Special Topics and Advanced Courses

Computer Science
Computer Engineering
Electrical Engineering

Spring 2006

The following is a selection of special topics courses and advanced courses to be be offered by the UMBC CSEE Department for the Spring 2006 semester. Some are cross listed with other departments and programs and some are offered for both undergraduate and graduate credit. Undergraduates can always enroll in a graduate course with the permission of the instructor. For more information on the content, scope or expected workload for any of these courses, please contact the instructor.

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CMPE 491N/691N Intro to Network Security

(Also listed as CMSC 491N and CMSC 691N)

TTH 4:00 - 5:15 D. Phatak

(description will be added soon)

CMPE 491W / 691W Wearable Computing

(Also listed as CMSC 491W  and CMSC 691W)
MW 1:00-2:15pm Z. Segall

Wearable computer artifacts and the supporting Wearable Information Systems are an area of convergence between Computer Science, Engineering, Design, Fashion and Business. Wearable systems hold the promise of augmenting the individual, increasing social interactions and promoting new computation models. For this promise to become a reality, we need to modify our perception of computing and information systems. This course will introduce the notion “Human Aware Computing”. Human aware computing is promoting active sensing of the body physiology, human emotion and situations and is using this information as input for new types of applications in the communication, health care and cognitive computing. We will explore a research agenda that aspires to transform the current computer user model that requires computer literacy into a model where the computer is human aware and is able to proactively serve the user. This course will investigate the complex issues related to the form, function and design of Human Aware Wearable systems.

Prerequisite: Senior level courses in programming, networking and computer systems or senior status in design, business, marketing, social studies or other convergent design related areas.

CMPE 691C CAD Algorithms

MW 5:30 - 6:45 M. Tehranipoor

This course is aimed at graduate students and serious seniors who want broad exposure to the physical design automation, optimization techniques and data structures inside modern VLSI design tools. Because of the increasingly high complexity of modern chip design, CAD tools become vital for delivering high VLSI system performance. Many of the leading edge CAD algorithms are built upon optimization techniques which will be introduced in this course. The applications of these techniques will be described through realistic VLSI CAD problems, especially VLSI physical design automation algorithms. Physical design automation related issues for the current state of the art will familiarize students with existing techniques in VLSI design. Students will understand the relationships between optimization techniques and various constraints posed by VLSI fabrication and design technology. Critical performance related parameters and their importance in CAD tools will be introduced. The key goals of this course are to prepare students for design and development of CAD tools and for research in physical design automation of VLSI systems. It's not a circuits class--although we will mention circuits a few times. It's not a digital design class or VLSI design class, in the sense that we design a system or a chip. Instead, we design software for CAD tools.

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CMSC 491D/691D Distributed Databases
W 4:30-7:00 Yelena Yesha

The scope of this course includes, but is not limited to, heterogeneous databases, distributed databases, knowledge bases, information retrieval, mobile datamanagement, applications to digital libraries and electronic commerce and database security.

It is a seminar class. In each class, two students (or pre-arranged groups of students) will present published research papers and/or their own work in the area. Students must also submit a paper which shows original work and demonstrates in-depth understanding of some advanced
research area.

CMSC 491E Embedded Systems
TTH 2:30-3:45 Gary Burt

Real-time embedded systems have rigid requirements and must conform to strict size, cost, weight, power, operation, and response-time specifications. They must be crash-proof and must operate under a wide range of conditions. Add to these requirements the ever-increasing competitive pressures to bring products to market faster and at a lower cost, and it is easy to see why building such systems is difficult. Real-time programmers must write software than meets unforgiving objectives under numerous constraints.

This course will:

• Cover 32-bit real-time embedded programming topics, including debuggers, timers, interrupts, multitasking, serial I/O, TCP/IP networking, and ROMing an application
• Explore implementing new techniques such as flash storage and Web-enabled applications
• Emphasize a practical, hands-on approach
• Provide complete coverage of the embedded development cycle, from design through implementation

CMSC 491L/691L Machine Learning

TTH 2:30-3:45 T. Oates

Research in the field of machine learning seeks to understand how computer programs can be built that automatically improve their performance at some task with experience. Among the many successes of this field are a program named TD-gammon that learned to play backgammon by playing games against itself. TD-gammon plays as well as the best human players. Another celebrated success is a program that learned how to drive a car on public highways by monitoring the actions of human drivers and then drove almost completely autonomously across the entire country. This course will cover core topics in machine learning, including the following: linear methods for regression and classification; basis expansions and regularization; kernel methods; model assessment, selection, inference, and averaging; unsupervised learning; decision trees; and reinforcement learning. At the end of the course students should have the skills needed to select and apply machine learning techniques to problems in their own research.

CMSC 491M Malicious Software and Countermeasures

TTH 4:00-5:15 J. Pinkston

F 1:00-3:00

This course will survey the many forms of malicious software that are prevalent today (viruses, worms, torjan horses, backdoors, rootkits, etc.), addressing how they function, how they propagate, and how countermeasures are devised to deter the penetration of such malware into computer systems.

