CS8803 - Mobile Computing and IoT

Fall 2022: Mon/Wed 2pm-3:15pm, Kendeda 210

Teaser Video

Course Description

This course will teach a variety of ideas, concepts, techniques, and algorithms, that are all crucial to understanding and developing mobile systems and applications. The course will begin from first principles and ramp up to real-world systems and technologies. Keywords related to this course includes: wireless sensing, localization, GPS, drones, sensors, motion tracking, acoustics, location privacy, etc.

Course Topics

Foundations

We will start from absolute basics, and cover important modules from linear algebra and data/signal processing. We will assume that you do not recall anything from prior courses (even if you have taken them). We will discuss the crossover of ideas from these modules to wireless communication and mobile computing. The course is designed with CS students in mind, particularly those inclined towards systems and networking.

GPS and Indoor Localization

Understanding GPS, understanding why indoor positioning still not available ... Location fingerprinting (WiFi, magnetic, BLE), crowd-sourcing, mapping. Unsupervised data-driven learning, clustering, sensor fusion, filtering, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).

Activity and Gesture Recognition (Humans and Objects)

Understanding IMU (accelerometer, gyroscope, compass) Can a smartwatch track human gestures and activities? Can embedded IMUs track the motion of a fast-moving baseball? Motion models and filtering techniques

Smart Homes and IoT

Ambiance sensing (WiFi and Alexa)

Can users be tracked from WiFi reflections? Can Alexa learn human activities from everyday sound? Wireless sensing techniques: liquid identification, presence detection, device-free tracking, FMCW, Doppler. Acoustic analytics: Time of flight, Angle of Arrival (AoA), beamforming in audio context

Wearable Computing

Next generation of wearable devices: finger rings, ear-buds, smart clothing. Rings: Vibration and ultrasound, receiving vibrations (with IMU and microphone), body-channels. Hearables and earables: noise cancellation, bone conduction, motion to speech recovery, binaural sounds, energy optimization (wake-on-speech)

Autonomous Systems (Cars and Drones)

Core challenges in autonomous systems: sensing, computing, communications + actuation. Robotic wireless networks, 5G networks, cell-tower on flying drones, ray-tracing, channel optimization. Cars: LIDAR, RADAR, and vision, sensor fusion, relative map creation.

Mobile Privacy and Security

Why personal, always-ON devices are a major challenge in security and privacy Side channel attacks, inference algorithms, hardware loopholes, sensor data leaks. Case studies: location privacy, password typing, Alexa attacks, IMU fingerprints, acoustic drone attack, clock leaks, etc.

Course Format

The initial course topics are taught in class. For later topics students are expected to read research papers about the topic, and answer a short quiz on Canvas. We will be discussing those papers, and students are expected to participate in the class with comments and thoughts about the work. The course will have 2 homeworks, 2 graded programming assignments (PAs), 1 midterm exam, and a final project.

About Instructor

Name: Ashutosh Dhekne. Please call me: Ashutosh (preferred), or Prof. Dhekne Pronouns: He/Him/His

Grading (Tentative)

Homework: 10%
Paper Reviews: 10%
Midterm: 25%

PA1 + PA2: 5% + 10%
Project: 40%

Course Calendar (Subject to Change, previous year)

Date	Topic	Material	Paper Reviews/ToDo/Deadlines
08/22/2022 (Mon)	Introduction
08/24/2022 (Wed)	Project Ideas	Classroom discussion of the semester wide projects. Pick one or bring your own project
08/29/2022 (Mon)	Linear Algebra Refresher 1	Simulteneous Equations, Column Spaces, Solutions, Eigen Values, Null Spaces	HW1A Released
08/31/2022 (Wed)	Linear Algebra in Mobile Computing	Filters for Social Media, Transformations using linear algebra, Rotation Matrices
09/05/2022 (Mon)	No Class	No Class
09/07/2022(Wed)	Sensor Overview	Basics of Sensors in a Mobile Phone	PA1 released
09/12/2022(Mon)	Use of Mobile Sensors	WalkCompass, Driving quality, Pothole sensors	Review: WalkCompas
09/14/2022 (Wed)	Signal Processing Refresher 1	Signal Composition
09/19/2022 (Mon)	Signal Processing Refresher 2	Signal Decomposition
09/21/2022 (Wed)	Signal Processing Refresher 3	Nyquist Rate, Time Domain to Fourier Domain
09/26/2022 (Mon)	Signals and Senses	Visit to Extension of Self Exhibition at Georgia Tech Library	To be confirmed
09/28/2022 (Wed)	Outdoor Localization	GPS - Theory, Practice, Applications	HW1 Due Optional Reading:
10/03/2022 (Mon)	Outdoor Localization	Differential GPS - Improving Accuracy	Review Only till Section 3 SafetyNet
10/05/2022 (Wed)	Indoor Localization	Initial Efforts, RSS, Fingerprinting	HW2 Released Review: RADAR
10/10/2022 (Mon)	Indoor Localization	Inertial Sensors, Dead reckoning	Read: UnLoc (Links to an external site.
10/12/2022 (Wed)	Indoor Localization	ToF, Ranging, Synthetic Aperture	Review: TrackIO Casual Reading: P2PLoc
10/17/2022 (Mon)	No Class	No Class
10/19/2022 (Wed)	Indoor Localization	TDoA, AoA, Beamforming, Phase explanation	PA1 Due, PA2 Released
10/24/2022 (Mon)	Fine-grained Tracking	Sensor Fusion for fine-grained localization	Review: ITrackU
10/26/2022 (Wed)	Indoor Localization	Large scale localization	Review: PnPLoc
10/31/2022 (Mon)	3D Orientation	Local and global reference frame, Fusion with location	Review: iBall (Links to an external site.)
11/02/2022 (Wed)	Body Movements Tracking	Arm Track	Read: ArmTrack
11/07/2022 (Mon)	Midterm	Midterm Exam
11/9/2022 (Wed)	Side Channels (Attacks?)	Smartwatch Snatching Password	Review: MoLe
11/14/2022 (Mon)	Side Channels (Attacks?)	Audio side channel.	Review: Backdoor
11/16/2022 (Wed)	Wireless Sensing	Liquid Identification	Review: LiquID (Links to an external site.)
11/21/2022 (Mon)	Wireless Sensing	See through wall	Review: WiVi, HW2 Due
11/23/2022 (Wed)	No Class	No Class
11/28/2022 (Mon)	IoT	IoT Projects,	PA2 Due (Links to an external site.)
11/30/2022 (Wed)	IoT	IoT and Sustainability
12/05/2022 (Mon)	Tour?	Kendeda Building Tour TBD
12/14/2022 Final Time	Poster/Demo Session	Final Project Demonstration

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