2019 Spring

Welcome to the website for the Spring 2019 Offering of CS/ECE M119 “Fundamental of Networked Embedded Systems” course at UCLA.

Course Administration

Lectures:

TuTh 4-5:50 PM @ Boelter Hall 2444

Discussion Section:

Fr 3-3:50 @ Math Science 5233

Office Hours:

Anthony: 50%: TuTh 6-6:30 PM @ Boelter Hall 2444 or 1538; 50%: by appointment.

Rohit: 50%: Wed 4-5 PM @ Boelter Hall 1538; 50%: by appointment.

Prerequisites

The course requires that you have familiarity with:

• Software programming and computer organization as taught in CS 31-32-33 series
• Proficiency in programming with C/C++, and Python
• Proficiency in using Unix/Linux command line shell
• Familiarity with how computer networks work (e.g. CS118, ECE132B)
• Mathematics background expected of upper division Computer Engineering students (probability/statistics, linear & matrix algebra)

Textbook

The course has no textbook. We will hand out slides and point to reading material that is either available openly on the web or available as electronic books via UCLA.

Equipment Requirements

Computer

You need to have access to a laptop computer where you have administrator privileges in order to install software. The computer must have at least one and ideally two USB 3.0 USB ports (either built-in or via adapters) and suitable adapters/cables/hub to allow you to connect to hardware devices with micro-USB ports. While we will provide instructions for all the three major OSs (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows), please note that some of the tools are much better supported or easier to install under Unix-like OSs (Linux, Mac OS X), and so if you are on Windows then it may become necessary to run a Linux Virtual Machine configured to access the USB ports using virtualization software such as VirtualBox (free) or VMWare (commercial with student pricing) and your laptop would need plenty of RAM.

Smartphone

In order to run certain applications that interact with hardware via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as well as for use in your project, you would need to have an Android or iOS smartphone with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Most phones from recent years will have BLE, but please double check, particularly if you've an Android smartphone.

Embedded Computing Hardware

You would need the following two embedded computing platforms for use in the course:

• Hexiwear IoT Platform ($49, part id: MIKROE-2026) + docking station with usb cable ($39, part id: MIKROE-2094)
  • Many reputable electronics part vendors (Mouser, Digi-Key etc.) carry it - please just google.
  • The slightly costlier ($99) complete development kit (" Power User Pack", part id: MIKROE-2150) is an alternative and includes a strap that allows you to wear the device like a smartwatch, which is useful but not essential.
• Raspberry Pi Zero W (wireless) with micro-usb power adapter (2.5A), and a 8 GB micro-SD card.
  • You may already have micro-usb power adapter and micro-SD card lying around, in which case just get the PiZW, preferably with headers soldered to make it easier to work with.
  • Kits are easier to find, but add needlessly to the cost. Just the RPiZW should cost around $10-15, while the kits run in the range of $25-35 depending on what all they include and the size of the micro-SD card.

We realize that this is a financial imposition on students but sadly the University / Samueli Engineering / ECE & CS Department do not provide resources to cover such costs. The overall cost of around $120 if you shop smartly is comparable to that of new textbooks, and we will use the same platform for several years so that you would be able to sell it to future students. These are also pretty cool platforms which you might find useful for hacking and tinkering anyways. If any of you are particularly financially constrained, please talk with me (Prof. Anthony Chen) and I will find some way to help.

Attendance

Due to the nature of this course combining both theoretical and practical hardware/software concepts, attendance in both the scheduled lecture hours as well as the discussion section hour is essential.

Grading

Assignments (35%)

There will be five assignments: one zero-credit for filing out the Academic Integrity Agreement Form as described below, one minor one, and three major ones. The first assignment (minor) will be primarily meant to set up the compute environment, go through tutorials in a timely manner etc. It will have minimal weight. The three major assignments will carry bulk of the weight for this category, and will each have a significant programming component and a short question-answer and problem solving component.

• Assignment #1: zero credit but required to get any score in rest of the components of the course
• Assignment #2: 9%
• Assignments #3-4: 13% each

All assignments are due by 11:59 PM on the specified due dates (see the schedule below).

Exams (24%)

There will be two in-class open-cheatsheet exams (Week 6 & 10). They would consists of short question-answers, problem solving, and simple code snippets.

• Exam #1: 12%
• Exam #2: 12%

Project (30%)

Working in a team of up to 2-3, you would apply concepts learnt in the class to create a cool IoT application or create a new hardware or software capability for IoT. You would present your project in the form of a demo during the final examination slot when we will hold a demo session. Additionally, you will do a short peer review of another project that would be randomly assigned to you. A detailed breakdown is:

• Project proposal: 5%;
• Mid-term presentation: 5% by instructor, 5% by peers;
• Final demo: 10% by the instructor, 5% by peers;

Participation (11%)

• Actively participating in lectures and discussions; providing feedback to project proposal and presentation: 5%;
• Contributing to mid-term and final reviews: 5%;
• Extra credit: Providing mid-term (1%) and final (1%) teaching evaluation;

Overall Grading

Your overall grade will be done as follows:

1. A base composite score out of 100 will be computed using the weights above for all the required components of the course.
2. Grades will be assigned roughly as follows based on the final score
   1. >= 85: some form of A
      1. in [72.5,85): some form of B
      2. in [60,72.5): some form of C
      3. in [47.5,60): some form of D
   2. < 47.5: F
3. We reserve the right to alter grading thresholds, but any adjustments will only be downwards (i.e. will result in better grades), and will be publicly announced to the class.

Additional Notes

• For programming component, we would rely on a battery of tests and for each test the grading will be binary (i.e. if your implementation fails that test even partially then you would get zero credit for that test, and if it passes fully then full credit). You are throughly encouraged to test your implementation under a variety of inout scenarios.
• We really urge you to be tolerant of inevitable snafus with software toolchains, hardware etc. We want you to enjoy the course and focus on learning, and will help out to the best of our ability and factor infrastructural problems when grading.

Submission and Late Policy

All submission will be via gradescope. No hardcopy assignments will be accepted. In all assignments, part of the credit will be set aside for how well organized and presented the submission is, and in particular handwritten-and-scanned assignments will not receive towards this component. The only exceptions are (i) Any forms that you are required to submit in which case you should print, fill them out, and scan, and (ii) Figures in an otherwise electronically formatted document may be hand drawn, scanned, and inserted. Besides physical scanners, there are variety of good scanner apps for smartphones. Just taking a photo with a camera usually does not result in a good scan due to perspective distortion and improper lighting, both of which scanner apps correct for.

You will have a total of 4 late days available for use on the assignments, usable in 24 hr chunks and no more than 2 days for any given assignment. Late days may not be used towards the Project. You will be expected to keep track of late days used. An assignment submission is considered complete only when you have submitted all parts of the assignment.

Academic Integrity Agreement Form

Given the heavy reliance of this course on programming assignments and project, it is critically important that you be aware of what will constitute violation of academic integrity. With an eye towards that, we have prepared an Academic Integrity Agreement Form which as part of Assignment #1 you would print, fill out, sign, and submit on gradescope by the deadline.

Detailed Schedule and Syllabus