Spring 2007

Rivier College

Syllabus

CS699A Professional Seminar

 

1.     Course number and title: CS699A Professional Seminar

2.     Course description: Various recent topics with the emphasis on the student’s application of prior course work are considered. Students prior to the start of the semester individually select projects. Individuals design and implement moderately large software systems as the deliverable for this course. This course is divided into two parts:

·         During the first 2/3 of the class, we will be discussing (in the seminar style) the future of computing. We will take turns preparing for and leading discussions on each of the 18 articles in the Invisible Future text. Also, we will discuss topics from the Craft of Research text, which will be helpful to students in developing their research skills.

·         The last 1/3 of the class will consist of each of you presenting the results of your work to the rest of the class.

 

        Prerequisite: Taken just prior to the Master program completion.

 

3.     Course objectives:

 

Since this is the last class (or nearly the last class) you will be taking at the Rivier College, the major portion of the class will be your work, from start to finish, on a real project.

 

4.     Instructor’s name:      Dr. Vladimir V. Riabov, Associate Professor, MA/CS Department

                                                        Office: STH-312; Tel: (603) 897-8613; E-mail: vriabov@rivier.edu

                                                        WEB: http://www.rivier.edu/faculty/vriabov/index.htm

 

5.     Class Dates and Time:       January 18, 2007 – May 3, 2007; Thursdays:   7:45 PM - 9:45 PM

 

Office Hours: Tu: 3:30 - 5:30 PM; Wed: 4:30 - 6:30 PM; Th: 5:15 - 7:45 PM.

 

6.     Required textbooks:    P. J. Denning, editor. The Invisible Future, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.

 

W. C. Booth, G. G. Colomb, and J. M. Williams, The Craft of Research, 2nd edition, Chicago & London, The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

 

7.     Recommended books:

 

·         P. J. Denning and R. M. Metcalfe, eds. Beyond Calculation, New York: Spring-Verlag, 1997.

·         G. Booch, J. Rumbaugh, and I. Jacobson, The Unified Modeling Language User Guide, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1999.

·         B. P. Douglass, Doing Hard Time: Developing Real-Time System with UML, Objects, Frameworks, and Patterns, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1999.

·         L. Fertuck, System Analysis & Design with Modern Methods; Business and Educational Technologies, Wm. C. Brown Communications, Inc., 1995.

·         Roger S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1997.

·         V. Kumar, Mbone: Interactive Multimedia on the Internet, New York: Macmillan, 1995.

·         P. G. Newmann, Computer-Related Risks, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1995.

·         C. Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway, New York, NY: Doubleday/Anchor, 1995.

·         T. Winograd, J. Bennett, L. De Young, and Bradley Hartfield (eds.), Bringing Design to Software, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1996.

·         Mark Allen Weiss, Algorithms, Data Structures, and Problem Solving with C++, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1996.

·         D. A. Norman, Things That Make Us Smart, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993.

·         H. Rheingold, The Virtual Community, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1993.

·         D. Gelernter, Mirror Worlds, New York: Free Press, 1991.

·         D. B. Lenat, Building Large Knowledge-Based Systems, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1990.

·         M. Rothschild, Bionomics: Economy as Ecosystem, New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co., 1990.

·         E. A. Feigenbaum and P. McCorduck, The Fifth Generation, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1983.

·         H. L. Dreyfus, What Computers Can’t Do, (1st ed.), New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

 

8.       Classroom Policies:

 

a)     Attendance: Active participation requires attendance and arrival to class in time to be prepared for work when the class period begins. You are expected to attend all classes. Much of the learning will take place in classroom activities that cannot be duplicated easily outside of class. If you miss class, you are responsible for doing all classroom activities you missed, getting the notes from a classmate, and turning in all work on the day it is due. If you miss more than two classes, your absences will be reported to the registrar and you must meet with the professor to discuss the advisability of your remaining in the course for the remainder of the semester. Students who miss three classes may be withdrawn from the course and receive disciplinary action from the college (see Rivier College Attendance Policy in Appendix 1). If you anticipate that job-related duties or prior commitments will cause several absences, please discuss the matter with the instructor outside of class. Working online is permitted.

b)     Honesty policy: Plagiarism and cheating are serious breaches of academic honesty. In general, plagiarism is defined as the presentation of someone else’s work in whatever form: copyrighted material, notes, film, art work, reports, statistics, bibliographies, and the like, as one’s own, and failing to acknowledge the true source. Quoting word-for-word, or almost so, or using the argumentation of another source without acknowledging this dependence also constitutes plagiarism. Cheating is defined as the giving or attempting to give or to receive unauthorized information or assistance during an examination or in completing an assigned project. Submission of a single work for two separate courses without the permission of the instructors involved is also a form of cheating.

If students are unsure whether a specific course of action would constitute plagiarism or cheating, they should consult with their instructor in advance.

