COMP 150-MOB: Mobile Development

Tufts University Department of Computer Science, Fall 2017

Overview

Mobile has an enormous impact on our lives and it is linking virtually the entire human population. Students will work in pairs to design, implement, test, publish, and support mobile applications including web-based APIs. The Android mobile platform will be predominately used. Topics include constraints in mobile development, app lifecycle, permissions model, widgets, layouts, event handling, networking, geolocation, threat landscape. There will also be an exercise to reverse engineer mobile apps. Lower-level topics including the Android kernel and the radio layer may also be discussed.

Instructor

• Ming Chow, mchow@cs.tufts.edu
• Office Hours: Wednesdays from 1 - 4 PM, or by appointment, "in my usual spot" (the collaboration area next to the CS Main Office in Halligan). Hours are good until the last day of classes, December 7th.
• For emergencies or private matters, please e-mail or see me directly.

Teaching Assistants

• Derek Benson
• Tommy Tang

Class Time and Location

• Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:30 - 2:45 PM in Halligan 111A

Prerequisites

• COMP 15: Data Structures

Textbook

• None

Basic Software Requirements

1. Java Development Kit (JDK)
2. Android Studio
3. Node.js

Assessment

• The Tiny App Project (5%)
• Semester Project (60%)
• Engineering Notebook (25%)
• Participation (10%)

What is the Engineering Notebook and Why For This Class?

Each team is required to maintain a publicly accessible engineering notebook. This engineering notebook shall be in electronic format and be made online, one notebook per team. The notebook can be in form of a blog (e.g., Tumblr, GitHub, WordPress), thus an engineering blog. Social media (e.g., via Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat) is not acceptable. Many professional engineers and engineering teams maintain notebooks for good reasons:

• To keep a running record of activities
• To record ideas
• To be used as a legal document for patent activities and even in litigation
• To record what work was done or not done in case a person leaves a project
• To highlight successes
• To highlight failures and what should be done the next time
• To list upcoming plans and challenges

On top of these reasons, I want:

• To make the engineering notebooks available to other teams so other teams can learn from your work
• To make you continue to develop your writing skills

You may argue that a Git commit history serves the same purpose. However, Git commit history is largely for the source code. This course is much more than just writing code. Example: you will be drawing and communicating visuals.

At least one entry in your engineering notebook is required each week starting week ending September 22nd. At the very least, your team will need to highlight the wins and fails of the week, and plans for the upcoming weeks. Each entry notebook must have a date.

References

1. Android API Guide

Syllabus

Topics of Discussion:

• Layouts and Adapters
• Broadcast Messages, Broadcast Receivers, and Intents
• Background Services and Notifications
• Data Persistence
• Testing
• Camera
• Google Play Services
• Reverse Engineering

Schedule is subject to change.

Course Policies

Intellectual Property

The intellectual property rights of any work produced by any student in this course rests with the student. I will not have any part of your endeavors.

Electronic Devices

Laptops or mobile devices are not allowed to be used in class unless specified. Phones must be silent. You are allowed to politely step outside of the class to take phone calls (e.g., for emergencies, job offers).

Project Late Policy

Projects are due on the date and time they are specified. Unlike my other courses, "homework tokens" are not used in this course. There is a three day grace period to submit projects. For example, if a project is due on October 1st, you will have until October 4th to submit the project. Submitting after the grace period will mean no credit for project.