Welcome to the Honours course in Computer Science! We hope that you will have a successful and enjoyable year in your course. If you are having any problems related to this course, or if you need course-related or general advice you should talk to the coordinator:
Please be aware that the Digital Systems Honours Degreee has a slightly different structure which is described in an additional handout. In case of any questions regarding this degree you need to contact the coordinator:
Other people you may need to deal with include
Important Note: Please be aware that if you want to contact any of us by email you have to make sure that your mail originates from one of the Monash domains for your student account ( student.monash.edu, csse.monash.edu.au, sci.monash.edu.au, infotech.monash.edu.au). Due to the amount of spam floolding the university mail system we need to use spam filters. As these systems sometimes generate false positives there is a chance that your mail will not arrive if you send it from accounts such as hotmail, gmx or yahoo.
There will be a library orientation session at the start of the semester on Thursday March 18, 10 am. The focus of this session will be on using the library as a research resource and will include a hands-on session with electronic databases. Please meet Ms Sara Miranda at the Information Desk, Hargrave-Andrew Library; the session will be conducted in the IT training room.
Information and handouts are available on the web at: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/hons/ where you will also find links to the subject homepages. It is necessary that you read the email sent to your student account regularly as many important announcements are distributed in this way.
Each Honours student must undertake coursework units and a substantial individual research project which together add up to 48 points.
All students must take the compulsory unit, CSE417 Communication and Research Skills. This unit is intended to improve the oral and written presentation skills of students and to teach skills required for the critical analysis of research. CSE417 will take place over both semesters. You will receive a separate handout for this unit in your first class. The first session takes place 11-12.30noon, Thursday 4 March, Room G55 (Seminar Room), Building 75.
School seminars are held regularly throughout the year (typically once a week). Information on CSSE seminars is available at: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/seminars/.
We consider these to be part of CSE417 Communication and Research Skills. You are required to attend at least 5 seminars each semester and fill out a seminar evaluation sheet (available in separate handout and for download) for each seminar you attend and submit it immediately after the seminar to the Honours coordinator. Also, attendance at the interim and end of year honours project symposia is mandatory.
The units offered this year to Computer Science students are detailed in the appendix and on the Web. A total of 24 coursework points must be taken (this does not count the Communications and Research Skills Training unit CSE 417, which is considered part of the research training). You must select 4 units (each counting 6 points) from the following list:
Instead of choosing four CSE460X subjects from the list above you may choose only three and fill the remaining 6 points of coursework with a free elective. This can be a third year or fourth year subject or even a subject from another school or faculty. However, please note that the choice of such a free elective must be individually approved by the Honours coordinator and must be a reasonable addition to a Computer Science curriculum.
As you can see from the title these units cover rather broad topic areas. They are in fact flexible ``framework'' units in which you can specialise in different directions. Each of these framework units is worth 6 points for which you must elect one or two modules within the unit (some modules are worth 3 points, other ones six points).
More detailed descriptions of the CSE460X units and the modules within them is given in the appendix.
Modules typically comprise 36 or 24 hours of lectures over 12 weeks and include some practical work. Some modules are taught for a whole semester, while others are taught during only one half of a semester. Modules start dates are Week 1, Semester 1; Week 8, Semester 1; Week 1, Semester 2; Week 8 Semester 2.
The number of lecture hours is not necessarily the same for all 3 point modules or for all 6 point modules. The variation of lecture hours is balanced by, e.g., more/less reading or mor/less assignments, so that the overall workload of a six point unit will be independent of the module selection.
Assessment for each module may be based on assignments, an examination, or both, and will be clearly specified by the lecturer at the start of the module.
Note that you cannot directly enroll in the CSE460X units above without approval from the honours coordinator. This is a safeguard to ensure that your module selection is consistent with your unit selection.
Note that your enrollment with the faculty only concerns the framework units. Your selection of modules that you wish to count towards these units is done with the school.
On your day of enrollment (or before) pick up a Honours Unit Selection Form from the general office. This form clearly indicates which modules can be counted towards which units.
You must select four CSE 460X units. For each unit you must select modules that count for a total of 6 points. If you wish to substitute a free elective for one of the CSE460X units, you only need to select three CSE460X subjects and to additionally fill in the elective on the unit selection form.
Note that the CSE460X units are full year units.
After you have made your selection, you must have your Honours Unit Selection Form checked and approved by the coordinator who will also approve your unit selection form so that you can formally enroll into these units with the faculty.
