IS 596 - Social Sensing and Human-Cyber-Physical Systems - Fall 2023
Instructor
Prof. Dong Wang
Email: dwang24 at illinois dot edu
Office Hours: By Appointment
Course Assistant: Lanyu Shang
Email: lshang3 at illinois dot edu
Lecture Time and Zoom Link
Monday 1:00- 2:55 pm
Lecture Zoom Link
Course Overview
Just as Internet changed the way people interact with each other, social sensing and human cyber-physical systems (H-CPS) are changing the way people interact with the world, both physically and socially! Social sensing and H-CPS integrate sensing, computation, control and networking into physical objects and infrastructure, connecting them to the Internet and to each other. This course offers students the opportunity to learn the theoretical foundations, state-of-the-art techniques, emerging applications, and hands-on experience in this emerging area. The advances in such an area hold the potential to reshape our world with more responsive, precise, reliable and efficient systems, enabling a revolution of “smart” devices and paradigms – from smart cars to smart grids to smart cities, collectively giving rise to the smart planet – that can address some of our most pressing national priorities (e.g., health, energy, climate, science & technology, security, etc.). Some example topics of the course include: i) fighting information overload in online social media sensing (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Reddit); ii) data reliability and information trustworthiness issues (e.g., truth discovery, misinformation detection and explanation); iii) mobile and crowdsensing (e.g., smartphone-based sensing); iv) privacy, medical sensing and applications. The students will have the opportunities to work with real world social sensing and H-CPS problems in a semester-long course project.
Getting Help
Canvas Page - General announcement and Q&A after class.
Office Hours - Please refer to the above schedule.
Email - Contact Prof. Wang for questions about grades, course policies, etc.
Grades are available on Canvas.
Course Documents
Available on Canvas.
Grading
20% of the grade will be assigned on individuals' active class participation and discussion of lecture topics, in-class paper and project presentations. Attendance/camera-on is recorded in Zoom and will be used in final participation grade calculation.
30% of the grade will be assigned on in-class paper presentations on the selected topic by each student.
50% of the grade will be determined by a course project. This grade includes project proposal, mid-term report, mid-term project presentation, a final project presentation, a final project paper, and project roundtable discussions. The project will implement some innovative social sensing model, service, system, or computing environment.
5%: Project roundtable discussions
5%: Project proposal
5%: Mid-term project presentation
10%: Mid-term project report
10%: Final project presentation
15%: Final project paper
The iSchool has the responsibility for maintaining academic integrity so as to protect the quality of education and research in our school and to protect those who depend on our integrity. Consequences of academic integrity infractions may be serious, ranging from a written warning to a failing grade for the course or dismissal from the University.
See the student code for academic integrity requirements: http://studentcode.illinois.edu/article1/part4/1-401/
Course Project
The project (individual-based) will be chosen by each student within the first couple of weeks of class. Here are some ideas to help you get started. Students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas. If you have some really cool idea that does not satisfy such restriction, please schedule a meeting to discuss it with the instructor. Project title and abstract are due on Sep. 1 at 11:59 pm.
Each student will prepare and submit a two-page project proposal. The proposal should include an overview of the project (preferably with a diagram), a brief review of state-of-the-arts in related fields, the proposed method/solution, a credible set of initial project results if available, a list of further proposed milestones, and a plan of action for the rest of the semester. The proposal is due on Sep. 29 at 11:59 pm.
Each student is responsible for a Mid-term Project Presentation in class on Oct. 16. The presentation will allow the instructor and classmates to comment on the initial results and current state of the project and also give constructive feedback to the group members.
Each student will prepare and submit a four-page mid-term project report. The mid-term report should include a reasonable amount of preliminary results, a description of finished milestones, a discussion of encountered problems and relevant solutions, and any modifications to the plan (if there are) to finish the remaining tasks. The mid-term report is due on Oct. 20 at 11:59 pm.
Final project presentations will be conducted by each student during the lecture on Dec. 4.
Each student will prepare and submit a final project paper. The final project paper is a comprehensive summary of the whole project and should follow a technical paper writing style. The expected number of pages for the final paper is 8-10 pages (including references). Final project paper is due on Dec. 11 at 11:59 pm.
