CSE490D (CSE477 Exploration Seminar) - Autumn 2007 (W 5:00-5:50, CSE 403)

Technology for Low-Income Regions

Part I: Exploration (first part of a three-quarter sequence)

This seminar is the first quarter of a three quarter sequence that will form a year-long capstone design experience.

1.        Fall: an exploration phase to identify interesting problems

2.        Winter: a brainstorming phase to come up with and evaluate possible solutions

3.        Spring: an implementation phase to actually create robust prototypes

 

The theme for the course is "Technology for Low-Income Regions".  We will be looking at problems in health care, agriculture, transportation, and education that arise in the developing world and rural regions of the developed world.  There will be projects that will involve hardware design, software design, embedded devices, web applications, and every combination of these.  Some example projects:

 

-          PDA/phone-based medical protocols for pediatric health tracking

-          Smart pill bottles to help train patients to their medication regimen

-          SMS-based transportation coordination

-          Mash-ups to visualize medical data

-          Connecting rural producers and urban consumers

-          Sensor networks for environmental monitoring

-          Peer-to-peer data dissemination for areas without reliable connectivity

 

This fall, please register for CSE490D (the exploration seminar).  This will be followed by a 2-credit design studio in the Winter quarter.  Finally, CSE477 will serve a 5-credit implementation course in the Spring.  Note that although CSE477 is the official CompE capstone, it is open to all students with no pre-requisitive requirements except all the CSE core courses (i.e., 300-level requirements).  Projects will

accomodate a wide range of backgrounds.  Final reports will be in the form of research workshop/conference submissions - high-quality reports will be submitted for publication.

 

The 477/490D Blog – please post your comments as you complete each reading, post your notes after class, and participate in discussions.  Make sure to subscribe to the class e-mail list.

 

Date

Topic

Paper

26 Sep

 

Organizational

03 Oct

Health care

e-IMCI: Improving Pediatric Health Care in Low-Income Countries

Brian DeRenzi, Neal Lesh, Tapan Parikh, Clayton Sims, Marc Mitchell, Werner Maokola, Mwajuma Chemba, Yuna Hamisi, David Schellenberg, Gaetano Borriello

Lindi & Mtwara Health Facility Survey

10 Oct

Education

Multiple Mice for Computers in Education in Developing Countries

Udai Singh Pawar, Joyojeet Pal, Kentaro Toyama

17 Oct

Microfinance

Using Mobile Phones for Secure, Distributed Document Processing in the Developing World

Tapan S. Parikh

24 Oct

Micro-enterprises

Internet use (and non-use) among urban microenterprises in the developing world: an update from India

Jonathan Donner

31 Oct

 

Discussion of possible projects – take the mid-quarter survey

07 Nov

Agriculture

Issue 30 on Precision Agriculture – January 2006

ICT Update
Digital Green: Participatory Video for Agricultural Extension

Rikin Gandhi, Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Kentaro Toyama, Vanaja Ramprasad

14 Nov

Transportation

19 Nov (not 21 Nov)

Markets

Warana Unwired: Replacing PCs with Mobile Phones in a Rural Sugarcane Cooperative

Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Naga Yasodhar, Kentaro Toyama

(see e-mail attachment or contact gaetano@cs.washington.edu for copy of paper)

28 Nov

 

Discussion of possible projects and initial forming of groups

07 Dec (not 05 Dec) at 3:30

 

Wrap-up and planning for next quarter