You must also enroll into CSE 4650, which is the 24 point research component of the course.
If you later need to change a unit you can do so until the second week of Semester 1.
If you intend to change a module later in the year, you must formally notify your intention to do so by sending an email to Karen Fenwick (Karen.Fenwick@infotech.monash.edu.au). You will receive email approving (or not) the change. All changes must be approved. Under most circumstances only module changes that do not require a change in the unit selection can be approved.
Should you fail to formally notify the School of module changes or fail to get approval, marks for the original modules will be used to calculate your course work component.
The final grade (H1, H2A, H2B, H3 or fail) for the Honours course is computed by combining the project mark and coursework marks weighted in accordance with their point value. The coursework mark includes the CSE417 (Communication and Research Skills) unit marks and the best possible combination of modules/units that constitute 24 points. At most one free elective (non CSE460X) can be counted towards the final mark. In summary:
| 24 points of units | 24 points |
| Honours thesis & CSE417 | 24 points |
| Total | 48 points |
The name of the Dux of the year is inscribed on the Honours's board in the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering (Clayton) each year. Two prizes of A$500 each for the best students in the categories best coursework and best project have generously been donated by ManageSoft (http://www.managesoft.com).
The core of the Honours programme is an individual research project which is worth 20 points. Two important parts of the project work are written and verbal presentations of the project.
For many Honours students the Honours project is unlike anything they have done before. Sometimes it is hard to know what you should be doing and when and how you should be doing it. Here are some general guidelines. However, they are not applicable to all projects and your supervisor will be able to - and should - provide more project specific guidelines and goals.
The Research Project is designed to take about 500 hours for the average student. A Research Project may be concerned with theory, program development, hardware development, evaluating and improving on a new technique, analysing performance - in fact anything associated with computing which involves a reasonable amount of intellectual and practical effort. The student is expected to read the relevant literature and carefully analyse the problem posed, to formulate a solution or proposals for a solution, and where appropriate, to implement and prove, evaluate or test the validity of their results and proposals. The project solution will usually require creative and original thinking. Typically, a project is designed for a problem in some area associated with a research programme being carried out by a member of staff. The Research Project involves substantial mentoring by a staff member, and is designed to teach research skills. These skills are particularly important if the student wishes to undertake a post-graduate research degree.
A list of projects will be handed out separately and is also available on the Web. It contains a brief outline of each project and the name of the supervisor. Supervisors can individually provide further information about a project and are willing to discuss what is involved.
During the first week of the semester there will be some project presentation session in which individual groups of supervisors present potential projects. Each such session will be dedicated to projects that are grouped around a common research area. The timetable for these sessions is available at http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/ berndm/Honours/2004/ProjectIntros.html and in hard copy on a separate handout. Make sure to attend these sessions if you have some interest in their topics (and even if you don't know what they are about), but be aware that not all projects are represented in these events.
If you have a project in mind that you would like to do you are encouraged to approach a relevant member of the academic staff to suggest this project. Most supervisors appreciate this sort of initiative and will be happy to supervise such a project if it is well-defined and in their area of research. However, students do not have a right to insist on their own project, and in the great majority of cases they will do projects from the published list. Students may not always be able to do the project of their choice, either due to the popularity of a project or because each staff member is restricted to supervising a maximum of three projects.
Project registration and allocation will be done in the first week of Semester 1. Please fill in the Project Allocation Form which you receive in the introductory session. Give at least 6 preferences in ranked order. Your preferences must be supervised by at least 3 different supervisors. Hand your completed form in to the Enquiries Office by the end of the first week of Semester 1. The project allocation will be announced by email as soon as possible after this time.
The School takes the evaluation of projects very seriously, as they are a substantial contribution to the student's final mark. The following are part of the project assessment.
NOTE: Some of these items are part of the assessment for CSE417 Communication and Research Skills; see CSE417 handout for details of assessment weightings.
Only under exceptional circumstances will an extension of the thesis submission deadline be granted by the Honours coordinator.
The final project grade is determined from the marks assigned by the two examiners, although their recommendations are sometimes changed by consensus to ensure that all projects are fairly marked. The examiners take into account each of the above, with emphasis given to the final report. If the two examiners' marks differ significantly, then a third or even fourth detailed examination may be called for. The final grades for the project and overall grade for the year are determined at a staff meeting after all components of the assessment have been marked. An external assessor will also independently examine selected projects and will be present at the staff meeting so as to ensure objective marking.
