 |
CS
431 Logistics |
|
CS
431 Logistics |
| Lectures: | Monday and Wednesday - 1:25-2:15 - Phillips 219 |
| Discussion Section: | Friday - 1:25-2:15 - Phillips 219 |
| Instructor: | Carl Lagoze, lagoze@cs.cornell.edu Information Science, 301 College Ave. 255-6046 |
| Instructor's Office Hours: | Monday - 9:30-10:30 or by Appt. |
| Instructor's Assistant: | Rosemary Adessa, rosemary@cs.cornell.edu Information Science, 301 College Ave. 255-9555 |
| Teaching Assistants: | Andy Scukanec,
ags@cs.cornell.edu 5162 Upson Hall |
| TA Office Hours | Tuesday 3-4; Friday 11-12 |
Student commitment consists of:
Completing the assigned readings (demonstrated by section
and lecture participation)
Reaction papers
2 programming projects
The subject of the course is a dynamic area. Most of the material in the course is the result of research and implementation over the past 3-5 years. Fortunately almost all of this work is available through papers on the open-source Web. Readings are assigned for each week's discussion section are listed in the reading schedule.
Students are expected to approach each week's readings critically. Are the ideas sound? What are the alternatives and trade-offs? How well do the ideas fit into the larger information context? What are the barriers to success: technical, social, legal, and economic. Weekly sections are meant to be a forum for discussing these critical reactions, driven by student participation and NOT by instructor or teaching assistant presentations. The amount of section participation and the degree to which it represents critical evaluation of the readings is an important criteria of grading, as detailed below.
Reaction papers are another vehicle for critically evaluating readings. These papers are an opportunity for students to critically evaluate two papers, one of which is chosen from assigned readings and another chosen at the discretion of the student. The schedule for reaction papers is on the syllabus. Details about them are given on the assignments page.
Work in the area of web information systems requires the ability to understand and use protocols and work with a number of XML-related tools. The course projects provide you with the opportunity to gain expertise in these areas. Students will work in groups of 2. Grades will be awarded based on the final product of the group and each student's contribution to the work of the group. Project details are available on the assignments page..
All required readings are available on the Web. However, the project assignments require use of XML and related tools, for which you might find some books useful. Some useful books available on Amazon are:
Final course grades will be based on project assignments, reaction papers, and scholarly class presence. The last criteria is a combination of participation, attendance, and attitude. The weightings given to these components are as follows:
| Project | 40% |
| Reaction Papers | 40% |
| Class Presence | 20% |
Students will receive mid-point class presence grades halfway through the semester, giving an opportunity for improvement in this area. An excellent student, deserving an "A", is one who excels in all three areas.
Like any Cornell course, the goal of CS431 is to provide the context for students to learn about a subject area that the instructor finds relevant and interesting. Students should expect that the course meets their expectations, is stimulating, and worthy of their time. I hope to convince many of you that you might want to engage in future work in this area. It is your responsibility to tell me if the course fails to meet these expectations - your feedback is necessary to making this semester successful.
A course mail list has been set up at cs431-l@cs.cornell.edu. Students should subscribe to this list and monitor messages and announcements sent on it. It is the primary vehicle that I will use for keeping the entire class up-to-date. You can subscribe to this list from https://lists.cs.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/cs431-l. I have left this list open for posting from students for sharing of questions and ideas. Please confine list postings to matters relevant to the entire class and help keep the traffic down to what is necessary.
IMPORTANT: email for the instructor or TAs should be sent to their personal email addresses (lagoze@cs.cornell.edu, ags@cs.cornell.edu) and must include the token "CS431" (e.g. "CS431 I need some help") at the beginning of the subject line to ensure prompt attention. Mail without this prefix in the subject line may end up being lost in ever growing email queues.
Carl Lagoze (lagoze@cs.cornell.edu)
Last changed: 02/05/2004