Duke e-mail: rabih.younes
Instructor 1-on-1 office hours are available by appointment (link to make appointments on our Canvas homepage).
To provide anonymous feedback about anything related to the course, please follow the link provided on our Canvas homepage.
Teaching Assistant (TA): Shaochen Wen
TA office hours: TBD — Hudson Hall 101
Course Description
In this course, students design, implement, and evaluate wearable and ubiquitous computing systems while learning about the fundamentals and pertinent research in the field. Topics covered include challenges and constraints in wearable and ubiquitous computing, input/output devices, human-computer interaction, embedded systems, prototyping, machine learning with focus on activity and affect recognition, applications with focus on healthcare, ethics, and societal impact. This course also covers project management and planning as students work on a semester-long team-based multidisciplinary project. Prerequisite: ECE 550D.Learning Objectives
Having successfully completed this course, the student should be able to:- 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, present, and write 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
No textbook is required for this course. All needed material will be posted on Canvas.Grading Policy
- Project (55%): Students are required to work in teams of 3-4 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%) — one per team
- Weekly deliverables (20%) — one per team, including individual progress reports (one per student)
- Mid-project presentation (10%) — one per team
- Final presentation and demo (15%) — one per team
- Project documentation (5%) — one per team *Note that team members not contributing appropriately to their team project will be penalized accordingly (up to 100% of the project grade).
- Topic facilitation (15%): Students, in pairs, are required to select one of eight topics relating to wearable and ubiquitous computing (see schedule below) and lead a class discussion about it.
- Topic discussion engagement (15%): Students not leading the discussion are required to share their ideas in class about the discussed topic and engage in meaningful, insightful, and fruitful conversations. No student is allowed to dominate the conversation.
- Research paper (15%): Students are required to write a research paper (up to 8 pages) about a topic in wearable/ubiquitous computing. The paper should add at least some new insight to the existing literature. The paper can be, but is not limited to, a survey or a tutorial paper.
- Extra credit (+1): Each team member will receive an extra points on their final course grade if the team submits a one-minute video about their project's process and final deliverable (take pictures and videos throughout the semester!).
- NO EXAMS/QUIZZES!
- Late policy: Late submissions are not allowed unless you have a valid excuse. In that case, email your instructor about it 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.
- Regrading policy: Regrading must be requested no later than one week after the assignment grade is released.
- Grading schema:
- ≥ 97.00: A+
- ≥ 93.00: A
- ≥ 90.00: A-
- ≥ 87.00: B+
- ≥ 83.00: B
- ≥ 80.00: B-
- ≥ 77.00: C+
- ≥ 73.00: C
- ≥ 70.00: C-
- < 70.00: F
Important Notes
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 agile project management framework throughout the project. You are free to select the tool that would help you with that.
We will use Box 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 all ECE labs and Duke makerspaces for project-related work; Hudson 101A will be our main lab and has lockers we can use for storage.
There will be awards at the end of the semester for best project, best presenter, and best research analyst.
Tentative Schedule
| Week | Date | Topic | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tue 8/25 | Syllabus + Intro to UbiComp | |
| 1 | Thu 8/27 | Prototyping + Topic Selection | |
| 2 | Tue 9/1 | Agile Project Management with Scrum + NABC | |
| 2 | Thu 9/3 | Introduction to Embedded Systems and Making | |
| 3 | Tue 9/8 | The Vision of UbiComp According to Mark Weiser | |
| 3 | Thu 9/10 | Discussing Teams' Project Proposals | Team project proposal |
| 4 | Tue 9/15 | HCI/UCD | |
| 4 | Thu 9/17 | QFT & Decision Matrices + Project-Related Work | |
| 5 | Tue 9/22 | Challenges and Constraints in Wearables Design | |
| 5 | Thu 9/24 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 6 | Tue 9/29 | Wearable Input/Output Technologies | |
| 6 | Thu 10/1 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 7 | Tue 10/6 | UbiComp Sensing | Team peer feedback 1 |
| 7 | Thu 10/8 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 8 | Tue 10/13 | NO CLASS (Fall Break) | |
| 8 | Thu 10/15 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 9 | Tue 10/20 | Mid-Project Presentations | Mid-project presentation |
| 9 | Thu 10/22 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 10 | Tue 10/27 | Context Awareness - Activity Recognition | Team peer feedback 2 |
| 10 | Thu 10/29 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 11 | Tue 11/3 | Context Awareness - Affect Recognition | |
| 11 | Thu 11/5 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 12 | Tue 11/10 | UbiComp & Healthcare | |
| 12 | Thu 11/12 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 13 | Tue 11/17 | UbiComp & Society | |
| 13 | Thu 11/19 | Project-Related Work | Project weekly deliverables |
| 14 | Tue 11/24 | Project Final Presentations & Demos | Final project presentation |
| 16 | Fri 12/11 | NO CLASS | Research paper |