Spring 2013 CS Course Listings

This file contains the Spring 2013 course listings for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Archive of past courses

Course code: COMP5111
Course title: Fundamentals of Software Analysis
Instructor: Charles Zhang
Room: 3553
Telephone: 2358-6997
Email:
WWW page: http://course.cse.ust.hk/comp5111

Area in which course can be counted: ST

Course description: See course catalog.

Course objective:
The goal of this course is to introduce how various analysis techniques can be used to manage the quality of a software application. Students will acquire fundamental knowledge of program abstraction, features, verification, testing, refactoring, concurrency, reliability, aspect orientation, and fault analysis. The course will also discuss how to carry out the empirical experimentation for program analysis. Wherever applicable, concepts will be complemented by tools developed in academia and industry. This enables students to understand the maturity and limitations of various analysis techniques.

Course outline/content (by major topics):
Program Features, Program Abstraction, Static Analysis, Testing, Concurrency, Empirical Experimentation

Textbooks: None

Reference books/materials:
* Paul Ammann and Jeff Offutt, Introduction to Software Testing, Cambridge University Press, 2008.
* Mauro Pezze and Michal Young, Software Testing and Analysis - Process, Principles, and Techniques, 1st edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.
* Claes Wohlin et al., Experimentation in Software Engineering, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000.
* Jeff Magee and Jeff Kramer, Concurrency - State Models & Java Programming, 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

Grading scheme:
* Class Participation (10%)
* Assignments (50%)
* Final examination: (40%)

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes

Minimum CGA required for UG students: Permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP5211
Course title: Advanced Artificial Intelligence
Instructor: Fangzhen Lin
Room: 3511
Telephone: 2358-6775
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~flin/

Area in which course can be counted: AI

Course description:
This advanced AI course will cover the main concepts and techniques in AI. The major topics will be: problem solving, knowledge and reasoning, planning, uncertain knowledge and reasoning, learning, and robotics.

Course objective:
Students are expected to gain deep understanding of key concepts and techniques in AI, including heuristic search strategies for single agent problem solving as well as multi-agent strategic planning such as in game playing, knowledge representation and reasoning using both logic and probabilities, machine learning, and integrated agent design.

Course outline/content (by major topics):
1.Introduction.
2. Problem-solving.
3. Knowledge and Reasoning.
4. Planning.
5. Uncertain knowledge and reasoning.
6. Learning.
7. Communicating, perceiving, and acting.

Textbooks:
Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach Prentice Hall, 2003.

Reference books/materials:

Grading scheme: TBA

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes

Minimum CGA required for UG students: Permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP5311
Course title: Database Architecture and Implementation
Instructor: Wilfred Ng
Room: 3505
Telephone: 2358-6979
Email:
WWW page:

Area in which course can be counted: DB

Course description:
This course introduces basic concepts and implementation techniques in database management systems: disk and memory management; advanced access methods; implementation of relational operators; query processing and optimization; concurrency control and recovery.

Course objective:
Introductory database class for graduate students. The students are expected to learn basic concepts and implementation techniques of relational databases and advanced RDBMS applications.

Course outline/content(by major topics):
The instructor will teach the majority of the classes. Students will form groups. Each group will choose a general database area and prepare a presentation.

Textbooks:
Textbook: Database System Concepts, 5th Edition. A. Silberschatz, H. Korth, and S. Sudarshan.

Reference books/materials:
Reference: Database Management Systems, 3rd Edition. Raghu Ramakrishnan and Johannes Gehrke.

Grading scheme:
Student Presentations 20%, Midterm 35%, Final 45%. Each presentation should be around 40 minutes. All students in each group should participate.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Minimum CGA required for UG students: Permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP5421
Course title: Computer Vision
Instructor: C K Tang
Room: 3561
Telephone: 8775
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~cktang/

Area in which course can be counted: VG

Course description:
Introduction to techniques for automatically describing visual data and tools for image analysis; perception of spatial organization; models of general purpose vision systems; computational and psychological models of perception.

Background: COMP3211 knowledge in linear algebra.