Most projects have a significant practical content, involving hardware and/or software development. It is crucial that by the time of the research proposal you have reached some agreement with your supervisor about the extent of this practical work. It is equally important that by the time you hand in your final report this practical work has been completed, as you are likely to lose marks for incomplete work. Your practical work will be judged for its quality in at least the following categories;
Some projects will have a large theoretical component. Theoretical work will be judged for its quality in at least the following categories;
For most students, the hardest part of the Honours year is managing their time so as to work consistently on the project throughout the year amongst the short-term pressures of course work assignments and exams. Start your project early (that is, in March) and keep at it. Your project is worth almost half of your final marks for the year! Do not get bogged down spending a disproportionate amount of time on small course work assignments which are worth relatively little in your overall mark.
A rough timetable for your project should be:
The following hints may help your research and time management:
The project report must be typed on A4 paper. It should typically be no longer than 30 pages, excluding the literature review, appendices and bibliography. Exceptions to this rule can be made if they are justified by the nature of the project. If you think your project constitutes such an exception you will have to discuss the case with your supervisor(s) and the coordinator and obtain their approval to exceed the page limit.
Draft printing must be kept to a minimum; use the previewers or WYSIWYG packages. A quota of pages produced on the laser printers may be imposed for each Honours student. Three copies of the report must be submitted if you have one supervisor, four if you have two supervisors. Photocopying of the copies can be arranged through the Enquiries Office.
It is important that the report contain a complete account of the work done. In general, the report should contain:
It is vital that the thesis contains a complete account of the work you have done: In particular, you should use an appendix to clarify your personal original contribution and to distinguish it from ideas and results that you have taken from the literature or that your supervisor has contributed. Make clear what your own achievements and contributions are and how much time you spent on your project. Your second reader will sometimes know your project only superficially, and your thesis is the best way for him or her to get to know it better.
With scientific writing, organisation and structure is half of the task, and so considerable effort should be invested in detailed outlines before any text is composed. Changing outlines is quick and easy; rewriting text is time consuming.
The supervisor will advise on all aspects of the preparation of the thesis, and will check through the draft at least once if received by the first draft deadline, but the student is reminded that it is not the supervisor's responsibility to write or re-write all or part of the work. Refer (with caution) to existing Honours theses of the School for an indication of the required format. Note that as a student you are being examined not only on research and organisation ability, but also on your ability to present and defend ideas. Conformity to conventions, both scientific and grammatical, is important.
A reasonable thesis structure is as follows:
If you choose to use LaTeX, a suitable style file will be provided. The recommended font size is 11 point. Essential footnotes are normally placed at the foot of the page to which they refer. Number pages consecutively, including pages carrying diagrams, photographs, maps, etc. Diagrams should be computer drawn and included as postscript/latex graphic/etc files directly into the document, or at least photocopied onto the particular page. Photographs must be mounted with dry mounting tissue or spray adhesive, and where possible copied photographically as a whole page and included in the thesis in the normal manner. References must be referred to in the text, and listed in the bibliography following a standard and consistent format.
The ``Declaration of Originality'' must be on a separate page and contain the following wording:
I < student name > declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institute of tertiary education. Information derived from the published and unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given in the bibliography.
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(student signature)
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Date (day, month and year)
The Abstract on a separate page should not exceed 500 words.
Appendices are not intended as a means to `pad-out' a sparse thesis with peripheral material, or to circumvent the page limit in an `obese' thesis. They serve as a repository for useful products of the research (e.g., documentation including installation of a program and a detailed example run of the program) which are not an integral part of the main body of the thesis. Where the raw data of a thesis cannot be extracted directly from the test figures and tables, it is essential that they be tabulated in an appendix. In short, appendices preserve valuable information which might otherwise be lost, but the thesis should be able to stand without them. Long, detailed program code should be put on a CD ROM or floppy disk in the back of the thesis, rather than listed in appendices.
In addition, student have to submit a copy of their thesis electronically to the coordinator (either PDF or HTML or Postscript).
Guidelines for the Research Proposal and Literature Review will be in the handout for CSE417 Research and Communication Skills.
