Instructor: Fadel Adib

TA: Nazish Naeem

Lectures: Mon 3:00-5:00PM at E15-341

Office Hours:

• By appointment

Course Overview

This graduate seminar covers foundations and emerging research in wireless, mobile, and multimodal systems for perceiving and interacting with the physical world. The course will interweave technical fundamentals with readings and discussions of recent papers on localization, RF and acoustic sensing, spatial perception, embodied AI, cooperative autonomy, and physical-world intelligence. Students will study how sensing systems capture structure in real environments, how AI models can reason over physical signals and multimodal observations, and how these ideas enable new capabilities in health, robotics, sustainability, underwater sensing, and autonomous systems. The course also includes invited research talks, paper discussions, and a semester-long research project.

Announcements

• The first lecture will be on Monday, September 14

About the Course

Units

12 (2-0-10).

Prerequisites

Students are expected to have undergraduate-level background in computer systems and signal processing. Experience with at least one programming language, such as Python, C, or MATLAB.

Grading policy

The class will be graded as follows:

• Reading Questions and Participation: 30%

  • Paper reviews before class: 15%

  • Class participation: 15%

• Leading Paper Discussions: 10%

• Project: 60%

  • Proposal (1-2 pages): 10%

  • Progress Report 1: 10%

  • Progress Report 2: 10%

  • Presentation: 15%

  • Final Report: 15%

Readings and Reviews

Each lecture will have one or two assigned readings, which we will all read prior to the class. All students are expected to have thoroughly read the paper, and come to class ready to discuss them in detail. This is essential to get the most out of the class!

Before each class, students must submit a short review (one to two paragraphs) of the required readings. Submit your review at the Review Submission submission page. Reviews will be accepted by 12am (midnight) the night before the class. Each student may skip one review during the semester without affecting their grade.

Participation

We expect you to attend all lectures, unless there are pressing or unforeseen conflicts. Conflicts that are persistent (e.g., registering for another class at the same time and “splitting” attendance between them) are not excused.

Paper Presentations

Each student will also be assigned one paper to present to the class during the semester. The presentation should roughly be 25 minutes. Keep the following questions in mind to help you structure your presentation:

• What problem is the paper solving and why is it important?

• What is the main idea of the paper?

• How does the paper differ from previous work?

• Are there any flaws in the paper? How would you improve the paper or build on it in future work?

Research Project

The research project is a core component of the course. Students will propose and conduct in groups of 2 or 3. It is OK (and often a good idea) to work on a class project that complements your ongoing research provided it is relevant to the course. Talk to the instructor(s) if you're not sure whether this would work.

The project milestones and rough timeline are as follows:

• Proposal (1-2 pages): Friday, October 9

• Progress Report 1: Friday, October 30

• Progress Report 2: Friday, November 20

• Final Presentation: Mon, December 7

• Final Report: Wed, December 9