CSE 490D – Designing Technology for Resource-Constrained Environments

This fall we are offering a 1-credit reading seminar on technology in resource-constrained environments. We’ll focus on both projects in developing countries as well as research that looks at resource-constrained

communities in developed countries (i.e., low-income communities, low bandwidth environments, etc.). The seminar will meet Tuesdays from 1.30-2.30 in CSE 203 and it can be taken as either CSE 490 or HCDE 496.

The course will be coordinated by Ruth Anderson from CSE and Beth Kolko from HCDE. The seminar will provide an introduction to the area of technology and resource constrained environments by reading the basic papers in the area. The format will be discussion, with discussion leaders responsible for guiding a discussion (but not giving a full recap of the paper). There will be no papers or tests.

This reading course is part of a year-long design and implementation course that we encourage all students interested in the seminar to consider, although the readings course can be taken on its own.

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Did you know that Intel has recently developed an optical interconnect (http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/None/1813.htm),  which they’re going to be rolling out onto PC’s over the next couple of years?  The computers of the very near future are going to include chip-scale optical and optoelectronic devices.

Understanding how photonic devices work and where they fit into realistic systems is going to be important for anyone who wants to understand the future of computer architecture and advanced VLSI implementation.

I’d like to invite you to sign up for a new course that I’m teaching this year, entitled Waveguide Integrated Optics.   In this course, we’re going to cover the basic technologies that go into building optoelectronic circuits within traditional CMOS VLSI.  We’ll cover process integration, modulators, detectors, waveguides, and the other issues associated with making these systems real.   The course will also include a project component, where you will learn to analyze silicon waveguide based devices using both theoretical and computational tools, including industry-standard optical design automation software.

My background includes starting a couple of companies in this space, including luxtera (www.luxtera.com), so we’ll also discuss commercial opportunities: Where might there be chances to do exciting research, both here on campus in the wider world?  What kinds of startup companies are likely to emerge?  How might you go about getting a company funded in this space?

The course is being taught at a special topics course this year, and is listed as EE400 section B; it’s three credits and mees on Fridays from 1:30 to 4:20 (probably with a short break in the middle).  It meets in EEB 025.   Please send me email at hochberg@washington.edu if you have any questions.

This course is open to both undergraduates and graduate students; you’ll be expected to be familiar with Maxwell’s equations and basic electromagnetics, though this will be reviewed briefly at the beginning of the course.  Very basic familiarity with some mathematical programming environment – matlab, C, or something else – will also be expected.

I look forward to seeing you in class!

Michael

Looking for a good VLPA for autumn quarter? Check out Art 126, Topics in Studio Art. (SLN 20625, TTH 230-520 in Art 110)  It’s a VLPA  and provides a good introduction to the basic discipline of art and design and how the discipline is applicable in many fields including visual communication, architecture, engineering, all the fine arts, etc.

If you filled out an overload request for a CSE course and have NOT heard from me directly via email,  please email me. At this point I think I have contacted everyone about their course preferences. We’re still moving a few folks around, but you should have at heard from me.

We look forward to seeing everyone back in a few weeks (school starts on Sept. 30th)

Crystal

INTRODUCTION TO SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
CSE 490v and 599v
Time: MWF 10.30-11.20   Room: MOR 221
Professor Georg Seelig (gseelig@u.washington.edu)

SLN: 20251, 3 credits

This class is intended for graduate and upper-level undergraduate
students from a variety of backgrounds (EE, CSE, BioE and others). The class requires math
sophistication appropriate to a junior or senior in engineering but necessary
biological and  mathematical concepts will be introduced in class.

Synthetic biology is the application of engineering principles to
biology with the dual goals of (i) building new functional biological systems (for
example for the production of biofuels or drugs) and (ii) understanding biology by
re-engineering it (“what I cannot create I do not understand”, R. Feynman).

Covered topics include:
• DNA, RNA and protein: transcription and translation
• Synthetic gene regulatory networks: oscillators, switches and others
• Theory of chemical kinetics and biochemical reaction networks
• Synthetic biology with bacteria and mammalian cells
• RNA synthetic biology: RNA switches and sensors, RNA interference
• In vitro synthetic biology: building molecular circuitry in the test tube
• Molecular programming: compilers for chemistry
•  Applications: biofuels, drug production,…

In the past few years, UW students have done incredibly well in the national Putnam Mathematics Competition. And many of these students have been CSE majors.

The big asset that we have is a “training course” (The Art of Problem Solving) taught by two young faculty members in Mathematics. This training is essential to doing well in the competition.

They would like to recruit CSE students for the coming year. Please see the announcement below, and please seriously consider this. With the help of these two great Math profs, you can do exceedingly well in this top national competition. (more…)

CSE juniors or seniors: If you’d like to take business classes such as marketing, management and accounting as electives, the Foster School of Business BA 470, 471, and 472 course series is a great option. These are elective courses offered through UW Extension. (more…)

This class may be interesting to anyone curious about the future of medicine and biotechnology! Plus, five (5!) whole credits of I&S!