Course objective:
Same as listed in the course catalogue/academic calendar

Course outline/content (by major topics):
1 Introduction
2 Image formation
3 Image filtering
4 Edge detection
5 Segmentation
6 Segmentation II
7 Texture
8 Projective geometry (handout)
9 Image warping
10 Stereo
11 Disparity by graph-cut
12 Surface from Stereo (Tensor voting)
13 Multiview stereo
14 Light
15 Photometric stereo
16 Optical flow
17 Structure from Motion

Textbooks:
Computer Vision : A Modern Approach, D. Forsyth and J. Ponce

Reference books/materials:
* Three-Dimensional Computer Vision, O. Faugeras, MIT Press, 1993
* Robot Vision, B.K.P. Horn, MIT Press, 1986
* A Guided Tour of Computer Vision, V. S. Nalwa, Addison Wesley, 1993
* Machine Perception, R. Nevatia, Prentice-Hall, 1982
* Computer Vision, L. G. Shapiro and G. C. Stockman, Prentice-Hall, 2001
* Machine Vision, R. Jain, R. Kasturi, and B.G. Schunck, McGraw-Hill, 1995
* Computer and Robot Vision vol. 2, R. Haralick and L. Shapiro, Addison-Wesley, 1992
* Object Recognition by Computer - The Role of Geometric Constraints, W.E.L.Grimson, MIT Press, 1990
* The Eye, the Brain and the Computer, Fischler and Firschein, Addison-Wesley, 1987
* Computer Vision, D. Ballard and C. Brown, Prentice-Hall, 1982
* Vision, David Marr, Freeman, 1982
* Digital Picture Processing, A. Rosenfeld and A. Kak, Academic Press, 1982

Grading Scheme:
The breakdown is subject to change as a whole and adjustments on a per-student basis in exceptional cases.
This is the general breakdown we'll be using for Scheme 1:
Projects: 64%
Homeworks: 4%
Final Exam (Oral): 32%

Grading Scheme 2 targets at students in other research areas who need to fulfil the Vision/Graphics core requirement. The tentative breakdown for students signing up for Scheme 2 is as follow:
Project #1 and Papers Critique: 26%
Homeworks: 4%
Final Exam (Written): 70%

The two schemes will be described during the first and/or second lecture in September.

Computer projects and papers critique will be done in teams up to two students (three-student team is not permitted).

Homeworks are to be completed individually. Though you may discuss the problems with others, your answers must be your own.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes.

Minimum CGA required for UG students: A- and permission of the instructor

Course code: COMP5531
Course title: Green Computing
Instructor: Jogesh Muppala
Room: 3510
Telephone: 2358-6978
Email:
WWW page:

Area in which course can be counted: NT

Course description:
This course will exam "Green Computing" from a system perspective, meanwhile, students will study issues related to energy saving form multiple disciplines such as mechanical engineering, industrial ecology, and economics. We will explore energy efficient system designs ranging from datacenters to embed devices, such as sensor networks and RFID devices. We will perform Life Cycle Analysis on some of these systems, evaluating the carbon footprint of manufacturing, use, and disposal of each design. Exclusion(s): ENEG 5450.

Course objective: TBA

Course outline/content (by major topics): TBA

Textbooks: TBA

Reference books/materials: TBA

Grading scheme: TBA

Available for final year UG students to enroll: TBA

Minimum CGA required for UG students: TBA

Course code: COMP5622
Course title: Advanced Computer Communications and Networking
Instructor: Lin Gu
Room: 3562
Telephone: 2358-6991
Email:
WWW page:

Area in which course can be counted:
Advanced principles in computer and communication networking: Multicast routing in the Internet, peer-to-peer networking; wireless and mobile networking, multimedia networking and quality of service, introduction to network security, advanced Congestion control in future computer networks.

Prerequisite(s): COMP 4621 or COMP 5621 or ELEC 4120

Course objective: TBA

Course outline/content (by major topics): TBA

Textbooks: TBA

Reference books/materials: TBA

Grading scheme: TBA

Available for final year UG students to enroll: TBA

Minimum CGA required for UG students: TBA

Course code: COMP5631
Course title: Cryptography and Security
Instructor: Prof. Cunsheng Ding
Room: 3518
Telephone: 2358-7021
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/faculty/cding/COMP581/

Area in which course can be counted: ST

Course description:
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.

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

Reference books/materials:
W. Stallings, Cryptography Theory and Network Security, Fourth/Fifth Edition, Pearson Education.

