EE4761/IM4761 Computer Networking

EE4761 Computer Networkingg (EEE course code)
IM4761 Computer Networking (IEM course code)
Taken in AY 18/19 Semester 1

Course details
AUs: 3
Category: Major-PE (EEE/IEM)
Pass/Fail mod: No
2 hours lecture and 1 hour tutorial weekly.

Assessment
- 10% participation (for tutorial sessions 1 - 6): weekly mini quiz.
- 10% quiz #1
- 10% quiz #2
- 10% report

Syllabus
1. Introduction
- Introduction to computer networks and Internet
- Network protocols, protocol layers and service models
- Internet structure and Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- Circuit switching and packet switching
- Network edge and network core
- Network access
- Physical media
- Network performance measures
- History of Internet, and challenges (not to be examined)

2. Network Layer
- Basic functions of network layer
- Software defined networks: a brief introduction
- What is inside a router?
- Internet protocol: a brief introduction
- Routing algorithms
- Routing protocols
- Multicast routing: A brief introduction

3. Transport Layer Protocols
- Introduction: Basics, Major Functions
- User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
- Reliable Data Transfer: Reliable Data Transfer, Finite-state Machine
- Transmission Control Protocol (TCP): TCP, Flow Control, Congestion Control

4. Application Layer
- Basics
- Web and HTTP
- P2P Applications

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My opinion:

Computer Networking course is an extension of Computer Communications course. (Com comms talk about the bottom 2 layers of the Internet Protocol Stack (physical, link), and computer networking talks about the top three (network, transport, app). Quite content heavy. Need good understanding, there is no use in purely memorising. Mathematics-wise it is not complicated but getting the steps out is. Exam is not easy, must understand, practice. But I feel like no matter how many times I practice calculation for pipelining (delay calculation) I still can't get it LOL. The hints the lecturer gave were not accurate for my year (LOL) so I would say please just study everything... /cry laugh
Quiz and report wise, just study and do your best, should be ok.

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TL;DR: Not easy but not deathly difficult. Quiz are ok but exam is not easy. On the bright side, eveyone dies together during exam LOL.

Final grade: (I will not be putting up my core mod results, only my GER-PE/UE results!)

EE4483/IM4483 Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining

EE4483 Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining (EEE course code)
IM4483 Artificial Intelligence and Data Mining (IEM course code)
Taken in AY 18/19 Semester 1

Course details
AUs: 3
Category: Major-PE (EEE/IEM)
Pass/Fail mod: No
2 hours lecture and 1 hour tutorial weekly.

Assessment
- Assignment #1 (10%): Individual or pair report
- Quiz #1 (10%): Short questions. Closed book.
- Project (20%): Individual or pair report. May have a little programming involved.
- Final Exam (60%): Closed book.

Syllabus

1. Introduction to AI: concepts and applications, Brief History of AI
2. KnowledgeRept+ Search; DS: Graph/Tree, DataDriven/Goal Driven; Backtracking
3. Breadth-First/Depth-First, Hill-Climbing/Best First
4. MiniMax, Alpha-Beta
5. Uncertainty Reasoning - Naïve Bayes Classifiers
6. Introduction to Data Mining: DM and applications, Association Rule Mining: Apriori

7. ARM: FP-Growth

8. Association Rule Evaluation

9. Classification - I (Decision Trees)

10. Classification - II (Neural Networks)

11. Clustering - I

12. Clustering - II

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My opinion:

AI and data mining are the hot topics now so its a very popular course among EEE/IEM. Most people who choose this course have interest in AI/Data Mining topics and/or programming. Not too math and programming intensive, for people who are wondering. For the first assignment, no programming involved, only research on a topic. For the project, there were 2 choices, both on classification but one of the choices was focused on convolutional neural networks (CNN), one of the core applications of AI used today. Don't need to have strong programming knowledge to complete the project. Personally for me I found such topics interesting (besides it being the 'in' thing), so I have decided to take this mod as one of my major-pe. Study hard. Not insanely difficult course but not easy to score well also.

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TL;DR: I recommend EEE students under Infocommunications Engineering track to take this mod. Good introductory to AI and data mining. But it is important to have interest in the topics.

Final grade: (I will not be putting up my core mod results, only my GER-PE/UE results!)

EE4152/IM4152 Digital Communications

EE4152 Digital Communications (EEE course code)
IM4152 Digital Communications (IEM course code)

I am taking this module as one of my Major-PE for my final year, after this semester I will put up a full review.

For now, this is quite an intensive module and very small cohort (only 30+ students EEE & IEM combined!) I can see why it has small cohort..

Although topics are interesting, the mathematics is sometimes a little involved. You need to have strong foundation in Signals & Systems and Communication Principles.

EE4758/IM3003 Information Security

EE4758 Information Security (EEE course code)
IM3003 Information Security (IEM course code)
Taken in AY 17/18 Semester 1

Course details
AUs: 3
Category: Core (IEM) / Major-PE (EEE)
Pass/Fail mod: No
Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) module. 2 hours tutorial weekly.

Assessment
- MCQ quiz (2 x 10% - closed book)
- Assignment (20%)
- Final Exam (60%, 4 qns - closed book).

Syllabus
1. Introduction to Computer/ Information Security
2. Threats and Responses
3. Threat Environment: Attacks and Attackers
4. Threat Environment: Malwares and Viruses
5. Threat Environment: Attacking Individuals
6. Security Planning
7. Protection: Authentication
8. Protection: Biometric Identification
9. Protection: Cryptography
10. Protection: Secret Key Cryptography
11. Protection: Public-key Cryptography
12. Protection: Digital Signature and Certificate
13. Protection: Web Security
14. Protection: Firewall (I)
15. Protection: Firewall (II)
16. Protection: Intrusion Detection
17. Protection: Denial of Service (DOS)
18. Protection: Online Payment
19. Protection: Digital Wallet
20. Protection: Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare
21. Incident Response


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My opinion:

This is TEL course (means no live lecture, all pre-recorded online lectures) and 2 hours of tutorials weekly. I am IEM student, so this is a core module for me. But for any EEE student taking Infocommunications Engineering track, I highly recommend them to consider taking this as one of their Major-PE mods as this course has no complicated mathematics (if that is your concern). The content is quite heavy (21 topics!!) but not difficult to understand, and with good understanding of notes, tutorials and doing past year paper, it should be manageable. Personally, I like topics on IT so it is rather interesting for me (though sometimes, lectures still do get dry.)

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TL;DR: I recommend EEE students under Infocommunications Engineering track to take this mod. Good introductory to Information Security.

Final grade: (I will not be putting up my core mod results, only my GER-PE/UE results!)