CIS700-2008B Emerging Technologies

Redirected from http://alliance.seas.upenn.edu/~cis700/, University of Pennsylvania CIS Department

NOTE: I reserve the right to change topics at the last minute!

Class will meet MW 6-9 pm in Moore 100B. Due to lab size, there is a strict limit on class size. Likely topics for this year:

Course wiki and related websites

The instructor and students together will maintain a course wiki.  A link to the wiki, its edit password, and a link to this syllabus is available in Blackboard, where we will also record grades, turn in assignments, and post some assigned readings.

This year's course will differ considerably, but you may still find value in looking at last year's wiki.

Schedule

Missing certain classes (W Jul. 30, W Aug 6, M Aug 11, or W Aug 13), shown bolded below, will affect your grade (see Course Grading and the Research project description).

week 1  1 M Jul 7 Course intro; Research project kickoff
  2 W Jul 9 Mixed lecture/lab activity by Pat Palmer; Assignment 1 will be announced (due following Sunday at midnight)
week 2 3 M Jul 14 Library training 6-7pm; Mixed lecture/lab activity by Pat Palmer
  4 W Jul 16 Mixed lecture/lab activity by Pat Palmer; Assignment 2 will be announced (due following Sunday at midnight)
week 3 5 M Jul 21 Mixed lecture/lab activity by Pat Palmer
  6 W Jul 23 Mixed lecture/lab activity by Pat Palmer; Assignment 3 will be announced (due following Sunday at midnight)
week 4 7 M Jul 28 Computer forensics lecture by Dr. Mercuri
  8 W Jul 30 Computer forensics lab activity by Dr. Mercuri; Assignment 4 will be announced (due following Monday at beginning of class)
week 5 7 M Aug 4 Electronic voting lecture by Dr. Mercuri
8 W Aug 6 Electronic voting lab activity by Dr. Mercuri; Assignment 5 will be announced (due following Wednesday at beginning of class)
week 6 11 M Aug 11 Groups 1-6 presentations (six lasting 20-25 minutes each)
12 W Aug 13 Comprehensive final exam (1 hour); Groups 7-9  presentations (three lasting 20-25 minutes each)

Course Grading

Grading will be on a curve, determined by looking at raw class results at the end of the semester. Any significant gaps in scores will be used to set grade range cutoffs. Any "extra credit" is added to your course grade after the class curve is set.

CREDIT DUE DATE WHAT
10% Sun. Jul. 13, midnight Assignment 1 - Javascript and Google charts API
10% Sun. Jul. 20, midnight Assignment 2 - Ruby program
10% Sun. Jul. 27, midnight Assignment 3 - Web services
5% Wed. Jul. 30 in class Lab activity - electronic voting
5% Sun. Aug. 3, midnight Assignment 4 - electronic voting
5% Wed. Aug. 6 in class Lab activity - computer forensics
5% Sun. Aug. 10, midnight Assignment 5 - computer forensics
30% various due dates Research project
20% Wed. Aug. 13, 6-7pm Final exam

Prerequisites

You should be comfortable programming in Java and willing to program in additional languages such as C#, Javascript, Ruby and Rails. The workload may be especially challenging due to the short timeframe.

Software, books, and supplies - see also the June 27 email to class

  1. For Dr. Rebecca Mercuri's four classes (MW July 28-30, and MW Aug 4-6), each student must provide a blank 2Gb USB flash drive (minimum size). Also, each student will need 20 blank, writeable CD-ROM disks (5 for each of class); I recommend that you just buy a 25-pack and bring it to class on those dates. You also must bring a looseleaf notebook to each of her classes.
     
  2. Some exercises will use Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET 2008 Professional. For your laptop or home computer, you can download it from the MSDNAA site (you may need to register for an account per online instructions). This version of VS.NET will be available on Moore 100B lab computers by start of class.
     
  3. Students need to purchase a 3-month Microsoft web hosting service (using IIS6 on Server 2003) from http://discountasp.net/ for server-side programming. That should cost about $45 and requires a credit card. You will need to choose an available domain name. NOTE: If you already have a Microsoft website that supports ASP.NET v2.0 and PHP 4.? or later, it could be used; but if not, please purchase this service so I will know how to help you handle any problems that might occur. I accept no commissions from that company.
     
  4. Every student must register as an author in the Computers Workgroup of Citizendium (in fact, I may initiate that in advance "in bulk" for all the people who have registered so far for the class). One of the projects will involve co-authoring an article in the Citizendium wiki about a topic covered in the course.
     
  5. One required book: Beginning Ruby: From Novice to Professional by Peter Cooper, Apress, 2007, 630pp, list price $39.99 (but it's substantially less on Amazon).   I ordered this in the bookstore on June 22 and will post here when it has arrived.

Contacts

Pat Palmer will teach the course.  Dr. Rebecca Mercuri is expected to lecture for four evenings on electronic voting and computer forensics.  There might be other speakers.