All Honours students should consider their potential and options for continuing into some form of research study. The Honours year can be seen against a number of backgrounds: employment advantages over 3 year degrees, ability to gather additional course material, even as a procrastination over career choices! But the original purpose of the Honours year is to provide training for students who wish to continue on to postgraduate study. This is still one of the main objectives of the degree, and an understanding of this will doubtless help you to make sense of much of the course work you do get. If you are interested in postgraduate study, make your interests and desires known to your lecturers and project supervisor. They will be only to happy to help you gain additional insights and perspectives on what is to them a fascinating field of study. Not only will they enjoy your interest, but you may find it gives you the additional impetus to do well in what may be your final year of formal examinations. Good luck in those examinations!
Scholarships are available to support you. They start at about $15,000 per annum (tax-free), and can be supplemented to higher figures in particular circumstances. There are a number of different types of scholarship, the main ones (roughly in order of prestige and amount) being:
Students intending to apply for scholarships are urged to talk to the Postgraduate Coordinators (Dr. David Squire and Dr. Andrew Paplinski). There are a number of options available to those who miss out on the very competitive APA and MGS awards. Competition for all scholarships is fierce. Usually only students with an H1 grade for Honours are successful in obtaining scholarships.
Further announcements about Postgraduate Study will be made later in the year. Also see the Postgraduate Handbook on the School WWW entry.
Note that the framework units as such have no further prerequisites if you have been admitted to the BCS Honours programme. However, individual modules that you wish to count towards these units may have additional prerequisites. Please check in the module descriptions in the appendix.
Methods from Artificial Intelligence (AI) form the basis for many advanced information systems. These techniques address problems that are difficult to solve or not efficiently solvable with conventional techniques. Building on the undergraduate curriculum this unit introduces the student to advanced AI methods and their applications in information systems. Within the framework of this unit, the student can choose between a variety of modules in the broad area of Intelligent Information Systems. Most modules relate directly to the school's research strengths and are taught by active researchers in the respective fields. Research fields covered include:
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
Software engineering is concerned with all aspects of effectively building reliable software systems that satisfy the requirement. It addresses the entire software life cycle including requirement analysis and specification, design, construction, testing, and operation and maintenance.
The modules in the framework of this unit cover advanced issue in software engineering, particularly the use of formal methods, ie.
Algorithms are the most fundamental area for all aspects of computer science and software engineering. Discrete structures, such as those treated in graph theory, set theory, combinatorics and symbolic logic form the mathematical underpinning of the study of algorithms. As well-designed algorithms and data structures are essential for the good performance of an information system, an in-depth understanding of the theoretical properties of algorithms is essential for any computer scientist. As importantly, the theoretical investigation of algorithms leads to a deeper understanding of problem structures and classes of problems and the knowledge of a large variety of algorithm types enables the designer to approach a new problem from different angles.
Within the framework of this unit, the student can choose between a variety of specialisation modules in Algorithms and Discrete Structures. Most modules relate directly to the school's research strengths and are taught by active researchers in the respective fields. Research fields covered include:
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
Advanced working knowledge of programming languages is central to most activities in computer science. As students can expect to use many different languages and types of languages in their professional work, they should acquire knowledge of more than a single paradigm.
Modules in the framework of this unit
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
All sciences are increasingly relying on computational support and the growth of many branches of science has only become possible due to the availability of efficient computational methods. The common basis of such methods are numerical methods and high performance computing.
Under the umbrella of this unit, the student can specialize in a particular areas of computational science by choosing from different modules including:
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
With the rapid growth of the internet and increasing use of company-internal networks, network-oriented computing has become a central field in the discipline. Within the framework of this unit, the student can choose between several modules which cover different advanced areas of network computing. Most of these modules relate directly to the school's research strength and are taught by active researchers in the respective fields. Topics covered include:
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
This unit covers advanced topics in computer graphics and visual interfaces. Within the framework of this unit, the student can choose between a variety of modules relating to these sub-fields. The topics relate directly to the school's research strength and are taught by active researchers in the respective fields. The fields covered include:
Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
This unit covers topics in hardware architecture ranging from the gate level to processors and full computer architecture. Topics include
Within the framework of this unit, students can select individual modules to specialise in a particular domain, such as VLSI design or parallel architectures. Some of these topics may not be offered in every year.
This unit allows the student to study additional material and/or related fields pertaining to the topic of his/her chosen research project. Its contents is therefore individually defined. Please note that this is a 0 point unit, so you cannot count it towards fulfilling your degree requirements. However, the unit will appear on your transcripts so that your additional studies are documented.
