Computing for Development: Background and Tools
Spring Course (April- May)

The goal of this course is to introduce background and some tools necessary for conducting research in computing for development (C4D). In doing so, the course attempts to get students thinking about how computer science and computing technologies can be used to improve people's lives in developing countries. C4D has been gaining momentum in the last few years, and there have been several advances made in the area. Even more encouraging, a good portion of these projects have been conducted in developing countries, by students from local universities.

The C4D short course aims to give an accelerated introduction to this research field so that students from AAU can also be involved in this exciting and meaningful research area. To accomplish this, the course duration will be roughly divided to two parts. One part will deal with discussing the state of the art in C4D, and will present various projects that had been conducted in the last few years. This part will mostly resemble graduate level research seminars, where students will take turns in presenting and leading discussion on selected academic papers.

The other half of the class will discuss some basic tools required for conducting computer science research in general. These include programming languages for rapid prototyping as well as tools for producing publication quality papers. We will be using a combination of development environments for these purposes, and some familiarity with a Linux operating environment, such as Ubuntu, will be helpful.

This course doesn't have exams. However, there will be several writing assignments and short projects. As in many other fast paced courses, attendance is crucial in getting the most out of this class. Therefore, we will reinforce strict attendance requirements.

Requirements: This course is targeted towards graduate students in computer science. However, senior undergraduate students could obtain permission to attend. If you are an undergraduate student interested in taking the class, please email the instructor for permission along with your CS background.

Instructor:
Azarias Reda
Email:
Web page: eecs.umich.edu/~azarias

Meeting times:
April 19 - May 13
M - F 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Office hours:
Immediately after class and by appointment

Recommended book:
Learning Python, Mark Lutz, 2nd Edition, ISBN: 0596002815

Temporary Schedule:

April 19 (1)	Introductions Paper: Hints for Computer System Design Paper: The Case for Technology in Developing Regions
April 20 (2)	Tools
April 21 (3)	Paper: Analysis of WWW Traffic in Cambodia and Ghana Paper: Analyzing and Accelerating Web Access Extra Paper: Chord: A Scalable Peertopeer Lookup Service for Internet Applications
April 22 (4)	Tools
-
April 25 (5)	Paper: Distributing Private Data in Challenged Network Environments Paper: Tangaza: Frugal Group Messaging through Speech and Text Extra Paper: MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters
April 26 (6)	Tools
April 27 (7)	Paper: Open Data Kit: Tools to Build Information Services for Developing Regions Paper: Designing an Architecture for Delivering Mobile Information Services to the Rural Developing World Extra Paper: BreadCrumbs: Forecasting Mobile Connectivity
April 28 (8)	Tools
April 29 (9)	Paper: FOLKSOMAPS - Towards Community Driven Intelligent Maps for Developing Regions Paper: Local Ground: A Paper-Based Toolkit for Documenting Local Geo-spatial Knowledge Exra Paper: Speculative Execution in a Distributed File System
-
May 2 (11)	Paper: FoneAstra: Enabling Remote Monitoring of Vaccine Cold-Chains Using Commodity Mobile Phones Paper: Metamouse: Improving Multi-user Sharing of Existing Educational Applications Extra Paper: WiLDNet: Design and Implementation of High PerformanceWiFi Based Long Distance Networks
May 3 (12)	Tools
May 4 (13)	Paper: A Delay-Tolerant Network Architecture for Challenged Internets Paper: Practical Routing in Delay-Tolerant Networks Paper: Routing in a Delay Tolerant Network
May 5 (14)	Tools
May 6 (15)	Paper: RuralCafe: Web Search in the Rural Developing World Paper: SMS-Based Web Search for Low-end Mobile Devices Extra Paper: Hermes: Data Transmission over Unknown Voice Channels
-
May 9 (17)	Paper: Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with Mobile Phones in a Rural Sugarcane Cooperative Paper: Robit: An Extensible Auction-based Market Platform for Challenged Environments Paper: A Biometric Attendance Terminal and its Application to Health Programs in India
May 10 (18)	Tools
May 11 (19)	TBA
May 12 (20)	TBA
May 13 (21)	TBA