Spring 2007 CS Course Listings

This file contains the Fall 2007 course listings for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Archive of past courses

Course Code: COMP 522
Course Title: Machine Learning

Instructor: James Kwok
Room: 3519
Telephone: 7013
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~jamesk/

Area in which course can be counted: AI

Course description: (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar)
The ability to learn is central to both natural and artificial intelligence. Some major machine learning paradigms will be studied in this course, with special emphasis on theoretically justified, quantitative methods that have been used successfully in real-world applications.

Course objective:
This course is not only essential for all research students working in artificial intelligence (including computer vision, pattern recognition, robotics, speech and language processing, uncertainty management, etc.), but is also relevant to some other areas, such as database management and information retrieval.

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • Introduction to major learning paradigms and techniques
  • Basic applied statistics and information theory
  • Decision trees
  • Artificial neural networks
  • Bayesian classification
  • Kernel methods
  • Clustering, density estimation
  • Feature selection and extraction
  • Hidden Markov models
  • Reinforcement learning
  • Case-based learning
  • Model selection and various applications

Text book:
Pattern Classification by Richard O. Duda, Peter E. Hart and David G. Stork, 2nd ed. Wiley, 2001.

Reference books/materials:
Some papers will be made available.

Grading Scheme: TBD

Background needed: COMP171, probability theory and linear algebra

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes.

Minimum CGA required for UG students: permission of the instructor

Course Code: COMP572
Course Title: Introduction to Combinatorial Optimization

Instructor: Mordecai Golin
Room: 3559
Telephone: ext. 6993
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~golin/

Area in which course can be counted: TH

Course description:

  • An introduction to the basic tools of Combinatorial Optimization
  • Includes: Network flow and the Max-Flow Min cut Theorem, Linear Programming, Matching, Spanning Trees and Matroids, Dynamic Programming and Basic Graph Algorithms

Course objective:
Upon completion of this course students will have been introduced to many of the most basic tools of combinatorial optimization and will be able to apply them towards designing efficient algorithms in their own research domains.

Text book: Combinatorial Optimization: Algorithms and Complexity Christos H. Papadimitriou and Kenneth Steiglitz, Dover books, 1998.

Grading Scheme: TBA

Background needed: COMP271 or equivalent + Linear Algebra

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes.

Minimum CGA required for UG students: permission of the instructor

Course Code: COMP581
Course Title: Cryptography and Security

Instructor: Cunsheng Ding
Room: 3518
Telephone: 2358 7021
Email:
WWW page: cse.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/cding

Area in which course can be counted: ST

Course description: (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar)
This course gives an in depth coverage of the theory and applications of cryptography, and system security. In the part about cryptography, basic tools for building security systems are introduced. The system security part includes electronic mail security, IP security, Web security, and firemalls.

Course objective:
After completion of this course, students will display a breadth of knowledge of both the principles and practice of cryptography and systems security, and master basic tools for building security systems.

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • history of cryptography
  • classical ciphers
  • design and analysis of block ciphers and stream ciphers
  • public-key cryptography
  • hash functions
  • digital signature
  • group signature
  • proxy signature
  • user and data authentication
  • data integrity
  • nonrepudiation
  • key management
  • public key infrastructure
  • cryptographic protocols
  • email security
  • web security
  • network security
  • distributed systems security

Text book: No textbook, but lecture slides will be posted online.

Reference books/materials: W. Stallings, Cryptography Theory and Network Security, Third Edition,Pearson Education, Inc. (ISBN 0-13-091429-0).

Grading Scheme: Assignments, midterm and final examination.

Background needed: Basic knowledge of computer networks

Exclusion: CSIT571

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes.

Minimum CGA required for UG students: A

Course Code: COMP 621K
Course Title: Knowledge Representation, Reasoning, and Discovery

Instructor: Fangzhen Lin
Room: 3511
Telephone: ext. 6975
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~flin/

Area in which course can be counted: AI

Course description: (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar)
An advanced introduction to logic-based Artificial Intelligence, in particular, the principles of knowledge representation, reasoning, and discovery.

Course objective:
To gain knowledge in this area, either to apply it to your own area or to prepare you to work in this area.

