CS 190 Computer Science Design Project Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
Secretary: Mrs. Rita Drew, 3532-F or 4532-G, <rita@cs.ucla.edu>, 310 825-1322 or 54033
Now URL: http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~klinger
Old URL: http://www.cs.ucla.edu/csd-lanai/fweb/cs190
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Objectives: Learning to work in a group and set one's own goals. Developing 1) skill at transmitting ideas, and 2) fundamental ethical standards. Acting to innovate and to accomplish things in computer hardware, software, or analytic-models. Enabling students to share their knowledge.
Talks and Reports: Each person gives three or more individual talks to the class: at least two are on the project tasks he/she undertakes. There are many types of first presentations. One can explain a project idea, possibly with the goal of recruiting partners. A book on an issue in the professional development area, a new aspect of computing, or information found from a web site, can be the basis of a talk. Since practice and process are the issues here, a talk can really be about any topic of interest to computer science students: people have used JAVA, registering domain names, CGI scripts, and many other things as subjects. Still most of the talks should describe what you have done in your project design or to develop professionally this quarter. At least one talk must show something you have done. A very good way to do that is focus on preparing figures, graphs or tables before the talk. Then either by xeroxing them or developing film transparencies you can get your peers to look at your results while you speak about them.
Activities and Grades: Developing a personalized ten-week plan of objectives. Selecting reading material. Choosing a project. Creating a common, jointly-prepared/approved work effort culminating in preliminary and final reports and a briefing. Attendance and active participation at course meetings. Contributing to other projects by comments at talks, and reviews of progress reports and paper drafts. Course grades reflect team results, initiative and work quality; and individual participation.
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Initiating a Project: The first three weeks begin with team formation and project selection. Project teams of three or four members begin to address combining different visions of what will be done. Teams can work on coordinated projects, or do the same project independently. Student-originated projects must have instructor-approved of their written description, deliverables, and specifications.
Requirements:
1. Work with partners to create two high-quality written project reports.
2. Read, write, and compute. Distill that work into presentation material.
3. As an individual prepare and give presentations to the class.
4. Write an individual weekly progress report.
5. At course conclusion submit a letter describing the group experience.
6. Participate in all evaluation activities; responsibly comment, contribute and reporter in class..
7. Speak twice about your own work on a project: specific contributions and accomplishments .
CS 190 Computer Science Design Project At course conclusion submit a letter describing the group experience Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
Presentations: The course work involves discussions and talks. Students ask questions about, and comment on, each other's work. Numerous course handouts, reports, figures, suggestions on giving talks, and material on computer innovation appear in the course web site. Everyone must give a talk. from new visuals composed for that purpose. [Students can use computer visual preparation software.]
World Wide Web Sources: Some sites enable discovery and learning that can motivate a talk. E. g.,
http:// www.sjmercury.com/ San Jose Mercury News
http://wsj.com/ Wall Street Journal
http://nytimesfax.com/ N Y Times
http://www.usatoday.com/ U S A Today
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Washington Post
http://www.latimes.com/ L A Times
http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/ Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Quality: Since we all start from different places students often accomplish markedly diverse kinds of work. This course allows for variation but encourages and rewards excellence. Everyone will be able to impact decisions of how well talks and project work meet accomplishment standards.
There are different ways to start a project. This section is an overview of approaches you can take.
1. Innovation or Assignment. Innovation represents a project based on student suggested ideas.
1) Write out your idea, the first sketch (email is ok).
2) At least one person gives a short talk in class describing the task.
3) Each person creates their own draft project description (short title, sentence or two, specific thing he/she will do).
4) All work to combine the drafts of the prospective participants.
5) At least two people present the combined project description draft to instructor.
2. Client Source A project based on a real customer's needs. Compose a work statement based on the steps in 1. Consider whether the task has any general aspects. See list below or propose your own client.
CS 190 Computer Science Design Project Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
3. Partially Sighted Kate Rosloff 720 Wilshire, Santa Monica 310 458-3501 x135
Samuel Genensky <harpoons@ucla.edu>
4. Jet Propulsion Lab Steve Pravdo <shp@temblor.jpl.nasa.gov> 818 354-3131
5. Replicated File Peter Reiher <reiher@cs.ucla.edu> 310 825-8332
6. Computer Tutor Ernesto Carlos <Ernesto_Carlos@es.xerox.com> 310 333-3633
Byron Darrah <darrah@cyberg8t.com> <darrah@cs.ucla.edu>
7. Virtual Reality Ruth Baum Widney High School 213 731-8633
Dorothy Klinger 2302 South Gramercy Place
Maria French Los Angeles
Project Descriptions The following project examples give broad overviews of work to be done. Two things complete a realistic project description: details and deliverables. Similarly, your project should be described in writing in as soon as possible by all team members.
3. Partially Sighted Web-Site Aiding involves creating improved computer software for people with disabilities. Audio-Extended Web Browser. World-wide web browsers, present problems for users who work with Braille and sound output. Many people have partial sight. They could benefit from a system that involves a web site with audio links. Contact Kate Rosloff at the Center for the Partially Sighted or email the founder Samuel Genensky.