This unit covers advanced current research topics in computer, new emerging trends and research directions that are not covered in any other honours unit. Enrollment requires individual approval and it may not be offered in every year.
This subject introduces the student to independent research. Most projects are software-oriented, although some projects may be purely theoretical and others may involve hardware work.
A research project covers the whole process from initial problem analysis in a current research topic of computer science, literature study and evaluation of existing research and proposal of a research plan to carrying out the proposed research and presenting it in written and oral form. Where appropriate it includes the development of software (or hardware), from analysis through design to implementation and testing and documentation.
The project is conducted by the student in close cooperation with one or several staff members. The staff member will initially lead the project, help to formulate the initial research question and guide the student throughout the project. The staff member will arrange meetings with the student (typically weekly) in which intermediate results are reported and analysed and further directions for the project are decided on. The student is expected to read the relevant literature and carefully analyse the problem posed, to formulate a solution or proposals for a solution, and where appropriate, to implement and prove, evaluate or test the validity of their results and proposals.
The formal research skills training comprises weekly lectures as well as supervised literature study. Individual consultation is offered additionally for the improvement of presentation skills. Students also attend and evaluate regular school research seminars.
The research project is complemented by formal research training which is designed to improve the oral and written presentation skills and to teach the skills required for a critical analysis of current research. This component comprises lectures and seminars on presentation structuring, writing and editing, literature study, research methods, argument analysis and analysis of experiments and design and delivery of oral presentations.
ASSESSMENT: Project Evaluation by Supervisors and Additional Examiner(s) based on Deliverables, Final Report and Final Presentation (85%), Written Research Skills Assignment (5%), Presentations (10%): consisting of Initial Research Proposal (20%), First Seminar Presentation (mid-year interim presentation) (Hurdle), Literature Review (30%), Project Presentation as web site and/or poster (20%), Final Seminar Presentation (30%).
Harriet Searcy, Kevin Korb, Linda McIver, David Squire and
Honours Coordinators,
This module is compulsory and counts as part of your research training component unit CSE4650. You cannot count this module towards any other framework unit CSE460X. The module covers three main areas: research skills; technical writing; and technical presentations. You will learn to: research, deliver and evaluate professional technical presentations; write a literature review; structure and write a thesis. (See also description of CSE 4650 above).
3 points
Alan Dorin
This course covers the procedural specification of models for animation, their basic movements and high-level behaviour. Various means of giving Ärtificial Life" to what are essentially sets of numbers are examined. These are utilized in the subject's assignment questions which provide an opportunity to gain practical experience in the production of models for computer animation, as well as in the rendering and display of these models.
Topics covered include algorithms for modelling: mountain landscapes; trees, shrubs and vines; smoke, clouds and rain; animal group behaviour e.g. ants, wasps, birds, sheep, fish etc.; animal movement animal morphology cellular growth patterns
Issues/areas studied include: emergence of complex global outcomes from local interactions; dynamical systems including cellular automata and reaction-diffusion systems; explicitly, implicitly and aesthetically-directed genetic algorithms; virtual worlds and ecosystems; physical simulation;
Recommended Reading:
Watt, A & M Watt (1992), Ädvanced Animation and Rendering Techniques: theory and practice" ACM Pres, New York NY
Additional reading and research is required and will be indicated in the lecture notes during the course.
Prerequisities:
Knowledge of basic computer graphics principles including: Raster display techniques: linedrawing algorithms, rasterization algorithms Vectors, matrices & transformations in 2D and 3D computer graphics Principles of 3D projection (e.g. orthogonal and perspective projections); Principles of shading (e.g. flat, Gouraud and Phong shading); Elementary calculus
Familiarity with OpenGL or similar graphics library; Programming under UNIX in C/C++ or Java at 3rd year computer science level A thorough understanding of algorithms and data structures
This prerequisite knowledge can be gained in CSE3313 (Computer graphics), MAT 1811/MAT 1812 (mathematics), a major individual project in C/C++ or Java.
3 points
Jon McCormack
This course covers advanced topics in computer graphics and image synthesis. It aims to provide a solid introduction to the advanced theory and practice of modern computer graphics, including: polygonal rendering; local and global illumination models; hidden surface removal algorithms; parametric curve and surface representations; texturing; sampling and aliasing theory; and advanced lighting models. Successful completion of the course will give the student the necessary skills to undertake further research topics in computer graphics and the necessary background for commercial applications in areas such as computer games, visualization, and SFX for film and television.
