SC700 - Modern Information Protocols
Course
Information and Policy
Tuesday, Thursday,
Administravia
Instructor: Ari Trachtenberg ( trachten@bu.edu, 358-1581, PHO 427) --
Office hours: Monday
Course web page:
http://ipsit.bu.edu/sc700
You are
responsible for checking the class home page regularly. All homeworks and
many announcements will be distributed electronically through the course web
page.
Course content
Information
is the currency of the internet, and information protocols manage this
currency. We will explore
interdependencies among four general issues in information transfer on the
internet: speed, accuracy, security, and availability. Thus, we will begin with an introduction to
commonly-used and state-of-the-art data compression and error-correction
techniques. We will then proceed to
examine methods for cryptographically encrypting data, in addition to techniques
for attacking and breaking such encryption.
We will end with recent research into information dispersion and
distributed computing. Throughout the
course, we will stress the reuse and interdependence of these four properties.
All grades
will be curved according to the class average.
Thus, it is your relative score (compared to the rest of the class) that
really matters, rather than your objective score. For a course at this level, I expect to
center the average at an A-.
Composition
Raw scores
will be computed based on the following weights:
·Four homeworks - one on each area of
discussion (30 points)
·Lecture notes (10 points)
·Paper presentation (30 points)
·Open problem research (30 points)
Extra credit
Occasionally, particularly challenging problems will be presented in class. Credit will be given to the first, complete, written solution to such problems. Beyond the advantage of added credit, solution to these problems affords recognition of especially exceptional work.
Policy
Homeworks
There will
be a 10% penalty per day for late homework.
However, no homeworks will be accepted more than three days late. Penalties and restrictions may be removed
only for legitimate excuses with written, dated documentation.
I take cheating and
plagiarism very seriously, especially in a course at this level. You may use other textbooks or web sources when completing your
homework and/or I encourage you to collaborate with up to ONE other
classmate per homework subject to the following strict conditions:
1) You must
clearly acknowledge all your sources (including your collaborator) on the top
of your homework.
2) You must
write all answers in your own words.
3) You must
be able to fully explain your answers
upon demand.
Failure to meet any of the above conditions
could constitute plagiarism and will be considered cheating in this class.