INFO-I 590: Advanced Topics in Privacy
Fall 2009


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Policies and Logistics

Announcements

Made via email to the course list. You are responsible for reading each announcement carefully.

Grading

Project 50%
Class participation 20%
Paper presentations 15%
Paper summaries 15%

But must be satisfactory in all components.

CS Degree Credit?

MS: This course "can be used in slots 8-10 of the Masters worksheet"
PhD: "No permission is needed for PhD students to apply graduate Informatics courses towards the 90 credits for the CS PhD. However, the required 24 core credits in CS must be satisfied by CS courses."

Excerpted from CSCI Graduate Course Planning: Fall 2009

Paper summaries

We will discuss four papers every week. Summaries for the first two papers are due by Friday noon the previous week, and the remaining two summaries are due by Tuesday noon, just before class.

The summary for each paper should include one short paragraph summarizing the motivation and the solution approach (similar to the abstract, but in your own words), three bullet points on technical strengths and three on technical weaknesses. Please use the following template.

Send me these summaries via email and cc a copy to yourself. To account for mail server delays, I will not penalize summaries that are up to 1 hour late. If you do not receive your cc soon enough after noon, make sure you slip a printed copy of your summaries under my door by 1pm. It is your responsibility to make sure I receive either your email or a printed copy by 1pm on the date of the deadline regardless of server/network issues. Print only if necessary. Let's save the trees!

Late Summaries?

Manage your time well, and start early!

To accommodate for unavoidable circumstances, you get four automatic 1-day extensions for individual paper summaries without having to ask me for an extension. Just note the extention request on the summary. Finally, you can drop 4 summaries, but at most 2 for a given week. Use these freebies wisely—save them for circumstances such as falling ill or interviewing.

Paper presentations

Each student is expected to make one or two (TBD) 25-minute presentations during the semester. One of the goals of the class is to build presentation skills, because you will soon be presenting (if not already!) your own research at conferences. I will schedule these presentations so that we have a couple of presentations each week.

The remaining papers will be discussed "seminar-style" with roundtable discussions. We will go around and address each student's critique of the paper.

Project

See projects.

Honor Code

In short: Give credit where it's due and don't plagiarize. Don't copy or read others' solutions. Remember, when you cheat, you cheat yourself above all else.

IU's Honor Code and policies apply to your conduct in this course.

You may discuss papers with other students in the course or with me. However, you may not read or copy anybody else's summaries—all submitted work must be your own, based on your own understanding of the content after such discussions. In particular, you may not read solutions for assignments on the Web (including websites for previous terms, inside or outside of IU).

Credit your sources. In your assignments, list all your collaborators (e.g., "I discussed this homework with Alice, Bob, ...") and credit any sources (including software) used. You must also credit sources that are permitted by the instructor. For example, you must credit code that we give you if it helps you with your work (either by direct use of the code, or by simply enhancing your understanding by reading the code).

Violations of the Honor Code will be treated seriously. Please let me know if you have any questions—better to be safe than sorry!

Special accommodations

Please let me know before the end of the second week of the term if you have any disabilities and would like me to make appropriate accommodations. All discussions will remain confidential, although the Student Accessibility Services office may be consulted to discuss appropriate implementation of any accommodation requested.

Religious Observances

I realize that some students may wish to take part in religious observances that fall during this academic term. Should you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in the course, please come speak with me before the end of the second week of the term to discuss appropriate accommodations.