Recommended Reading:
Watt, A & M Watt (1992), Advanced Animation and Rendering Techniques: theory and practice, ACM Pres, New York NY, 1992.
Additionally research publications will be handed out in the lectures
Prerequisities:
Foundations of Computer Graphics as taught in CSE3113 or equivalent: basic mathematics for computer graphics: linear algebra, vector calculus, geometry, numeric methods. ; basic line, curve and surface representations and drawing algorithms ; standard 2 & 3 dimensional graphics transformations and projections (perspective, orthographic) ; 2 & 3 dimensional clipping algorithms ; homogeneous coordinate systems and matrix representations ; basic OpenGL and GLUT programming ; basic hidden surface and line removal algorithms ; Gouraud and Phong shading algorithms.
3 points
Graham Farr
The subject matter falls naturally into two parts: Secret-key and public-key cryptosystems.
1. secret-key cryptosystems elementary systems: simple substitution, polyalphabetic substitution, Vigenere cypher, one-time pad, local transposition; basic principles of building and combining such systems: substitution, transposition, composition, confusion, diffusion; a modern secret-key cryptosystem such as the Data Encryption Standard: outline and main components;
2. one-way functions and public-key cryptosystems, principles of one-way functions, trapdoor functions, and public-key cryptosystems in general; relevant notions from computational complexity; some necessary mathematics, especially number theory: modular arithmetic, Euler totient, inverses mod n, primitive roots, modular exponentiation, discrete log, extended Euclidean algorithm, factorisation; key exchange, Diffie-Hellman scheme, Shamir scheme; Rivest-Shamir-Adleman, Merkle-Hellman and ElGamal public-key cryptosystems; comparison of secret- and public-key cryptography.
Recommended Reading:
Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and Source Code in C (2nd edn.), Wiley, New York, 1996.
Prerequisities:
Basic ideas of complexity (as taught in CSE3305); 12 points of mathematics
Prohibitions:
CPE5001
3 points
Graham Farr
The module naturally falls into two parts:
1. Secret-key cryptosystems: information theory: information, entropy, sources, the Asymptotic Equipartition Principle, statistical structure of language, key and message equivocation, unicity distance, perfect secrecy.
2. Cryptographic protocols - mainly, using and combining cryptographic operations to do more than just straight encryption and decryption: authentication and digital signatures, using both secret- and public-key methods; further applications of one-way functions and public-key cryptosystems, such as bit-commitment and relatives; more advanced protocols, e.g. electronic cash, interactive proofs.
Recommended Reading:
Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and Source Code in C (2nd edn.), Wiley, New York, 1996.
Dominic Welsh, Codes and Cryptography, Oxford University Press, 1988.
Prerequisities:
Module ``Cryptography-I''
Prohibitions:
CPE5001
3 points
Lloyd Allison
The subject includes: Elementary information theory (including noiseless coding and compression); inductive inference and prediction; data modelling and data mining; introduction to Minimum Message Length (MML) inference; clustering, mixture modelling and unsupervised classification; supervised classification and decision trees and related structures. Typical applications will be described.
Recommended Reading:
Other relevant material will be published on the moduleÕs web site.
Prerequisities:
3 points
David Dowe
The subject includes topics:
Foundations of inductive inference from (algorithmic) information theory; intermediate to advanced Minimum Message Length (MML) inference; details of Fisher information and uncertainty regions; angular/circular models (von Mises, Wrapped Normal or trigonometric); Poisson distribution; MML of specific models such as decision graphs, hidden Markov models (or HMMs, also known as probabilistic finite state automata, or PFSAs), linear and polynomial regression, causal models, Bayesian nets, time series, sequences, segmentation, trends; probabilistic prediction and Kullback-Leibler distance. Statistical invariance, statistical consistency. Data mining. Additional models may include factor analysis and additional theory may include the Neyman-Scott problem. Might also manage to fit in some or all of: polygon modelling; DNA pattern discovery and alignment, evolutionary trees; Lempel-Ziv text compression, C.S. Wallace improvement (1989, 1996), approximate repeats; HMMs (PFSAs) in mixture modelling; Markov fields, images.
Applications to be considered may include: models of protein folding and protein structure prediction, bushfire prediction, text and image analysis, DNA alignment and the human genome project, authorship identification for texts, etc. Further typical applications may be described. The exact composition of topics may vary.