The proposal, mid-term report and final project paper should all follow a standard technical paper format. Here is the template: IEEE Latex or Word Template .
A successful project could result in a conference or journal quality paper.
Note : For more information about the project (e.g., possible ideas and milestones), please visit Course Project Page .
You are encouraged to seek out and exploit external manuals, books, websites, and other documentation that can help you to complete your project, provided that you indicate what sources you have used. However, all software development, experimental work, and writing of the proposal, report and paper must be done solely by your own.
Project Documents Submission Instruction: To submit the project related documents (i.e., abstract, proposal, mid-term/final presentation slides and reports), please upload your submission to the corresponding assignments on Canvas.
In-class Paper Presentation
This course includes three in-class paper presentation sessions scheduled for Oct. 9, Oct. 30, and Nov. 27. Each session requires students to give an individual oral presentation on a selected paper on different topics in social sensing and H-CPS.
Detailed instructions are available on Canvas.
Tentative Schedule
Note: Lecture notes are avaliable on Canvas.
Week
| Lecture
| Materials
|
Aug. 21
| Social Sensing and Cyber-Physical Systems Landscape
|
Reading:
Introduction to Social Sensing
Cyber-Physical Systems: The Next Computing Revolution
Project Title and Abstract Due Friday, Sep. 1 at 11:59 pm.
|
Aug. 28
| Public Datasets Introduction
Roundtable - Project Idea Brainstorm
|
|
Sep. 4
| Labor Day
|
|
Sep. 11
| Data Reliability and Information Overload
|
Reading:
Truth Discovery in Social Sensing
Quantifying the Quality of Information
|
Sep. 18
| Social Media Data Crawler Tutorial
Roundtable - Project Kick-off
|
|
Sep. 25
| Data Reliability and Information Overload Cont.
|
Reading:
Using Humans as Sensors
Exploitation of Physical Constraints
Handling Conflicting Claims
Provenance-Assisted Social Signal Classification
Project Proposal Due Friday, Sep. 29 at 11:59 pm.
|
Oct. 2
| Online Social Media Sensing
|
Reading:
Earthquake Shakes Twitter Users
From Tweets to Polls
You Are Where You Tweet
Groundhog Day: Near-Duplicate Detection on Twitter
|
Oct. 9
|
In-class Paper Presentation 1: Data Reliability, Privacy
Project Mid-term Q&A
|
In-class Paper Presentation 1
Paper Selection Due Monday, Sep. 25 at 11:59 pm.
Slides Upload Due Sunday, Oct. 8 at 11:59 pm.
|
Oct. 16
| Mid-term Project Presentations
|
Mid-term Project Presentation
Project Mid-term Report Due Friday, Oct. 20 at 11:59 pm.
|
Oct. 23
| Crowdsensing and Mobile Sensing
|
Reading:
A Survey of Mobile Sensing
|
Oct. 30
| In-class Paper Presentation 2:
Online social media sensing and trending topics/open issues
|
In-class Paper Presentation 2
Paper Selection Due Monday, Oct. 16 at 11:59 pm.
Slides Upload Due Sunday, Oct. 29 at 11:59 pm.
|
Nov. 6
| Crowdsensing and Mobile Sensing Cont.
|
Reading:
How Long to Wait: Bus Arrival Time Prediction
Automatically Characterizing Places
|
Nov. 13
| Automotive Sensing and Intelligent Transportation
|
Reading:
GreenGPS: A Participatory Sensing Fuel-Efficient Maps Application
SignalGuru: A Collaborative Traffic Signal Schedule Advisory Service
CarSpeak: A Content-Centric Network for Autonomous Driving
|
Nov. 20
| Fall Break
|
|
Nov. 27
| In-class Paper Presentation 3: Crowdsensing, Mobile Sensing, Medical Sensing
Project Final Q&A
| In-class Paper Presentation 3
Paper Selection Due Monday, Nov. 13 at 11:59 pm.
Slides Upload Due Sunday, Nov. 26 at 11:59 pm.
|
Dec. 4
| Final Project Presentation
|
Final Project Presentation
|
Dec. 11
| Final Project Report
|
Final Project Report Due Monday, Dec. 11 at 11:59 pm.
|