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

Textbook: The instructor is working on revising his textbook on multimedia software engineering. The current version can be found bookpdf/c01.pdf through bookpdf/c12.pdf. (The chapters are c01, c02, ..., to c12)

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. Project may utilize the Kinect interface. An introduction for Kinect interface has been prepared to facilitate your project. A more advanced tutorial can serve as a follow-up. Furthermore, an add-on Kinect interface can augment the usual web interface.

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.

MicroProbe Q&A System: An advanced Q&A System for students to exchange their research findings can be found at: http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~ezegarra/microprobe/
Please note you are required to register first, before you can use it. When registering, please notify the system which course you are using this Q&A system for, so that the system can put you in the right category of users.

Virtual Classroom can be found at: http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~chang/cvc/Download/Download40.htm. A link to user manual is also offered there.

Part I: The Theory

Week-1

Week-2

Week-3

Week-4

Week-5

Week-6

Week-7

Week-8

Part II: Survey of current research

Weeks 9 to 12

(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 practical testbed of Kinect interface will be used to test ideas about multimedia software engineering.

Project report should be prepared following the project report guidelines. Report (30%) is due on Week-14-Lec-2 (See Calendar).

Projects for 2011