Recommended Reading:
C.S. Wallace and D.L. Dowe (1999), "Minimum Message Length and Kolmogorov complexity", Comp. J., Vol. 42, No. 4, pp270-283.
Prerequisities:
Prerequisite knowledge:
3 points
Sid Ray
Pattern Recognition deals with the study of theory and techniques used for the design of automatic devices capable of performing recognition of spatial and temporal patterns. Some of its well-researched application areas are: Recognition of handwritten and machine-printed characters, Automatic Speech Recognition and Speaker Identification, Analysis of Remotely Sensed Data, and Medical Diagnosis.
This course on Pattern Recognition covers discussion on Mathematical,Statistical and Fuzzy Set Theoretic methods of pattern recognition. Topics include:
Recommended Reading:
In addition, selected research papers will be referenced and discussed throughout the course.
Prerequisities:
Knowledge of: Introductory Probability Theory; Basic Satistics; Introductory Matrix Algebra.
3 points
Peter Tischer
In the handling of information it can be important to store the information in the most compact manner. This is known as data compression but is also sometimes called lossless data compression. In some circumstances we are prepared to discard information that is not considered important to reduce the storage requirements of the data. This is called lossy compression. The module deals with both lossless and lossy data for general data and for image and audio data. The course discusses a general approach for carrying out both lossy and lossless compression and concentrates mainly on image data. Existing methods as incorporated in international standards are examined as well as the theory necessary to understand state-of-the-art algorithms. In assignment work students will have the opportunity to implement compression methods they have developed themselves.
Topics include:
3 points
David Albrecht
In a wide variety of areas, including medical diagnosis, business investments, oil exploration, and weather prediction, people develop models to assist them in making rational decisions under uncertainty. This module will provide an introduction to Bayesian models and how they can be used in the decision making process. Topics include: Decision flow diagrams, extensive form of decision analysis, strategies, normal form of decision analysis, utility theory, probability theory, Bayesian Networks, Dynamic Bayesian Models, inference methods in Bayesian models, building Bayesian Networks, knowledge elicitation, approximation methods, Decision Networks, Dynamic Decision Networks, Markov Decision Processes, and Reinforcement Learning.
The exact composition of these topics and their relative weights in the schedule may vary.
Recommended Reading:
Russel, S, and P. Norvig, Ärtificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach", Prentice Hall, Inc., 1995
3 points
Geoff Webb
Causal discovery aims to develop algorithms to learn the structure of causal processes from observation. This goes to the heart of the long-standing dispute over whether we can learn causal relations from observed correlations. We will start with causal modeling techniques introduced in the early 20th century by Sewall Wright for dealing with linear causal structure. We will briefly review developments throughout the last century dealing with linear models and their causal interpretation, including structural equation modeling in economics.
In the late 1980s graphical models - Bayesian networks - became popular in AI for representing and reasoning with probabilities. In order to overcome the "knowledge bottleneck", researchers quickly turned to the problem of the machine learning of Bayesian networks from data. The techniques discovered are natural extensions of the linear modeling above. We will examine the main developments: The Verma-Pearl Conditional Independence Algorithm (1990), Tetrad II's PC Algorithm (1993), Cooper-Herskovits's Bayesian K2 (1991), Heckerman and Geiger's BDe/BGe (1995), Causal Discovery via MML (1996).
We will consider the question whether Bayesian networks are properly understood as fundamentally causal or simply probabilistic (i.e., correlation vs cause, again).
We also look at closely related questions, such as: learning probabilities from data; learning with incomplete data; Monte Carlo methods for automated learning; expectation maximization (EM) methods; evaluating machine learning methods.
The exact composition of these topics and their relative weights in the schedule may vary.
Recommended Reading:
Research papers will be referenced throughout the subject.
Prerequisites:
The module ``Bayesian Models'' is recommended.
3 points
Bernd Meyer
Optimisation and constrained solving problems are of extreme importance in industrial applications, such as timetabling, resource allocation, airline scheduling or fleet coordination. Unfortunately almost all of these problems are computationally hard and therefore specialized techniques are required to handle them. This course discusses the various paradigms and methods that can be used to solve (constraint) optimisation problems. Theoretical foundations and application areas of the various methods will be presented and hands-on experience will be provided in practical assignments in which this knowledge has to be applied to concrete problems.
Topics include:
The exact composition of these topics and their relative weights in the schedule may vary
Recommended Reading:
Recommended books covering the basics for this subject are:
In addition to this, selected current research papers will be referenced in the lectures.
