ECE 590: Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing — Fall 2018

Class meeting time and location: TTh 3:05–4:20, Hudson Hall 212

Superheroes Wearables

Instructor: Dr. Rabih Younes
Duke e-mail: rabih.younes
Office: Hudson Hall 204
Office phone: 660-5051
Office hours: TTh 1:30–2:45, or by appointment

Course Description

This course covers the fundamentals of wearable and ubiquitous computing, discusses pertinent research and current challenges in the field, and prepares students to design, implement, and evaluate wearable computing systems. Topics covered include challenges in system-level low-power design, input/output devices, networking, and applications. Prerequisites: ECE 350L or ECE 550D. Instructor: Younes. One course.

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

describe and discuss design constraints unique to wearable and ubiquitous computing platforms and applications;
design, develop and evaluate a wearable computing application;
use hardware and software development tools;
write, review, and present academic papers; and
work better in a team.

Textbook and Other Course Material

No textbook is required for this course. All material will be posted on Sakai (DO NOT repost/upload to any site; the material is copyrighted).

Grading Policy

Paper reviews (10%): Students are required to submit reviews of weekly assigned papers (~2 papers/week) following the below format for each paper:
- Motivation: describe the motivation of the paper in 1 sentence
- Contribution: 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
Reviews are due every Tuesday. Students are not required to submit reviews on the days when they are presenting. The lowest grade on the reviews will be dropped.
Class discussion (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.
Presentations (20%): Each student is required to present 2 papers (of different topics) among the papers that are assigned throughout the semester. Each presentation should take about 20 minutes (not including questions).
Design project (35%): Students are required to work in teams of 3 on a semester-long project. The project should relate to wearable computing 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 as a paper.
Deliverables:
- Project proposal (10%): Each team is required to draft a project proposal (look for ideas on the Master's Student Research Opportunities webpage under projects listing me as advisor) and get my approval.
- Weekly progress reports (30%): Each student is required to submit their brief weekly progress report every Thursday. The report should follow the below format:
  - What I worked on during the past week: the student should describe (preferably using bullet points) their individual contribution to the project during the past week.
  - What I plan to work on during the coming week: the student should describe (preferably using bullet points) their individual work plan for the coming week.
- Pesentation and demo (30%): Each team is required to present their project and demonstrate their working prototype.
- Project report (30%): Each team is required to submit a project report using the ACM two-column format (links to LaTeX and MS Word templates). Page limit: 8.
Research paper (25%): Each 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 (links to LaTeX and MS Word templates) 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.
NO EXAMS/QUIZZES!
Late policy: All deliverables are due at noon on their submission day. Late submissions are not allowed unless the student has a valid excuse (penalties may apply by taking off 20% for the first day late and 10% per day thereafter).

Awards

At the end of the course, based of peer voting (students cannot vote for themselves), awards will be distributed to the best research analyst, the best presenter, and the best project.

Misconduct

Students caught violating the Duke Community Standard will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. 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.

Summary of Important Dates

8/30: Presentation topic preferences sorted from most to least preferred
9/6: Project proposal (teams of 3)
11/15: Research paper title and brief description
11/29: Project presentation and demo
12/4: Project report
12/15: Research paper

Detailed Schedule

Week	Date	Topic	Due
1	8/28	Syllabus
1	8/30	Intro + My Research Presenter: Rabih	Presentation topic preferences sorted from most to least preferred
2	9/4	Overview Presenters: David and Rabih	Reviews
2	9/6	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project proposal (teams of 3)
3	9/11	HCI/UCD Presenters: Xiong and Jasmine	Reviews
3	9/13	NO CLASS: Hurricane	Project weekly progress report
4	9/18	Challenges and Constraints Presenter: Rabih	Reviews
4	9/20	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
5	9/25	Wearable Input/Output Technologies Presenters: Jasmine and David	Reviews
5	9/27	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
6	10/2	Prototyping Presenter: Rabih
6	10/4	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
7	10/9	NO CLASS: Fall Break
7	10/11	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
8	10/16	Context Awareness I (Activity Recognition) Presenters: Ankita and Rabih	Reviews
8	10/18	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
9	10/23	Smartphones Presenters: Ang and Xiong	Reviews
9	10/25	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
10	10/30	Context Awareness II (Emotion/Affect Recognition) Presenters: Ankita and Rabih	Reviews
10	11/1	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
11	11/6	Wearables and Social Issues (including security) Presenters: John and Ang (security)	Reviews
11	11/8	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion	Project weekly progress report
12	11/13	Guest Lecture by Christopher Koszarsky Director of Engineering, Garmin
12	11/15	Wearables fun facts / recent news Project discussion Research paper topic discussion/approval	Project weekly progress report Research paper title and brief description
13	11/20	NO CLASS
13	11/22	NO CLASS: Thanksgiving
14	11/27	Wearables in Gaming and Entertainment Presenter: John	Reviews
14	11/29	Presentations and demos	Project presentation and demo
15	12/4	NO CLASS	Project report
16	12/15	NO FINAL EXAM	Research paper

This semester's award winners

Best research analyst: John Martin
Best presenter: Jasmine Lu
Best Project: Infiniring & SmartShoes