Topic: TheWeb:Concepts & Technologies

Appropriate for First Year students.

TimeDaysLocationInstructorGERCreditOPUS Class NumberSyllabus (Tentative)
2:30pm-3:45pm
TuTh
Math & Science Center - W301
Yevgeny Agichtein. FSEM. 43185 TBA.

January 13, 2010- April 26, 2010

Prerequisites: As long as you know how to put together a web page and have an interest in learning some web programming, you'll be OK. Some high-school-level trigonometry and statistics helpful. Additional experience and/or exposure to programming languages such as Java, Perl, Python or JavaScript would be helpful but not required: instructor will introduce necessary programming ideas and syntax as needed.

Catalog Description: Topics will be announced each year.

Semester Details:

How long can you survive without access to Web applications such as Facebook, Wikipedia, or Google? The Web now is central to our information society, and this course will be a guided tour through the concepts, ideas, and technology underlying the web's evolution into the modern ecosystem for commerce, information finding, and social interaction. We will also gain hands-on programming experience with key web applications such as search, online social networks, and web services. The assignments will primarily consist of lab exercises and group programming projects in which students will program Web2.0 services to do cool stuff. Although the course is self-contained and will explore both conceptual and practical topics, an interest in learning how to program and/or some previous exposure to programming would be quite helpful.

Course Topics (tentative):

  • Web infrastructure: history, networking/protocols, hardware, energy

  • The web browser story

  • Search: history, algorithms, structure of the web, technology (implementation)

  • Web applications: E-commerce, advertising

  • Abuse: spam, hacking and the gray areas

  • Web services: mashups (usage) and underlying technology

  • Online Social Networks: influence, search, technology (implementation)

  • Collaboration (Wikipedia)

  • May cover additional topics related to search or social networks




Grading

Assignment/ExamDetails% of Total Grade
Group projects (5 to 7 in total)Class participation is 10% of grade70%%
Final paper in lieu of final exam20%%

The schedule of courses on O.P.U.S. is the official listing of courses, including days and times they meet and the General Education Requirements they satisfy. Students should use course descriptions as general guidelines. Course requirements, grading details, book lists, and syllabi are subject to change.