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • Introduction: AI and knowledge represetation
  • Proposal and first-order logics
  • SAT
  • Answer set programming and SAT
  • Classical planning and SAT
  • Forgetting, strongest necessary and weakest sufficient conditions, belief merging
  • Theorem discovery in game theory, planning logic programming, and other areas
  • Readings and student presentations

Text book: S. Russell and P. Norvig. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. Prentice Hall, 2nd Edition, 2003

Reference books/materials: Selected papers

Grading Scheme:

  • Project 50%
  • Class attendance and involvement in discussions 15%
  • Presentations 35%

Background needed: Background in AI

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Course Code: COMP630
Course Title: Topics in DB Systems: Managing Web Data
Abbreviated Title: Managing Web Data

Instructor: Dr. Wilfred Ng
Room: 3505
Telephone: 2358-6979
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~wilfred/

Area in which course can be counted: Database

Course description: (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar)
As web data continues to grow at an explosive pace, we are facing new challenges that require us to relax many traditional database assumptions. For example, XML data is graph structured and does not conform to a fixed scheme. A user may not be able to formulate a precise query using a structured query language. Information extracted from independent web sources requires effective techniques of searching and merging. In this course, we will discuss in depth the research issues arising from web data management and its applications.

Course objective:
To gain a better understanding of the current research topics in advanced databases, especially how to store, query, share, and interpret data on the Web. To equip you with the techniques to survey, analyze and criticize research papers, obtain hands-on experience on database projects and participate research with other students.

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • XML Introduction
  • Querying XML Data
  • Indexing XML Data
  • Compressing XML Data
  • Searching Web Data by Keywords
  • Information Extraction on Web
  • Management Imprecision Data
  • Processing Graph Data

Text book: "Data on the Web" by S.Abiteboul, P. Buneman and D. Suciu, 2000.

Reference books/materials:
Database journals such as IEEE TKDE, ACM TODS and Information Systems and conference proceedings such as VLDB, SIGMOD, ICDE, PODS, EDBT, KDD, ICDM

Grading Scheme: No final examination

  • Paper Presentation (30%)
  • Survey Assignment (30%)
  • Individual Research Report (40%)

Background needed:
Some background is required. You need to have fundamental knowledge about database systems equivalent to the content covered in COMP231.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes.

Minimum CGA required for UG students: Permission of the instructor.

Course Code: COMP 651D
Course Title: Feedback Control of Computing Systems
Abbreviated Title: Feedback Control of Comp. Sys.

Instructor: Jogesh K. Muppala
Room: 3510
Telephone: ext. 6798
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~muppala/

Area in which course can be counted: Computer Engineering

Course description (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar):
Feedback control is common in computing systems. Examples include scheduling in operating systems, admission control in network routers, buffer management in database management systems, and garbage collection in Java Virtual Machines. Control theory is widely used in other engineering disciplines to systematically design feedback control systems. Over the last three years, researchers in industry and academia have found that simple techniques in control theory can be surprisingly effective in practice in computing systems, especially to design management schemes that are stable, accurate, and fast acting. Numerous computer science examples are used throughout, including an email server and the Apache Web Server.

The course focuses on techniques that have been found to be effective in practice with an emphasis on linear, deterministic, time-invariant systems, both single-input single-output and multiple-input multiple-output. Students will learn how to construct dynamic models of real systems, study their steady state and transient properties, and design feedback systems with desirable characteristics (e.g., stable, accurate, short settling times). The course includes a class project in which students apply control theory to a computer science problem of their choice.

Course objective:

  1. learn a variety of feedback control techniques and understand their theoretical foundations
  2. gain hands-on experience with controller design and analysis
  3. gain awareness of promising research directions in the application of control theory to computing systems

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  1. Introduction (Chapter 1)
    Content: Control system architecture, goals, and metrics. Constructing ARX models (including initial conditions)
  2. Signals and Z-Transforms (Chapter 3)
    Content: z-Transform representation of time signals; inverse z-Transforms; manipulating signals; infinite signals; final value theorem;
  3. Systems and transfer functions (Chapter 3)
    Content: transfer function definition; translating between transfer functions and ARX models; steady-state gain; poles; stability criteria; estimating settling times;
  4. Analyzing composed systems (Chapter 4)
    Content: Combining transfer functions in series; simplifying block diagrams; feedback transfer functions;
  5. Control analysis (Chapters 8, 9)
    Content: Basic controllers; impulse response; step response
  6. Control design (Chapters 8, 9)
    Content: Pole placement design methodology
  7. Feedback Control Applications in Computing Systems
    Content: Review of research literature

Text book: JL Hellerstein, Y Diao, S Parekh, D Tilbury. Feedback Control of Computing Systems, Wiley, 2004.

