Mobile Computing (CSE 40814)

Course Overview

Mobile devices have become ubiquitous due to the increased Internet accessibility, rapid growth in computing power, increased energy-efficiency of computing devices, advances in human-computer interfaces, and low cost of hardware. Further, devices that used to provide very specific (and limited) services (such as phones) have turned into general-purpose computing devices that can be programmed by anyone (e.g., smartphones and tablets). This course explores various challenges and opportunities of mobile computing, including topics such as wireless network protocols and standards, location awareness, sensing, user interfaces, application development, and security/privacy concerns.

The course will offer significant hands-on experience, i.e., students will have the opportunity to explore various features of mobile devices such as geotracking, sensing, social networking, and multimedia as part of a semester-long development project. Students can propose their own project ideas or select one of several topics provided by the instructor. Appropriate projects for this course include smartphone/tablet solutions for various applications (healthcare, security, entertainment, education, multimedia, etc.), wearable solutions (Google Glass, smart watches, etc.), embedded computing systems (sensor networks, in-vehicle computing, robotics), and many other topics. Resources available for project development include smartphones, tablets, Google Glass, smart watches, embedded development boards (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Intel Galileo), robots, UAVs, sensors, etc.

The course will combine lectures, projects, student presentations, and in-class exercises. For some lectures, students are expected to read lecture materials beforehand, to provide written answers to questions, or to develop code that will be then discussed in class.

Note that class lectures will be recorded automatically and made available via Sakai.