ECE 496/590: Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing Systems Design — Spring 2021

Class meeting time and location: TuTh 03:30–04:45 pm EST, Zoom (check Sakai Zoom Meetings)

Course Description

Learning Objectives

• design, develop, and evaluate wearable/ubiquitous computing systems;
• describe and discuss design constraints unique to wearable and ubiquitous computing;
• identify and utilize hardware and software development tools useful in wearable systems development;
• work efficiently in teams on resource-constrained open-ended projects with real-world impact;
• critically read, review, and present academic research papers; and
• create and deliver oral and written presentations documenting a design project to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Textbook and Other Course Material

Grading Policy (ECE 496|590)

• Design project (70%|55%): Students are required to work in teams of 3 on a semester-long project. The project should relate to wearable computing, address a real-world problem, and it should add new information to the existing literature in the field (no exact duplication of other projects). Remember, the better the contribution of the project the better would be the chances to publish it later in a paper.
  Deliverables:
  • Project proposal (5%|4%) — one per team
  • Weekly brief progress reports (20%|16%) — one per student (this grade is also impacted by the team's sprint deliverables)
  • Mid-semester presentation (10%|7%) — one per team
  • Final presentation and demo (20%|16%) — one per team
  • Project report (15%|12%) — one per team
• Paper reviews (10%|10%): Students are required to submit reviews of assigned papers when needed throughout the semester. The review for each paper should follow the following format:
  • Motivation(s): describe the main motivation(s) behind the work of the paper in 1 sentence
  • Contribution(s): state the main contribution(s) of the paper in 1 sentence
  • Approach: provide a high-level description of the approach in 1–3 sentences
  • Strengths: provide a subjective description of the strengths of the paper in 1–3 sentences
  • Weaknesses: provide a subjective description of the weaknesses of the paper in 1–3 sentences
• Class discussion (10%|10%): Students are required to share their ideas in class about the papers that they read and engage in meaningful, insightful, and fruitful conversations. No person is allowed to dominate the conversation.
• Paper presentation (10%|10%): Each student is required to present at least one research paper among the papers that are assigned throughout the semester. Each presentation should take about 20 minutes (not including questions).
• Research paper (0%|15%): Each graduate student is required to write a research paper about a topic in wearable/ubiquitous computing based on the information acquired during the course. The paper should add new information to the literature. The paper can be a survey or tutorial paper. The paper should be written using the ACM two-column format and should include basic sections such as Abstract, Introduction (motivating the topic), Background (literature review and previous work related to the paper), and Conclusion. Page limit: 8.
• Extra credit (+2): Each team member will receive two extra points on their final course grade if the team submits a two-minute video about their project's process and final deliverable (take pictures/videos along the way).
• NO EXAMS/QUIZZES!
• Late policy: Late submissions are not allowed unless you have a valid excuse. In that case, email the Head TA about it (and CC me) as soon as possible and wait for a decision (might involve a penalty, depending on the excuse). Refer to this list of common but unacceptable excuses borrowed from Dr. Bletsch's webpage.
• Regrading policy: Regrading must be requested no later than one week after the assignment grade is released.

Important Notes

All announcements are posted on Piazza. Make sure you can receive Piazza email notifications.

We can only grade what we receive. Always check what you are submitting and make sure you submit the right files.

We will use the Scrum framework throughout the project. You are free to select the tool that would help you with that.

We will use Google Drive to keep track of each team's progress (team meeting minutes, individual progress reports, etc.) in order to facilitate documentation and grading.

We have access to the Foundry for project-related work and storage (lockers).

Misconduct

• Academic misconduct will not be tolerated and will be taken very seriously.
• You are expected to complete the assignments individually unless otherwise stated.
• Students are encouraged to share ideas, learn from each other, and learn from online sources, but cheating is not tolerated.
• Any borrowed design/code/etc. — if allowed to be borrowed — should be properly cited.
• Students suspected violating the Duke Community Standard will be reported.
• In addition to the measures taken by the administration, the affected assignment(s) will receive zero credit, or possibly -100% in extreme cases.
• If you are considering this course of action, please see me instead and we can work something out! I want every student in my course to be successful.
• Note that programming submissions will be compared to one another and to previous semesters using state-of-the-art tools to detect signs of plagiarism.

Tentative Schedule

This semester's award winners:

• Best project: Auto-Lacing Smart Shoes (Hyunjae Lee, Jack Wood, and Justin Kim)
• Best presenter: Lakshya Bakshi
• Best research analyst: Lakshya Bakshi