Mobile Platforms and Development Environments

CIS6930 - Sections 07FH, EDGE1: 07F4, EDGE2: 07GC
CIS4930 - Section 07G8

Spring 2013

Tuesday 9:35 am - 12:20pm

CSE 107

Professor Sumi Helal

E448, CSE Building, CISE Department, Gainesville, FL 32611

Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00pm-5:00pm

Yi Xu

E451 CSE Bldg.

yixu@cise.ufl.edu

Office Hours:

Monday: 2:00-3:30pm

Wednesday: 2:00-3:30pm

Eunju Kim

E451 CSE Bldg.

ejkim@cise.ufl.edu

Office Hours:

Thursday: 1:00-2:30pm

Friday: 1:00-2:30pm

 

Class Objectives

Mobile platforms have lately become a war-zone with extremely dynamic and fluid developments, especially in the smart phone and tablet market space. In response, this special topics class addresses the latest developments of key mobile platforms that are shaping the mobile platform industry. The course will be offered to undergraduate, graduate and online (off campus) students.

The first part of the course will cover an introduction to the evolution of mobile and pervasive computing, followed by analyses of the particularities, limitations and opportunities of mobile computing systems. Special emphasis will be given to mobile computing models including mobile client/server, wireless thin client, proxy architectures, disconnected operation, peer to peer, and application- and system-aware adaptations. From the first part of this course, students will learn how designing and programming a mobile computing system is different from a traditional distributed systems.

The second part of the course will prepare the students for development and programming. It will cover the three dominant native platforms de jour – iOS, Android and Windows Phone, along with the device-agnostic HTML5 mobile web platform. The class will also cover location-based services (LBS) which can be considered as a platform in its own right.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired a deep understanding of the fundamental systems issues particular to mobile computing systems, along with a broad hands-on experience with all mobile platforms available today. Each student can then decide on which mobile platform(s) to "date" further and to specialize on.

Completion of several programming assignments and a term project in any of the covered platforms will be required.

Textbook

Required Books:

Tentative Class Schedule
Date Topics & Assignments
  PART I: Mobile Computing Fundamentals
Jan 8
  • Review of Syllabus
  • Course Introduction: From the Newton to the iPhone - Understanding the Mobile Computer Evolution
Jan 15
  • Review: Distributed Systems
    • Part I Reading Assignment
  • Constraints, Requirements & Limitations of Mobile Computing Systems
Jan 22
  • Mobile Computing Models
    • Homework 1
Jan 29
  • Mobile Computing Models (Cont'd)
  • Location Based Services
 

PART II: Mobile Platforms & Development Environments
Feb 5
  • Android Platform I
    • Homework 1 due
    • Lab 1 (Android)
Feb 12
  • Android Platform II
    • Lab 1 due
    • Lab 2 (Android)
Feb 19
  • iOS Platform I
    • Lab 2 due
    • Lab 3 (iOS)
Feb 26
  • Exam I (See instructions below)
March 12
  • iOS Platform II
    • Lab 3 due
    • Lab 4 (iOS)
March 19
  • Windows Phone Platform I
  • Term Project Handout and Discussion
    • Lab 4 due
    • Lab 5 (Windows Phone)
March 26
  • Mobile Web & HTML5
    • Lab 5 due
    • Lab 6 (HTML5)
April 2
  • Term Project Mid-Development Presentations & Review
    • Lab 6 due
April 9
  • Exam II (See instructions below)
April 16
  • Location Based Service as a Platform in Platform
    • Lab 7 (LBS)
April 23
  • The Mobile Computing Killer App Competition: Term Projects Presentations.
    • Lab 7 due

 

 

 

Exams

  • There will be two exams scheduled as indicated in the class schedule. There will be no final exam. All exams are closed book, closed notes.
  • You are required to bring your laptop with you to class (or for Edge students, to have access to a computer)
  • Each exam will be between 1h30m - to 2h:00m in duration.
  • Exams will be available for downloads from the e-learning system (Sakai) at 9:45am in the day they are scheduled.
  • For remote students, there will be no proctering arranged: students should make themselves available during the exam days/times, and be ready with a computer.
  • Each exam will be in Word format. You are to download the exam document, edit it to answer the questions (save regularly to your laptop), then you will upload the exam document back through the e-learning system. There will be a cut off time after which no uploads will be possible.
  • If you have any questions, email Professor Helal.

Grading Policies

Assignments 40% (HW 0.2, each Lab 0.1)
Exams (I, II) (20%, 20%)
Project 20%
Bonus 5% (project & ML help)