Penalties for plagiarism and cheating vary with the degree of the offense and may take the form of the following academic sanctions:

·                the grade of F for the work in question;

·                the grade of F for the course;

·                notification of the department chair and/or Academic Dean of the College of the misconduct of the student;

·                recommendations that the student be suspended or dismissed from the College.

c)     Home Assignments: Prior reading of the assigned articles from the Invisible Future and Craft of Research books. Each student will be asked to prepare a review of a major article from an ACM/IEEE publication or journals. The student’s article would be distributed to the class a couple weeks before the scheduled discussion so that all students could read it.

d)     Computer Project (individual project): The students each should submit 5-10 page project proposals the third week of class, which, once accepted, they work on independently, mostly outside of class (with the instructor’s help as necessary). The Initial Report must reflect preliminary research and serious thought about your topic. Your final write-up should be no longer than 20 typewritten, double-spaced pages. It should contain an abstract, the problem description, programming algorithm (data structures used, what the program does, how it does it, and how to use the program). Be sure that your code has sufficient comments. Please include a floppy disk (or CD-ROM) containing your program and the instructions/commands to run it. The last 1/3 of the semester will be the students’ oral presentations of their projects. The Final Project is due on May 3, 2007.

e)     NO EXAMS are scheduled.

 

  1. Americans With Disabilities Act (Ada):

 

Rivier College wants to provide reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. To accomplish this goal effectively and to ensure the best use of our resources, timely notice of a disability must be provided to the Office of Special Services for verification and for evaluation of available options. Any student whose disabilities fall within ADA should inform the instructor within the first two weeks of the term of any special needs or equipment necessary to accomplish the requirements for the course. To obtain current information on this procedure, contact the Office of Special Services at telephone extension 8497.

 

  1. 24/7 Blackboard Technical Support:


All students have the ability to access Blackboard technical support on a 24/7 basis. Students have many different options for obtaining support, including phone, online technical library, or Live Chat with a customer service representative. The support can be accessed by following this link: http://supportcenteronline.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=3250

 

11.    Evaluation Mechanism:

 

                The grade is primarily made up of your performance on your project.

                Approximate weightings are as follows:

 

Classroom (Chapter) Discussion               10%

                        Leading (Article) Discussion                     10%

                        Project                                    80% (including 16% - Project Presentation & 64% - Paper)

 

12.    Due Dates:

 

Initial Project Proposal:                               February 1, 2007

Initial Report:                                                March 22, 2007

Updated Project Report (optional)           April 12, 2007

Final Project due:                                         May 3, 2007

 

  1. Topic Outline:

 

SESSION              TOPIC                                                                   READING             Discussion Leader

                                                                                                                IF = “The Invisible Future” text

                                                                                                                R = “The Craft of Research” text

                                                                                                                BC = “Beyond Calculations” text*

 

1         (01/18)            The Tide, Not the Waves (by Dijkstra)*                  Ch. 4 (BC)*                  Vlad Riabov

How to Think About Trends (by Hamming)*         Ch. 5 (BC)*                  Vlad Riabov

Research & Readers                                                    Chs. 1, 2 (R)                   Vlad Riabov

Revolution in Embedded System                                                                      Vlad Riabov

 

2  (01/25)                Science's Endless Golden Age (by Tyson)              Ch. 1 (IF), pp. 1-14                       

A Compass for Computing's Future (by Colwell)  Ch. 2 (IF), pp. 15-26     

Topics-Questions, Questions-Problems                  Chs. 3, 4 (R)                   Vlad Riabov

Challenges in Embedded System Design                                                         Vlad Riabov

 

3  (02/01)              Engineering the Ocean (by McNutt)                         Ch. 3 (IF), pp. 27-42     

                                How Biology Became an IS (by Baltimore)             Ch. 4 (IF), pp.43-56

                                Questions & Sources                                                  Chs. 5, 6 (R)                   Vlad Riabov

                                Software Development Life Cycles (Modern Approach)                              Vlad Riabov                 

                                [INITIAL PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE]

 

4  (02/08)                Flesh and Machines (by Brooks)                              Ch. 5 (IF), pp. 57-64      Student                 

... Automated Music Composer (by Hofstadter)    Ch. 6 (IF), pp. 65-86      Student

                                Arguments, Claims, and Evidence                            Chs. 7, 8 (R)                   Vlad Riabov

                                Functional Specifications                                                                                   Vlad Riabov

 

5  (02/15)                Free Market Electrical Network Mgmt (by Jackson)      Ch. 7 (IF), pp. 87-108    Student

Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet (by Kay)   Ch. 8 (IF), pp. 109-116 Student

Warrants & Qualifications                                                 Chs. 9, 10 (R)         Reading

Modern System Design Approaches                                                               Vlad Riabov

 

6  (02/22)                Don't Count Society Out (by Brown & Duguid)    Ch. 9 (IF), pp. 117-144 Student

