CS2310 Multimedia Software Engineering

Instructor: Prof. S. K. Chang
Office Hours: Tu Th 3:45pm to 5:15pm
Office: 6101 SQ
E-mail: chang@cs.pitt.edu
Telephone: 412-624-8423
Zoom Meeting ID: 702-670-0069

Time and Classroom: Tu Th 2:30pm to 3:45pm 6101 SQ

Course Description: This course is one of the graduate courses in software engineering. The course concentrates on the investigation of the dual role of multimedia software engineering to apply software engineering principles to the design of multimedia systems, and to apply multimedia technologies to the practice of software engineering.

Prerequisites: CS1530/1631 or understanding of general principles of software engineering; Java or C/C++ programming; Web programming such as JavaScript.

Textbook: Shi-Kuo Chang, Multimedia Software Engineering, KSI Publishing Company, Revised Edition Published in 2022. The pdf version of the textbook can be accessed for free.

Course Structure:

(Part I) (First eight weeks) The instructor will present a framework of multimedia software engineering based upon a theory of multidimensional languages. Four exercises (32%) will be given.

Midterm Exam: The midterm exam (20%) covers the essence of the theory, as well as relevant aspects of the experimental environment. Please read grading policy for exams, projects and assignments.

(Part II) (Second four weeks) In the introduction to Part I the instructor has presented a general survey on the current research in multimedia software engineering. Each student will then study one or several related papers to present one aspect of multimedia software engineering in class (10%). Some topics will be suggested by the instructor and some found by the students themselves. The presentation is intended to stimulate discussions and will lead to a project formulation assignment (8%) designed to motivate the students to explore various issues in multimedia software engineering. Sometimes this is replaced by two project milestones (4% each) if the nature of the project is clear.

(Part III) (Final two weeks) Each student will do a term project (30%). In lieu of classroom lectures sometimes there will be one-on-one discussions on projects, or small-group teleconferences provided that our teleconferencing system is working by that time. Individual meetings, teleconferences and classroom lectures will be scheduled by e-mail.

On-line interactions: In addition to classroom lectures, this course will emphasize on-line interactions. In fact, the instructor hopes to offer this course (and other courses) by distance learning in the future. Therefore, on-line interactions will be an important, necessary component of this course. The course materials, announcements and exercises will all be available from the Internet. Impromptu meetings and schedule changes will be announced by e-mail.

Part I: The Theory

Week-1

Chapter 1: Introduction (David against Goliath and Multimedia Software Engineering - What is it about?) (REQ)

Exercise 1 (8%) is due on Week-3-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Chapter 2: General Survey

Week-2

Chapter 3: Patterns, IC Cards and Visual Languages (Discussion of visual patterns from Alexander's pattern language, the use of IC cards to specify patterns) (REQ)

Reference: Patterns in software development

Suggested Project 1: Visual specification of patterns using IC cards.

Model-based Testing of Mobile Applications (must be augmented).

Design Patterns by Reverse Engineering (must be augmented).

Chapter 4: Multimedia languages ( S. K. Chang, "Visual Languages and Programming", in Encyclopedia of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, John Wiley and Sons, 1998)

Reference: A framework of multimedia software engineering based upon the theory of multidimensional multimedia languages.

Week-3

Chapter 5: Active Index ( Theory of active index and relations between patterns and active index) (REQ)

Reference: S. K. Chang, "Towards a Theory of Active Index" , Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, Vol. 6, No. 1, March 1995, 101-118 (in html format); and the corresponding book chapter (in pdf format).

Reference: Introduction to Petri Nets. (REQ)

Reference: UML: The Unified Modelling Language (For more details, please also read online introduction on UML)

Reference: Visual languages with dynamic multimedia objects derived from other multimedia objects using active index technology.

Exercise 2 (8%) is due on Week-4-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Week-4

Slow Intelligence Systems (REQ)

Super Components: (Visual Specification and Design of Component-based Slow Intelligence Systems) (REQ) (I-card and C-card in html format) (REQ)

Suggested Project 2: Incremental Design using I-card and C-card.

Reference: Applications of Slow Intelligence Systems

Exercise 3 (8%) is due on Week-5-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Quiz 1

Week-5

SIS Testbed (REQ)

SIS Abstract Machine (REQ)

SIS for Senior Citizen Self-Care (REQ)

Chapter 7: Multimedia Dependency Theory (REQ)

Reference: S. K. Chang, V. Defeumia, G. Polese, "A Normalization Framework for Multimedia Databases"

Suggested Project 3: Propotyping of multmedia information systems using multimedia dependency theory.

Week-6

Chapter 8: Complex multimedia objects for Multimedia Information Custom Engineering

Reference: H. Chang, S. K. Chang, T. Hou and A. Hsu, "The Management and Applications of Tele-Action Objects" , ACM Journal of Multimedia Systems, Springer Verlag, Volume 3, Issue 5-6, 1995, 204-216.

Reference: Chapter 9: Multimedia Information Custom Engineering (MICE) (MICE Developer's Guide and MICE Application Development Steps).

Note: The old Chapter 8 is on the prototyping of multimedia applications. It should be integrated into the new Chapter 9. The old Chapter 9 is on the design of multimedia languages. It should be integrated into Chapter 4.

Week-7

Chapter 10: Distributed Multimedia Systems Design ( C. C. Lin, S. K. Chang and J. X. Xiang, "Transformation and Exchange of Multimedia Objects in Distributed Multimedia Systems" , ACM Journal of Multimedia Systems, Springer Verlag, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1996, 12-29)

Exercise 4 (8%) is due on Week-7-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Week-8

Chapter 11: Specification of Multimedia Applications (Multimedia objects constructed from other media objects using grammar-based approach and different types of links)

Midterm Week-8-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Part II: Survey of current research

Weeks 9 to 12

Each student will study one topic and give a presentation (see class presentation guidelines) and critical evaluation of the papers assigned by the instructor and/or found by the student. If a selected paper is available in electronic form, a link will be made to that file -- usually in pdf format, so an Acrobat Reader should first be downloaded. Some of the papers can be obtained from the instructor in hard copy (hc). The remaining papers are available from journals, proceedings etc., and the student should search the library.

(Topics studied in 2019, Topics studied in 2017, Topics studied in 2011, Topics studied in 2008, Topics studied in 2007, Topics studied in 2006, Topics studied in 2005, Topics studied in 2003, Topics studied in 2001, topics studied in 2000, topics studied in 1999. New topics or extension of old topics will also be made available)

Project Milestone #1 (4%) is due on Week-10-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Project Milestone #2 (4%) is due on Week-12-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Part III: The Practice

Weeks 13 and 14

The TOY World with bonus topic based upon Extreme Visual Languages (XVL) will be used to test ideas about multimedia software engineering.

For the class where the class project is on TOY World, project demo and report should be prepared following the TOY project report guidelines.

For the class where the class project is NOT on TOY World, project report should be prepared following the geueral project report guidelines.

Report is due on at end of semester (See Calendar).

Milestone 1 for a Projects for 2022

Milestone 2 for a Projects for 2022

Final report for a Projects for 2022




Note: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890/(412) 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.