CS 347U: The Internet Age

Course coordinates:
Monday/Wednesday 8:15am-10:05am
FAB 40-06
Class discussion/WWW:
cs347u on D2L
http://thefengs.com/wuchang/courses/cs347u
Instructor:
Wu-chang Feng
Office hours:
  Click here
Course student reviews

Course overview and objectives:

This course examines the Internet and contemporary issues related to it.  The course will start with an overview of the Internet's design philosophy and architecture, along with some of its essential protocols.  Then, each student will research and give a presentation on a contemporary technical, social, political and legal issue the Internet now faces including:

Tentative schedule

Week #1
Course information

Internet History and Design  Slides
Week #2
Walkthrough of how it works  Slides
DUE: Homework #1

Web/E-mail/DNS  Slides
Week #3
TCP Slides
DUE: Homework #2

IP/Routing Slides
Week #4
Ethical frameworks Slides
  DUE: Homework #3
Case study: Ethical analysis of Snowden leaks
Sunday 4/24
DUE: First round presentation slides in D2L Dropbox
Week #5
A4. Transparency reports (Elias Alves)
A6. User tracking (Jeannie Buss)
A8. Telephony metadata (Arella Yi)
  A10. Breaking telephony security (Patrick Salinas)
A11. Breaking encryption (Benjamin Stafford)
A12. Lavabit (Damas Gakwasi)
A14. ISIS and the Digital Caliphate (Ryan Hoover)
Week #6
A13. Apple v. FBI (Instructor)
B1.  Cookies (Michael Sayer)
B6. Personal information trading (Xihan Bian)
B8. Silverpush audio surveillance (Mary Shaffer)
  B9. Anonymizing networks (Connor Kazmierczak)
B11.  Right to forget (Patrick Costa)
B12.  Nation-based censorship (Yavuz Sefunc)
B13.  Google and China (Shuo Yan)
Week #7 C5. Internet addiction (Wumingkun Wei)
C7. Healthcare, crowdsourcing, and technology (Matthew Stenson)
C9. Political campaigns (Trevor Williams)
  Work day (Finish your second round topic slides)
DUE: Second round presentation slides
Week #8
Second round presentations
D2. Pirate Bay (Benjamin Stafford)
D5. Open-source software (Matthew Stenson)
F1.  Internet gambling (Wumingkun Wei)
F3.  Bitcoin (Patrick Costa)
  G2.  Content distribution networks (Shuo Yan)
G3. Cloud computing (Jeannie Buss)
G5.  Search Engine Optimization (Yavuz Sefunc)
G7.  Google Wallet (Patrick Salinas)
Week #9
G8.  Guns (Ryan Hoover)
H4.  Phishing (Michael Sayer)
H20. Driverless cars (Trevor Williams)
H21. Social engineering attacks (Elias Alves)

H26. Passwords (Mary Shaffer)
H27. Hacktivism and Vigilantism (Arella Yi)
H31.  Email encryption (Damas Gakwasi)
H32. Cheating in on-line games (Xihan Bian)
Week #10
No school (Memorial Day)

Final quiz  Open notes. No electronics.

Attendance

Homeworks

Presentations (done 2 times during term)

You are to become the class expert on a topic related to the Internet.  The topic can range from technical (i.e. making the Internet's naming system scalable), social (i.e. the role of the Internet in elections), commercial (i.e. how the Internet has impacted print media), or legal (i.e. what laws govern the transmission of unsolicited e-mail).  The topics are listed at the links above.  After gathering sufficient information on your topic, you will create and give a 10-15 minute slide presentation on your topic in class that concisely presents the information you have acquired on your topic.  You will then lead a class discussion of the topic.  Presentation slides are due the class before each round of presentations begin in the D2L dropbox as was done for Homework #2. The presentation must address the main questions related to your topic and contain a list of references from which the material was taken from. Your presentation should include answers to all of the questions associated with the topic. These questions will be used in the final quiz. A grading rubric can be found here

Final quiz

There will be an open-note, closed electronics, final quiz covering the lecture material and presentation topics given in class.

Grading

Homeworks

 10% 

Presentation slides (first round)

 15% 

Presentation  

 15% 

Presentation slides (second round)

 15% 

Presentation  

 15% 

Attendance and participation

 10% 

Final quiz

 20%