Less Is More ... (by Buxton)                                      Ch. 10 (IF), pp. 145-180 Student

Drafting & Communicating Evidence                       Chs. 11, 12 (R)               Reading

Object-Oriented Design Issues, Unified Modeling Language                     Vlad Riabov

 

7  (03/01)                Human-Centered Systems (by Dertouzos)              Ch. 11 (IF), pp. 181-192        Student

                                Fine Living in Virtual Reality (by Kurzweil)            Ch. 12 (IF), pp. 193-216        Student

                                Revising & Arguments                                               Ch. 13 (R)                       Reading

                                Rhapsody and CASE Design Tools                                                                 Vlad Riabov 

 

8      (03/08)           NO CLASSES (Spring Vacation)

 

9  (03/15)                Life After Internet (by Metcalfe)                               Ch. 13 (IF), pp. 217-226        Student 

                                One Is Glad to Be of Service (by Cerf)                     Ch. 14 (IF), pp. 227-234        Student

                                Revising Style                                                              Ch. 14 (R)                       Vlad Riabov

                                Rational Suite & ROPES tools                                                                           Vlad Riabov                         

 

10  (03/22)            Ambient Intelligence (by Aarts et al.)                      Ch. 15 (IF), pp. 235-250        [INITIAL REPORT]   

... Environments Become Smart (by Sterling)         Ch. 16 (IF), pp. 251-276        Students

Introductions                                                                Ch. 15 (R)                       Vlad Riabov

Testing Strategies & Tools, McCabe IQ Tool                                                Vlad Riabov

 

11 (03/29)              Somatics in Cyberspace (by Heckler)                      Ch. 17 (IF), pp. 277-294        Student         

When IT Becomes a Profession (by Denning)       Ch. 18 (IF), pp. 295-325        Student

Research & Ethics                                                       Part 5 (R)                        Vlad Riabov

Control Management issues, ClearCase Tool                                                 Vlad Riabov

 

12 (04/05)              PREPARATION TO PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

 

13 (04/12)             PROJECT PRESENTATIONS [Updated Project Report (optional)]

 

14 (04/19)              PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

 

15 (04/26)              PROJECT PRESENTATIONS

 

16 (05/03)             PROJECT PRESENTATIONS [FINAL PROJECT DUE]    [FINAL PROJECT DUE]

 

 

APPENDIX 1: ATTENDANCE POLICY STATEMENT:

 

The classroom is the heart of the educational experience at Rivier College because it provides, uniquely, a formal setting for the important exchanges among faculty and students. Regular and punctual attendance at all classes, essential for maximum academic achievement, is a major responsibility of Rivier College students. Failure to attend and contribute to the classroom environment significantly and demonstrably reduces the quality of the educational experience for everyone in the classroom. As a result, absences almost always impact the quality of performance.

As part of its commitment to a quality educational experience for all members of the Rivier community, the College formally requires specific attendance policies to be developed by its professors and reviewed by the Division Head and Academic Dean. Any attendance policy used by an individual professor as a criterion for evaluation must be specified in the course syllabus and presented to students during the first week of classes. These policies can be found in respective course syllabi, and may include reasonable penalties and sanctions for excessive absences.

In the event of prolonged illness, accident, or similar emergency, it is the responsibility of the student to notify both the professor and the Office of the Academic Dean. Students must remember that it is always their responsibility to make up the work they may have missed during an absence from class. Students are directed to confer with their professors when their absences jeopardize satisfactory progress. Whenever a professor is absent without notification, students are expected to wait fifteen minutes before leaving and to sign an Attendance List, which a class member delivers to the Office of the Academic Dean.

Instructors are required to record attendance and alert the Registrar when a student fails to attend the equivalent of two weeks of courses (2 absences for a course meeting once a week, 4 absences for a course meeting twice a week, 6 absences for a course meeting three times a week). The student will then be alerted that he/she is in danger of falling under the 'habitual non-attendance policy" (see below).

 

Habitual Non-Attendance Policy:

Habitual non-attendance is defined as an absence in any course (for any reason whatsoever) equating to three full weeks of missed class sessions (3 absences for a course meeting once a week, 6 absences for a course meeting twice a week, 9 absences for a course meeting three times a week).

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the College of any intention to withdraw from a course or withdraw from the College. The College will attempt to resolve the issue of habitual non-attendance with the student; however, the College reserves the right to withdraw students who are no longer attending classes. Habitual non-attendance in one or more classes may result in administrative withdrawal from the class or classes affected, withdrawal from the College or, in cases with extenuating circumstances, an administrative leave of absence. In such cases a grade of W of NF will be assigned to the classes affected according to the appropriate date published in the academic calendar.

Students who have attended no class sessions of a course or courses from which they are registered by the end of the drop/add period will be dropped from each class not attended. If a student never attended any courses during the drop/add period, the student will be withdrawn from his/her full schedule of courses.