4. Near Earth Asteroid-Tracking (NEAT). Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) needs reprogramming to speed an algorithm since data is coming in faster than current software can process it. A hardware upgrade caused incoming data to outstrip processing of time-adjacent images. The software now takes all the time between the end of one night and the beginning of the next to locate entities moving in a straight line. Point data is either a star, i.e., a fixed object, or a planetary body, an asteroid, comet or planet. The goal is to detect Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and comets more than 1 km in size for scientific study and to evaluate whether they may be hazardous to the Earth. Since Dec. 1995, 6-12 nights each month, data has been obtained. The recent upgrade resulted in a factor of 2.5 increase in sky coverage to 300 square degrees per night: a typical night yields 10 GB of image data - which usually yields 100 asteroids.detected, one a possible NEA. http://huey/jpl.nasa.gov/~spravdo/neatl.html
CS 190 Computer Science Design Project Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
5. Replicated File Replicated File System Simulator Application and Evaluation Augment an existing simulator so it can be used on new models of replication, especially with regard to measuring their scaling and mobility properties. This work involves understanding both the existing simulator and a new model of replication. The job includes programming in Maisie, Prof. Rajive Bagrodia's simulation language. Another phase is in conducting simulation experiments to determine characteristics of the new model's behavior at high scale. Prof. Peter Reiher and two students who built a) the simulatior, and b) a new file replication model, are available to advise. http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/project-members/reiher
6. Computer Tutor Build Problem-Solving LearningMaterials. Computer-math ability is an obstacle for some in gaining problem solving skills. Fill gaps in traditional math education. Create new computer materials. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~klinger/k12.html and pointers from it. Files in Spanish there are translations by Juan Carlos Sanchez Agrelo <jagrelo@CS.UCLA.EDU>. Material to deal with diverse languages of elementary school students could use visual means to communicate. Byron Darrah created a recent effort http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~darrah/pyramid/ .
7. Virtual Reality Arrange existing materials for world-wide-web display. Materials include songs, text, pictures about working with numbers in the real world: at a supermarket, fast food outlet, etc.; this is called "Functional Math" in educational jargon. Create a virtual reality simulation of this environment. Widney teachers would provide further information: call and leave a phone messge with your phone number. Disabled individuals need virtual reality software for web viewing ofsupermarket-store displays.
8. City Geographic Information. Use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in urban planning. Traffic-Flow: software to display information to an urban planner. Support:s setting traffic signals, widening roads, building parks, new bikeways, landscaping. Jitney System: software to evaluate route costs, to plan mini-van versus auto transport. Assume short wait times at boarding points. Place economic value on wait-time, distance to routes, and long-range mobility (combining with rail/light-rail). Find costs and feasibility from three hub destinations, LAX, Westwood, Downtown. Generate figures from a computer model you build/run.
9. Web Business. Software for recharging smart cards used for online banking, web shopping, or toll-road commuting. Assume there is an integrated circuit embedded in a plastic card. Review and use a commercial site such as http://www.amazon.com .
CS 190 Computer Science Design Project Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
Planning
Lumsdaine(s) Creative Problem Solving, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Ulrich and Eppinger Product Design and Development, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Internet
Lynch, Daniel C. and Rose, Marshall T., Eds., Internet System Handbook, Addison-Wesley, 1993.
Thomas, B., The Internet for Scientists and Engineers, SPIE/IEEE Press, 1996.
Dern The Internet Guide for New Users, McGraw-Hill, 1995.
Graham The HTML Sourcebook, Wiley, 1997; http://www.hprc.utoronto.ca/HTMLdocs/NewHTML/htmlindex.html
Negotiating
Fisher, R. and Ury, W., Getting to YES, Houghton Mifflin, 1981.
Cohen, H., You Can Negotiate Anything, Lyle Stuart, 1980.
Starting a Company
Kushell, J., No Experience Necessary, Random House, Inc., 1997.
Siegel, M., How to make a fortune on the internet, Harper Perennial, 1997.
Gillis, T., Guts & Borrowed Money, Bard Press, 1997.
Dawson, G., Borrowing to build your Business, Upstart Publishing Company, 1997.
Merrill, R. and Sedgwick, H., The New Venture Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Run Your Own Business, Revised, AMACOM/American Management Association, 1993.
McKeever, M., How to Write a Business Plan, 4th ed., Nolo Press, 1992.
Patents
Anawalt, H. and Enayati, E., IP Strategy - Complete Intellectual Property Planning, Access and Protection, Clark Boardman Callaghan,1996.
DeForest,T., Inventor's Guide to Successful Patent Applications, McGraw-Hill, 1988.
Magid, L., "Software, Web Sites Offer Help to Inventors Applying for Patents," L A Times, 3/18/98 http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~klinger/patent_software.html
Writing
Strunk, W. and White, E. , The Elements of Style, NY: Macmillan,1972.
http://www.cc.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk (the 1918 version by Strunk).
Sageev, P., Helping Researchers Write... So Managers Can Understand, Columbus OH: Battelle, 1995 .
CS 190 Computer Science Design Project Spring 1998
A. Klinger 3531-H Boelter Office (3532-J Mail Slot) Mon/Wed 12-1:50 PM Boelter 5273
Come to the 4-13 class meeting with your:
1. One-page reaction comments on something you read.
2. A preliminary statement - a paragraph - describing your project preference.
3. Readiness to present a short talk based on web access CS 190 material.
4. Ability to discuss some CS 190 exercise posted on the we.
5. List of first four-week class meetings when you'll present a talk.
6. Contact communication: notes from a phone conversation or copy of email exchange; for a volunteer nonprofit organization such as the Venice Family Clinic.
Points of Contact
Venice Family Clinic 392-8630
Jennifer Behr <jlbehr@ucla.edu> ext 335.
Allison Dockray, Associate Director of Events, ext 337
Liz Forer, Executive Director, ext 200.
Calendar
Please mark your April and May calendar's now. [You can use the unix commands cal 4 1998 and cal 5 1998.]