survey Papers Due @11:59pm
13	W 11/25	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY - NO CLASSES
14	W 12/2	Weekly Project Reports (Group II)
15	W 12/9	Final Demos
	M 12/14			Final Reports Due @ 11:59pm

Reader:

Anita Wasilewska, Jennifer L. Wong, "Template Mobile Applications for Social and Educational Development," to appear in International Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Technology, October 2009.
Tapsie Giridher, Raksik Kim, Divya Rai, Adam Hanover, Jun Yuan, Fatima Zarinni, Christelle Scharff, Anita Wasilewska, Jennifer L. Wong, "Mobile Applications for Informal Economies," to appear in International Multiconference on Computer Science and Information Technology, October 2009.

Course Links:

Senegal Applications

Financial Application [Installation ReadMe][code]
Dictionary Application [Installation ReadMe][code]

Professor Chistelle Sharff Lectures on Mobile Phone Programming

Tutorial slides
Free Software for tutorial

Sun Java Wireless Tool Kit 2.5.2 for CLDC
http://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/download.html?feed=JSC
Eclipse Ganymede (Eclipse IDE for Java Developers)
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads
EclipeME Plugin for J2ME Midlets
http://eclipseme.org
Android SDK Version 1.1 Release 1
http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.1_r1/index.html
ADT Plugin for Eclipse
http://developer.android.com/sdk/1.1_r1/installing.html.

Mobiles In the News

School embraces learning by cellphone, New Zealand Herald, Sep 03, 2009.