Department of Computer & Electrical Engineeringand Computer Science

FloridaAtlanticUniversity

Course Syllabus

1. Course title/number, number of credit hours
Senior Seminar/COT 4935 / 1 credit hour
2. Course prerequisites, corequisites, and where the course fits in the program of study
Prerequisites: Senior standing
3. Course logistics
Term: Fall 2013
This is a classroom seminar course.
Class location and time: Section 001, M 11:00-11:50, PS 111
4. Instructor contact information
Instructor’s name
Office address
Office Hours
Contact telephone number
Email address / Dr. Ravi Shankar, Professor
Engineering East (EE 96)., Room 513
F 10 AM to 4 PM
561-297-3470

5. TA contact information
TA’s name / No TA for this course
6. Course description
Discussion of appropriate topics, with an emphasis on social, legal and ethical aspects of computing
7. Course objectives/student learning outcomes/programoutcomes
Course objectives / To promote discussion and understanding of ethical considerations in the practice of computer science and computer engineering; to promote discussion and understanding of social issues and their relationship to the practice of computer science and computer engineering; to promote awareness of legal issues to the practice of computer science and computer engineering; to promote awareness of technical and scientific issues in computer science and computer engineering; to promote broad understanding of the interactions between technology and public policy; and to apply oral communication and discussion of the concepts studied in this course
Student learning outcomes
& relationship to ABET objectives / Program Outcome 5: An ability to communicate effectively and to function on multi-disciplinary teams
Program Outcome 6: An understanding of the overall human context in which engineering and computing activities take place
1. Oral (video) presentation on a topic related to social, legal, ethical computing issues; presented by teams of two students
2. Written report by each team summarizing their presentation and responses to questions/comments raised/made on the presentation either on LinkedIn or in class (class questions and comments must be posted at LinkedIn for proper credit).
8. Course evaluation method
Class presentation: 50%
Written summary of presentation: 30%
Attendance and participation in discussion: 15%
Final exam: 5% / Note: This course is required for both Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors. See University Catalog for details.
9. Course grading scale
A: 90%-100%
B: 80%-89%
C: 70%-79%
D: 60%-69%
F: below 60%
10. Policy on makeup tests, late work, and incompletes
All decisions regarding exceptions to the stated rules will be made by the instructor based on the merits of the individual case.
11. Special course requirements
None
12. Classroom etiquette policy
University policy requires that in order to enhance and maintain a productive atmosphere for education, personal communication devices, such as cellular phones and laptops, are to be disabled in class sessions.
13. Disability policy statement
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), students who require special accommodations due to a disability to properly execute coursework must register with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD) located in Boca Raton campus, SU 133 (561) 297-3880 and follow all OSD procedures.
14. Honor code policy
Students at FloridaAtlanticUniversity are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards. Academic dishonesty is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because it interferes with the university mission to provide a high quality education in which no student enjoys unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the university community, which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and place high value on personal integrity and individual responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. SeeUniversity Regulation 4.001 at

15. Required texts/reading
Baase, S, A Gifty of Fire, 3rd Ed,, Prentice-Hall, 2008, ISBN 0-13-601918-3
16. Supplementary/recommended readings
Current events, as covered in newspapers, television, Internet
17. Course topical outline, including dates for exams/quizzes, papers, completion of reading
Students pair up in teams of two. Each team proposes a topic and date for presentation. Written summaries of presentations due two weeks prior to end of course..
Week 1 – Introduction; Bios on LinkedIn – join FAU Senior Seminar group – identify topics (see below) and find a partner with overlapping interests
Week 2 – 9/2, Labor Day (holiday). Topics posted at LinkedIn. Form teams and announce in Linkedin group
Week 3 - General presentation by Dr. Shankar on Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 architectures, App examples, video editing (guest presentation), Prezi/ VoiceThread for presentations. Paper format and examples. Impact of engineering on the society. Class expectations (delayed submissions and presentations may lose points, if not due to other people’s faults)
Week 4 – 11 – Three presentations per lecture period. 10 minute video presentations (uploaded 2 weeks before the presentation to LinkedIn) with 5 minutes of Q&A. Report (in the format of a conference paper) due two weeks hence, submitted at LinkedIn (document your presentation as a 4 page single spaced conference paper. Respond to the questions/comments in the discussion section. Any delayed ones will get moved to Weeks 13 on.
Week 12 – 11/11, Veteran’s Day (holiday)
Week 13-15 – Delayed presentations.
Week 16 – Exam 12/11, Wed, 10.30 AM to 1 PM, same room. Structure will be shared ahead of time.
Format for the 10 minute video: label the video with proper topic title – 2.5 minutes on social/economic/cultural etc issues that necessitated the technology solution, 4 minutes on web 1.0 and web 2.0 solutions (specifics, details), 2.5 minutes on the consequences of the technology solutions, 1 minutes on documents, links, videos, sound and image files references. Dr. Shankar will monitor LinkedIn to determine participation of individual students in others’ presentations. The presentations should be objective, neutral, pro-and-con, informative, and techno-centric.
Conference ready paper – should have a title, authors list (with Dr. Shankar as the third author), abstract, background (the non-engineering issues that caused the technology to evolve), technology methods, results (solutions from representative companies), discussion (the impact of the technology solutions), conclusions, and references.
Topics : Health care, Electronic stock trading, Security, Open source, Financial transparency, Cloud computing, Big Data, Mobile Computing, Automation, Intellectual property, Democracy, Education, Crowd sourcing, Government, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Genomics, and Identity.

COT 4935 Senior Seminar

Fall 2013

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