CHID 250A – BioFutures

NW or I&S credit
Professor: Phillip Thurtle thurtle@u.washington.edu
SLN: 11906

Students will be specifically encouraged to ask the following questions:

• What are the ethical and legal issues involved in patenting human cell lines?
• How are recent biotechnologies portrayed in science fiction films? What can we learn by studying these portrayals?
• What does it mean to suggest that biotechnology is part of “an information society”?
• How are race, class, gender, and disability mapped onto or intersect with biomedicine?
• How do scientists manipulate space and time in the laboratory?

This class is designed to appeal to all. No prerequisites needed!

** When this was originally posted, a special character in the title prevented the complete excerpt from showing in the email notification. Apologies for the multiple emails.

Capstone registration is now open. You need to fill out the catalyst survey to apply, most students receive their 1st or 2nd choice. You should be through most, if not all of your 300’s in addition to having significant project experience before tackling a capstone. These courses are supposed to “cap” your experience here in CSE.   You’ll find more detailed descriptions/prereqs below.  If courses do not fill with pre-registration, open space will be released first come first served during sophomore registration each quarter.  http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/ugrad/current/Capstone.htm

2009-2010 Capstones

Autumn 2009: 454 Advanced Internet Systems -Weld
Prerequisites: 326 and significant project experience

In the past decade the Internet has gone from a rarity to an essential tool for work and play. Search engines, ecommerce platforms and computational advertising have grown in economic and social importance. This class will explain the fundamental computational principles and datamining algorithms behind these services and others, providing background for a large projects. Students will work in groups of four to build an end-to-end Web system. Each team will end with a formal oral presentation of the tool constructed.  Written reports are also manditory and should include both a description of the design choices made as well as the results of experiments designed to confirm their effectiveness.

Winter 2010: Accessibility Capstone – Ladner
Prereq: 326, 303 and project experience

As cell phones become more capable with connectivity with the internet and sensors such as cameras, compasses, GPS, and accelerometers, there are opportunities to use them as accessibility or assistive devices.  In this capstone, students will work in teams to create new applications on cell phones that allow persons with disabilities to accomplish tasks that would be difficult to impossible to do without the applications. An example would be an application for a blind person that would take a picture of a bar code on a product, decode it, look it up on the internet, then speak the name of the product.  There will be brainstorming sessions with practitioners in the assistive technology industry and with users to help students develop viable concepts for applications.  Teams will then implement and test their concepts as working applications.  Teams will prepare written reports on their applications and present their applications in a public poster session where persons with disabilities will be invited.

Spring 2010: Operating Systems Capstone – Kimura
Prereq: CSE 451

The students in the OS Capstone will work on a small team project of their own design and choosing,  but within the overarching guidelines of being operating system specific.  The students have access to the windows operating system sources for their projects.  The projects typically look at adding new features to the OS, or *fixing* the behavior of the OS.  As much as possible the projects mirror what is happening in the industry, including using the same development tools and adhering to the same standards.

Spring 2010: 477 Hardware Capstone – Patel
Prereq: Hardware track students: 466 and 467
Prereq: Software track students: 466

The plan for 477 next year is not to have it focused on just “Technology for Low-Income Regions,” but be more general than that. The students will be allowed to explore different options and so the themes can be diverse across the teams.

Projects will involve hardware design, software design, embedded devices, web applications, sensor integration, and combinations of these.  Example application themes include health care, sustainability, activity sensing, low-power and power harvesting techniques, and novel interaction techniques.

Spring 2010: Games Capstone – Popovic
Prerequisites: CSE 326; CSE 341; CSE 378 and substantial programming experience, such as in CSE 451 or 457.

This capstone course will focus on the emerging process of designing, developing and evaluating interactive games. As the game industry eclipses film and music industry in revenue, the days of developing a game by a single developer are long over. An ad-hoc approach to game design and development of the past is replaced by a well structured process, where the creativity, development prowess, artistic expression, and the skill to assess user experience all meet together to produce a compelling interactive experience.

In this course, you will learn how to iterate over the game design long before the game is developed, how to work in small teams with people who are each experts in different domains, and most importantly how to develop a game that will enable iterative refinement of the experience that will elevate your game from the realm of countless games that are abandoned in the first 30 seconds, into a realm of an addictive experience that cannot be put down.

The teams will have the choice of developing for the Flash, XNA or Iphone platforms, and choosing between several game genres including casual games, educational game, and massively-multiplayer games.

The course is open to both CSE majors and those outside of CSE. For CSE majors, please write a short description about your substantial programming experience, and describe significant exposure to at least one of the following: game development, computer graphics, human computer interaction, networking or operating systems.

Hey everyone,

The TC/HCDE department asked us to let students know that there are spaces open in 231 this summer. If you’re still looking for classes (especially CE students), this could be a good option.

Megan