Grading scheme: Assignments, midterm and final examination.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes

Minimum CGA required for UG students: A-

Course code: COMP5713
Course title: Computational Geometry
Instructor: Siu-Wing Cheng
Room: 3551
Telephone: 2358-6973
Email:
WWW page:

Area in which course can be counted: TH

Course description:
An introductory course in Computational Geometry. Algorithms for manipulating geometric objects. Topics include Convex Hulls, Voronoi Diagrams, Point Location, Triangulations, Randomized Algorithms, Point-Line Duality.

Background: COMP 3711

Course objective:
To introduce postgraduate students to the area of computational geometry, the fundamental results and algorithms in the area.

Course outline/content (by major topics):
Basic problems and algorithms in the plane, convex hulls, arrangement and duality, Voronoi and Delaunay diagrams, randomized algorithms, approximation algorithms.

Textbooks:
Computational Geometry: Algorithms and Applications, Second Edition, Springer.

Reference books/materials: TBA

Grading scheme:
30% written assignment, 30% midterm, and 40% final.

Available for final year UG students to enroll: Yes

Minimum CGA required for UG students: B

Course code: COMP6311C
Course title: Advanced Data Management
Instructor: Dimitris Papadias
Room: 3555
Telephone: 2358-6971
Email:
WWW page: http://cse.hkust.edu.hk/~dimitris/

Area in which course can be counted: DB

Course description: Seminar course on data management topics.

Course objective:
* Introduction to issues related to the management of large volumes of data.
* Identify trends in on-going Database research.
* Teach students how to do high quality research.
* Prepare students for effective presentations.

Course outline/content (by major topics):
*Relational Database
         Query processing techniques
         Database Languages
         Relational Keyword Search
*Big Data
*Data Analytics
*Map Reduce
*Preference-based Queries
         Top-k Queries
         Skylines
*Sensor Networks and Data Streams
         Systems
         Query Processing
         Aggregation Methods
*Spatial Data Management
         Multidimensional Indexes
         Nearest Neighbor Search
         Geo-IR Techniques
*Spatio-temporal Data Management
         Spatial Queries in Dynamic Environments
         Road Networks
*Social Networks
         Large Graph Indexing
         Geo-social Networks
*Privacy and Security
         Private Queries
         Database Outsourcing

Textbooks and Reference books/materials:
There will be no textbook or reference book. The course material will be based mostly on recent SIGMOD, VLDB and ICDE papers.

Grading scheme:
* Student presentations: 25%
* Project implementation: 25%
* Survey paper on selected topic: 25%
* Participation and activity in class: 25%

Pre-requisites/Background needed: Background in Databases helpful but not required.

Exclusion: COMP630K

Available for final year UG students to enroll: No

Minimum CGA required for UG students: NA

Course code: COMP6611A
Course title: Hot Topics in Data Center Networking and Cloud Computing
Instructor: Dr. Kai Chen
Room: 3546
Telephone: 2358-7028
Email:
WWW page:

Area in which course can be counted: NT

Course description:
Driven by technology advances and economic forces, massive data centers are being built around the world to serve as the infrastructures for many big data analysis (e.g., GFS, Map-reduce, and Dryad), Internet-based applications (e.g., web search, e-commerce, and online social networks) and cloud computing services (e.g., Amazon EC2, Microsoft Windows Azure, and Google App Engine). In this course, we will study the critical technology trends and new challenges in cloud and data center designs for different tradeoffs on performance, cost, scalability, reliability, manageability across the infrastructure, network, and application layers. The course will include student presentations, discussions, and projects. The papers will be selected from top networking and system conferences.

Background: Networking

Course objective:
Understanding the state-of-the-art research in data center networking and cloud computing, and exploring new research challenges and opportunities in these areas.

Course outline/content (by major topics): Data center networking, Cloud computing.
Textbooks: No textbook, but you will be expected to read 2-3 papers a week.

Reference books/materials: No.

Grading scheme:
There is no exams for this class. The course grade will be determined based on:
* Class participation 10%
* Paper reading summary 10%
* In class paper presentation and debate 30%
* Research project 50%: This is a semester-long, open-ended network/system research project. Project topics are of your choice but should be related to data center networking and cloud computing and approved by instructor Projects can be done in groups of two or three students and may include a systems building component.

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

Archive of past courses

Last modified by Yongxin Tong on 2012/11/21.