2011-2012 Computer Science

UCLA
4732 Boelter Hall
Box 951596
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1596

 

(310) 825-3886
fax: (310) 825-2273
http://www.cs.ucla.edu

Jens Palsberg, Ph.D., Chair

Richard E. Korf, Ph.D., Vice Chair

Richard R. Muntz, Ph.D., Vice Chair

Professors

Alfonso F. Cardenas, Ph.D.

Jason (Jingsheng) Cong, Ph.D.

Adnan Y. Darwiche, Ph.D.

Joseph J. DiStefano III, Ph.D.

Michael G. Dyer, Ph.D.

Milos D. Ercegovac, Ph.D.

Deborah L. Estrin, Ph.D. (Jonathan B. Postel Professor of Networking)

Eliezer M. Gafni, Ph.D.

Mario Gerla, Ph.D.

Richard E. Korf, Ph.D.

Christopher Lee, Ph.D.

Songwu Lu, Ph.D.

Rupak Majumdar, Ph.D.

Stanley J. Osher, Ph.D.

Rafail Ostrovsky, Ph.D.

Jens Palsberg, Ph.D.

D. Stott Parker, Jr., Ph.D.

Miodrag Potkonjak, Ph.D.

Amit Sahai, Ph.D.

Majid Sarrafzadeh, Ph.D.

Stefano Soatto, Ph.D.

Mani B. Srivastava, Ph.D.

Demetri Terzopoulos, Ph.D. (Chancellor’s Professor)

Alan L. Yuille, Ph.D.

Carlo A. Zaniolo, Ph.D. (Norman E. Friedmann Professor of Knowledge Sciences)

Lixia Zhang, Ph.D.

Song-Chun Zhu, Ph.D.

Professors Emeriti

Algirdas A. Avizienis, Ph.D.

Rajive L. Bagrodia, Ph.D.

Bertram Bussell, Ph.D.

Jack W. Carlyle, Ph.D.

Wesley W. Chu, Ph.D.

Gerald Estrin, Ph.D.

Thelma Estrin, Ph.D.

Sheila A. Greibach, Ph.D.

Leonard Kleinrock, Ph.D.

Allen Klinger, Ph.D.

Lawrence P. McNamee, Ph.D.

Michel A. Melkanoff, Ph.D.

Richard R. Muntz, Ph.D.

Judea Pearl, Ph.D.

David A. Rennels, Ph.D.

Jacques J. Vidal, Ph.D.

Associate Professors

Junghoo (John) Cho, Ph.D.

Eleazar Eskin, Ph.D.

Todd D. Millstein, Ph.D.

Glenn D. Reinman, Ph.D.

Yuval Tamir, Ph.D.

Assistant Professors

Petros Faloutsos, Ph.D.

Alexander Sherstov, Ph.D.

Zhuowen Tu, Ph.D.

Jennifer N. Vaughan, Ph.D.

Senior Lecturer

Leon Levine, M.S., Emeritus

Lecturers S.O.E.

Paul R. Eggert, Ph.D.

David A. Smallberg, M.S.

Adjunct Professors

Alan Kay, Ph.D.

Boris Kogan, Ph.D.

Carey S. Nachenberg, Ph.D.

Ani Nahapetian, Ph.D.

Peter S. Pao, Ph.D.

Peter L. Reiher, Ph.D.

M. Yahya Sanadidi, Ph.D.

Scope and Objectives

Computer science is concerned with the design, modeling, analysis, and applications of computer-related systems. Its study at UCLA provides education at the undergraduate and graduate levels necessary to understand, design, implement, and use the software and hardware of digital computers and digital systems. The programs provide comprehensive and integrated studies of subjects in computer system architecture, computer networks, distributed computer systems, programming languages and software systems, information and data management, artificial intelligence, computer science theory, computational systems biology and bioinformatics, and computer vision and graphics.

The undergraduate and graduate studies and research projects in computer science are supported by significant computing resources. In addition to the departmental computing facility, there are over a dozen research laboratories specializing in areas such as distributed systems, multimedia computer communications, distributed sensor networks, VLSI systems, VLSI CAD, embedded and reconfigurable systems, computer graphics, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence. Also, the Cognitive Systems Laboratory is engaged in studying computer systems that emulate or support human reasoning. The Biocybernetics Laboratory is devoted to multidisciplinary research involving the application of engineering and computer science methods to problems in biology and medicine.

