CMSC 828D: Advanced Topics in Information Processing; Interactive Data Analytics
Prof. Leilani Battle; CSIC 2118; Tue-Thu 3:30pm-4:45pm
CMSC 828D: Advanced Topics in Information Processing; Interactive Data Analytics
Prof. Leilani Battle; CSIC 2118; Tue-Thu 3:30pm-4:45pm
The class will be managed through ELMS: https://umd.instructure.com/courses/1247014.
Location: AVW 3173
Times: Thursdays 5-6pm (after class);
Fridays 9-10am;
or by appointment.
Changes to the office hours schedule are recorded in the course calendar (see ELMS site, link provided above).
There are no official prerequisites for this course. Though not required, experience from an introductory database course (example: CMSC 424), HCI course (example: CMSC 434), or visualization course (examples: CMSC 734, UW CSE 442) would be helpful in completing this course.
With the continued rise of big data analytics and data science, there is an increasing need for new tools to support rapid navigation (i.e., interaction) and interpretation of massive and complex datasets. This is a research-oriented seminar course, where the focus will be on studying (and hopefully developing) innovative techniques in the design of interactive data analysis systems. This area of research is interdisciplinary by nature, involving knowledge from data management (or databases), human-computer interaction (HCI), and information visualization. By taking this course, you should be able to read, understand and hopefully critique related research articles from both the systems perspective (e.g., interactive analytics papers in conferences like SIGMOD/VLDB/ICDE) and the HCI/Vis perspective (e.g., papers in conferences like CHI/InfoVis/VAST/EuroVis).
This course will emphasize not only system performance issues (e.g., data management issues), but also human performance issues (e.g., HCI/Vis issues). Given a new application domain, you should also be able to ask the right questions to understand the key performance issues, and be able to design/suggest appropriate solutions. You should also be able to identify flaws (if any) with a proposed design or solution.
You should also have enough familiarity with how interactive analytics systems are built to be able to easily start using any of them, and reason about the observed performance of a deployed system, if only superficially.
Readings and quizzes: All class readings will be made available using nb.mit.edu, to allow for comments and questions directly within the research article. Subscribe to the nb class site using the link provided on the course ELMS page (link provided above). Part of your participation grade will depend on your participation on nb.mit.edu, where the goal is to have you engage thoughtfully with the text by sharing your questions and comments. Please focus on quality over quantity, just a few thoughtful comments/questions/ideas on each paper is enough. However if you happen to have lots of questions and ideas regarding a particular paper, feel free to include them on nb! Answering the questions of peers are also a great example of thoughtful participation. See the readings page for assigned readings (on ELMS, link provided above, also listed directly in the quizzes). Note that there is not enough time to cover every part of every reading in class, but you will be responsible for reading and understanding that material outside class.
There will be an online quiz over the readings for each lecture, to be completed individually. The quizzes are designed with two goals in mind: 1) to give you an opportunity to test your understanding of the readings; and 2) to help you practice brainstorming and thinking critically about research articles. The quizzes also help me to decide what topics to emphasize and review in lecture. As such, the quizzes must be completed by 8:00am on the day of lecture (so I have time to go over the results). The first week is an exception.
Midterm: There will be one exam, the midterm, to be completed in class and individually. The midterm will cover material from the first half of the course. See the course calendar for exam and assignment dates.
Assignments: There will be 3 assignments, to help prepare you for the final project. These assignments are designed to give you experience in using and evaluating analysis systems (e.g., database management systems, visualization systems). All assignments can be done in pairs; the responsibilities and effort of each partner must be documented in the assignment submission. See the course calendar for exam and assignment dates.
Final Project: A team-based final project is due at the end of the course. This project is designed to be a "mini-research project", something that could theoretically be extended into a publishable research paper if the student is motivated to do a significant amount of additional work after the course finishes. Some suggestions for final projects will be made available from the course Website. Each student will be assigned as a reviewer to another team's project to provide constructive feedback later in the semester.
Late days. You get five late days that can be used throughout the course, to be used in 24-hour blocks. You may use up to one late day on any of the quizzes, and up to two late days on any of the assignments. If you are working in pairs and choose to use some late days, the late days are spent by both students (i.e., you cannot "double" your late days by working in pairs). Late days may not be used towards the midterm or any final project milestone deadlines.
Any late submissions outside of the use of late days will not be graded (i.e., given a zero). If you ever have any concerns about submitting your work on time, please arrange to talk with me in advance, preferably at office hours, or by appointment if necessary.
No computers, phones or tablet devices are permitted during our class meetings. I understand and have considered arguments for permitting laptop and tablet computers in the classroom. However, in my experience (and based on the research evidence) the reality is that they present an irresistible distraction and detract from the cooperative learning environment. Researchers have found that these distractions do in fact interfere with learning and active participation. For that reason, the use of computers and phones will not be permitted during class meetings (except when required for ADS accommodations). If a computer is needed to accomplish a class objective for the day I will provide it or give you advanced notice to bring one with you.
I expect you to make the responsible and respectful decision to refrain from using your cellphone in class. If you have critical communication to attend to, please excuse yourself and return when you are ready. For more information about the science behind the policy watch: http://youtu.be/WwPaw3Fx5Hk
Participation: 15%
Quizzes: 15%
Assignments: 15%
Midterm Exam: 20%
Final project: 35%
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