Prerequisities:
knowledge of basic calculus and matrix algebra
Prohibitions:
ETC4480
3 points
Kim Marriott
Constrained optimisation and satisfaction problems are important in many industrial applications, such as timetabling, resource allocation, airline scheduling or fleet coordination. Unfortunately almost all of these problems are computationally hard and therefore specialized techniques are required to handle them. There are two aspects to solving such problems. The first is the techniques used to solve the problem. This is covered in the co-requisite module ÒOptimization and Constraint SolvingÓ. The second aspect is how to model and actually solve these problems in practice. This is the subject matter of this module. It covers the three main approaches: mathematical modelling language, constraint programming and object oriented constraint solving toolkits and their associated modelling methodology. Mathematical modelling languages will be presented as an example of a domain specific programming language designed for use by non-programmers. Hands-on experience will be provided through practical assignments.
Topics include: - Mathematical modelling languages (For linear and integer programming, For constraint programming) - Constraint programming (Node and arc consistency, bounds consistency, generalized consistency, Backtracking search, Constraint logic programming (CLP), Constraint handling rules, Other constraint programming languages) - Object-oriented constraint solving toolkits (For linear and integer programming, For constraint programming) - Examples of Constrained Optimisation and Satisfaction problems (Resource scheduling, Health care, Bio informatics, Computer graphics)
The exact composition of these topics and their relative weights in the programme may vary
Recommended Reading:
Recommended text books for this subject are:
In addition to this, selected research papers will be referenced in the lectures.
Corequisities:
Module ``Optimization and Constraint Solving''
3 points
David Abramson
The module includes the following topics: Parallel architectures; Bus-based shared memory machines; Massively parallel machines; Vector machines; Cluster computing; and Special purpose machines.
Recommended Reading:
Reading material including research papers, programming manuals and system specifications, will be distributed electronically or in hardcopy.
Prerequisities:
CSE2302 and CSE2/3324.
Prerequisite knowledge: types of parallelism within a computer architecture; processes, scheduling, inter-process communication; and experience with multiple programming languages.
Prohibitions:
CSE4333
3 points
Heinz Schmidt
The module includes the following topics: Semaphores; shared memory vs. message passing; Linda paradigm; Data parallel programming; cluster programming.
Recommended Reading:
Reading material including research papers, programming manuals and system specifications, will be distributed electronically or in hardcopy.
Reference Material:
Prohibitions:
CSE4333
Prerequisities:
CSE2302 and CSE2/3324.
Prerequisite knowledge: types of parallelism within a computer architecture; processes, scheduling, inter-process communication; and experience with multiple programming languages.
3 points
Tony Kerr
This units provides a broad introduction to security issues in information systems. The first part of the unit covers general issues in infomration security, such as physical security; network security; software security; contingency planning; legal issues; management issues.
3 points
Ingrid Zukerman
The growth in popularity of the Internet and of large in-house knowledge repositories highlights the importance of developing machinery for accessing these resources. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR) are two essential tools for performing this task. This course discusses various NLP and IR techniques which support the access and retrieval of information from large knowledge repositories. Theoretical foundations and application areas of the various methods will be presented and hands-on experience will be provided in practical assignments in which this knowledge will be applied to concrete problems.
Topics include:
Recommended Reading:
Recommended books covering the basics for this subject are:
3 points
Kevin Korb, Aland Dorin, Jon McCormack, Bernd Meyer
How can computer simulations tell us anything about the world? What preconditions need to be met before they can? Is there anything different about a computer model of a physical system and a scientific theory about that system? Can one be true while the other is false? We will explore possible answers to these questions offered in various contexts from mundane to strange. We will look at a number of case studies, including the infamous pronouncements of the Club of Rome in the 1970s about impending environmental and population disaster, which may well turn out to be correct. We will also consider: computer network simulation; shopping market queuing simulation; astronomical simulations; ethological and ecological simulation; artificial life forms and evolutionary ethics.
This will be a colloquium-style subject in which one or two papers will be read and discussed per week. Assessment will be by a short research paper assessed by one of the subject leaders.
6 points
For a description see CSE4213 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE4431 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE4882 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE4884 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE4891 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE4892 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5301 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5302 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5312 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5803 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5805 in the handbook or courseware web pages.
6 points
For a description see CSE5808 in the handbook or courseware web pages.