Reference books/materials: Additional research papers and readings will be provided in clas

Grading Scheme:

  • Midterm Exam 35%
  • Research Survey 15%
  • Research Project 40%
  • Presentation 10%

Pre-requisites/Background needed: none

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes

Minimum CGA required for UG students: permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP 680L (instructor's approval is needed for taking this course)
Course Title : Mobile and Pervasive ComputingAbbreviated Title: Mobile & Pervasive Comp

Instructor: Yunhao Liu
Room: 3548
Telephone: 2358-7019
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~liu/

Area in which course can be counted: Networking

Course description: (can be more detailed than the one in the calendar)
This is a seminar-style research-oriented course. The course will cover new advances in mobile and pervasive computing. Students should have sufficient knowledge in computer systems, operating systems, networking, and wireless communications. Students require the instructor's approval before taking the course.

Course objective:

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • Computer Networks and the Internet
  • Multicast
  • Mobile and Wireless Computing
  • Peer-to-peer and Grid Computing
  • Pervasive Computing
  • Sensor Network
  • Network Security

Text book: No textbook is needed

Reference books/materials: Larry L. Peterson and Bruce S. Davie, Computer Networks: A Systems Approach, Second Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2000 W. Richard Stevens, UNIX Network Programming Vol. 1, 2nd ed., Prentice-Hall, 1998. In addition, a collection of papers from journals, conference proceedings, and web sites will be read. Grading Scheme:

Grading Scheme:

  • Attendance 30% (Students are required to attend the class. To be excused from the class, students must provide the instructor with adequate advanced notice.)
  • Midterm 30%
  • Project 40%

Background needed: COMP680J or COMP680K

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Minimum CGA required for UG students: permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP 697C (instructor's approval is needed for taking this course)
Course Title : Independent Studies: The Integration of DB and IR

Instructor: Dr. Lei Chen
Room: 3546
Telephone: 2358-6980
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~leichen/


Course description:
This course studies the integration of DB/IR techniques

Course objective:

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • Keyword search over structure and unstructured data
  • Community search
  • Search over dataspace

Text book: N/A

Reference books/materials: Research papers

Grading Scheme:

  • 50% Discussion
  • 50% Project

Background needed: PG standing

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Minimum CGA required for UG students: No

Course code: COMP 697D (instructor's approval is needed for taking this course)
Course Title : Independent Studies: Advanced Wireless Networking

Instructor: Dr. Qian Zhang
Room: 3533
Telephone: 2358-8766
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~qianzh/


Course description:
This course studies the recent advances in wireless networks, including cognitive radio networking, sensor networking, and also wireless cooperative networking.

Number of Credits: 3

Grading Scheme:

  • 50% Discussion
  • 50% Project

Course code : COMP 697E
Course Title : Independent Studies: Medical Imaging and Image Analysis

Instructor: Dr. Albert C. S. Chung
Room: 3516
Telephone: 2358-8776
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~achung/


Course description:
This course gives an overview on different medical imaging modalities and focuses on new developments in computational techniques for the analysis of biomedical images.

Course objective:

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • Overview of different medical imaging modalities
  • Biomedical Image Registration, Segmentation and Enhancement

Text book: N/A

Reference books/materials: Will be available on-line or distributed in class.

Pre-requisites/Background needed: Permission of the instructor.

Available for final year UG students to enroll:

Minimum CGA required for UG students: Permission of the instructor.

Course code : COMP 697F
Course Title : Independent Studies: Advanced Data Structures
Abbreviated title: Advanced Data Structures

Instructor: Dr. Ke Yi
Room: 3552
Telephone: 2358-8770
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~yike/


Course description:
This course will cover selected topics in advanced data structures.

Course objective:

Course outline/content (by major topics):

  • self-adjusting data structures
  • structures for range searching
  • general techniques of dynamic data structures
  • fractional cascading
  • persistent data structures
  • strings: suffix tree, suffix array
  • external memory data structures
  • structures for dynamic graphs

Text book: N/A

Reference books/materials: Will be available on-line or distributed in class.

Grading Scheme:

  • 50% discussion
  • 50% project or survey.

Pre-requisites/Background needed: COMP271 or equivalent. Permission of the instructor.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Course code : COMP 697G
Course Title : Independent Studies: Data Models for Mobile Applications
Abbreviated title: Data Models for Mobility

Instructor: Prof. Dik Lun Lee
Room: 3534
Telephone: 2358-7017
Email:
Web page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~dlee/


Course description:
Data modeling in spatial databases, including road networks and structured space; algorithms and implementation methods for data representation and path finding

Course objective:

Course outline/content (by major topics):

Text book: N/A

Reference books/materials:

Grading Scheme:

  • 100% term paper

Pre-requisites/Background needed: No. (course instructor's approval is needed for taking this course)

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Please visit https://www.ab.ust.hk/wcr/cr_class_staf_main.htm for the timetable and quota.

Archive of past courses

This web page was created by Joshua M. Y. CHAN on 11 June, 2007.

Last modified on 13 September, 2007.