Pre-requisite: CMSC 421. Permission of instructor required.

CMSC 491N/ 691N Network Security

TTH 4:00-5:15 D. Phatak

(description will be added soon)

CMSC 491V/ 691V Electronic Voting Systems

MW 2:30-3:45 A. Sherman

Selected recent research topics in electronic voting systems, with special emphasis on threats and countermeasures. This course will study the security and privacy, reliability, verifiability, auditability, transparency, complexity, cost, and accessibility to the disabled of current, past, and future voting technologies. Modern technologies include those of Diebolt, Sequoia, VoteHere, Populex, Scytl, Democracy Systems, MIT/CalTech, Ted Selker, and David Chaum. This course will also examine current standards, policies, and laws dealing with electronic voting. Required work includes carrying out and presenting an original research project.

Prerequisites: Junior, senior, or graduate status, or permission of instructor. Students from related fields are welcome, including students from Information Systems, Policy Science, and Mathematics.

CMSC 491W/ 691W Wearable Computing

(Also CMPE 491W/691W)

MW 1:00-2:15 Z. Segall

Wearable computer artifacts and the supporting Wearable Information Systems are an area of convergence between Computer Science, Engineering, Design, Fashion and Business. Wearable systems hold the promise of augmenting the individual, increasing social interactions and promoting new computation models. For this promise to become a reality, we need to modify our perception of computing and information systems. This course will introduce the notion “Human Aware Computing”. Human aware computing is promoting active sensing of the body physiology, human emotion and situations and is using this information as input for new types of applications in the communication, health care and cognitive computing. We will explore a research agenda that aspires to transform the current computer user model that requires computer literacy into a model where the computer is human aware and is able to proactively serve the user. This course will investigate the complex issues related to the form, function and design of Human Aware Wearable systems.

Prerequisite: Senior level courses in programming, networking and computer systems or senior status in design, business, marketing, social studies or other convergent design related areas.

CMSC 691A Streaming Data Systems
TTH 4:00-5:15 K. Kalpakis

This is a seminar course, and it will be based on reading and discussing articles from the recent literature on the emerging area of streaming data systems, that arise due to a growing number of
applications (e.g. continuous monitoring applications, sensor nets, etc). The course objective is to study problems and solution approaches used in the processing, resource management, design, and
implementation of stream-based data systems.

The course is intended for research-oriented graduate or advanced undergraduate students.

Students are expected to have demonstrated strong performance in (graduate) algorithms, databases, and distributed systems, and have solid mathematical background.

Registration is by permission of the instructor only.

CMSC 691B Basic Research Skills
MW 1:00 - 2:15 M. desJardins

Students will learn basic skills that are essential to becoming a successful researcher. The objective of the course is to teach research skills in a systematic fashion, early in a student's graduate program. Lecture topics will include research methodology, experimental design, career options, professional ethics and academic integrity, and oral and written presentation techniques. CMSC faculty members will give short invited presentations on their own research.

Students will be required to perform a literature survey (on a topic in their own research area), construct a research proposal that includes an experimental design, and write a paper summary in the style of a formal scientific paper. Additional assignments will include giving an oral presentation in the class, attending technical talks, writing a cv, and creating a personal website.

This course is open to all CMSC graduate students, and counts as an elective towards the M.S. or Ph.D. degree. First-year Ph.D. students and M.S. students who intend to complete a master's thesis are particularly encouraged to take the class.

CMSC 691P/CMSC 483 Parallel Computing
MW 4:00 - 5:15 H. Motteler

The course will begin with a survey of parallel architectures, and will examine message-passing computing, embarrassingly parallel problems, partitioning and divide-and-conquer strategies, pipelined computations, synchronous computations, load balancing, termination detection, and programming with shared memory. Algorithms and applications studied include sorting, searching, optimization, image processing, and selected numeric algorithms.

CMSC 421, Operating Systems, is a prerequisite but can be taken at the same time. Students taking the course as 691P will have readings assigned beyond the text, and in addition to the 483 projects and exercises will present either one of the assigned or optionally another acceptable paper in class.

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ENEE 718D Topics in Signal Processing: Digital Signal Processing for Speech and Hearing Disorders
W 4:30 - 7:00 J. Rutledge

Engineers have always been inspired to create new systems that model the human body. In this course we will explore models of human speech production, speech perception and hearing, and how digital signal processing techniques can be used to compensate for speech and hearing disorders. Topics to be covered include mathematical tools for speech analysis; digital filter models of the vocal tract and ear; parametric models of speech synthesis; coding of speech signals; speech enhancement; automatic speech and speaker recognition. Each topic will be presented with an emphasis on application to speech and hearing disorders. Issues in dealing with human subjects and rehabilitation will also be covered.

Students will be expected to research and prepare lectures on selected topics, leading to a culminating project and written report. Course readings will be drawn from the text "Speech Communications: Human and Machine", 2nd Edition, by Douglas O’Shaughnessy

(Wiley-IEEE Press) and from journal articles.

Prerequisite: ENEE 610 or permission of the instructor.