The B.S. degree may be attained either through the Computer Science and Engineering major or through the Computer Science major described below.

In addition to the B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering and the B.S. in Computer Science, HSSEAS offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science, as well as minor fields for graduate students seeking engineering degrees. In cooperation with the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, the Computer Science Department offers a concurrent degree program that enables students to obtain the M.S. in Computer Science and the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration).

Department Mission

The Computer Science Department strives for excellence in creating, applying, and imparting knowledge in computer science and engineering through comprehensive educational programs, research in collaboration with industry and government, dissemination through scholarly publications, and service to professional societies, the community, state, and nation.

Computer Science and Engineering Undergraduate Program Objectives

The computer science and engineering undergraduate program educational objectives are that our alumni (1) make valuable technical contributions to design, development, and production in their practice of computer science and computer engineering, in related engineering or application areas, and at the interface of computers and physical systems, (2) demonstrate strong communication skills and the ability to function effectively as part of a team, (3) demonstrate a sense of societal and ethical responsibility in their professional endeavors, and (4) engage in professional development or postgraduate education to pursue flexible career paths amid future technological changes.

Computer Science Undergraduate Program Objectives

The computer science undergraduate program educational objectives are that our alumni (1) make valuable technical contributions to design, development, and production in their practice of computer science and related engineering or application areas, particularly in software systems and algorithmic methods, (2) demonstrate strong communication skills and the ability to function effectively as part of a team, (3) demonstrate a sense of societal and ethical responsibility in their professional endeavors, and (4) engage in professional development or postgraduate education to pursue flexible career paths amid future technological changes.

Undergraduate Study

The Computer Science and Engineering and Computer Science majors are designated capstone majors. Computer Science and Engineering students complete a major product design course, while Computer Science students complete either a software engineering or major product design course. Graduates are expected to apply the basic mathematical and scientific concepts that underlie modern computer science and engineering; design a software or digital hardware system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints; function productively with others as part of a team; identify, formulate, and solve computer software- and hardware-related engineering problems; and demonstrate effective communication skills.

Computer Science and Engineering B.S.

Capstone Major

The ABET-accredited computer science and engineering curriculum at UCLA provides the education and training necessary to design, implement, test, and utilize the hardware and software of digital computers and digital systems. The curriculum has components spanning both the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments. Within the curriculum students study all aspects of computer systems from electronic design through logic design, MSI, LSI, and VLSI concepts and device utilization, machine language design, implementation and programming, operating system concepts, systems programming, networking fundamentals, higher-level language skills, and application of these to systems. Students are prepared for employment in a wide spectrum of high-technology industries.

The computer science and engineering curriculum is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission and the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012, (410) 347-7700.

Preparation for the Major

Required: Chemistry and Biochemistry 20A; Computer Science 1, 31, 32, 33, 35L, M51A (or Electrical Engineering M16); Electrical Engineering 1, 2, 10; Mathematics 31A, 31B, 32A, 32B, 33A, 33B, 61; Physics 1A, 1B, 4AL, 4BL.

The Major

Required: Computer Science 111, 118, 131, M151B (or Electrical Engineering M116C), M152A (or Electrical Engineering M116L), 180, 181, Electrical Engineering 102, 110, 110L, 115A, 115C, Statistics 100A; three technical breadth courses (12 units) selected from an approved list available in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs; one capstone design course (Computer Science 152B); and three upper division computer science elective courses (12 units), one of which must be selected from Computer Science 143 or 161 or 174A. The remaining two elective courses must be selected from Computer Science 112, 113, 114, M117 (or Electrical Engineering M117), CM121 (or Chemistry and Biochemistry CM160A), CM122 (or Chemistry and Biochemistry CM160B), CM124 (or Human Genetics CM124), 130, 132, 133, 136, 143, 144, 151C, 161, 170A, M171L (or Electrical Engineering M171L), 174A, 174B, C174C, 183, M184 (or Biomedical Engineering M184 or Computational and Systems Biology M184), CM186 (or Biomedical Engineering CM186 or Computational and Systems Biology M186), CM187 (or Biomedical Engineering CM187 or Computational and Systems Biology M187). Electrical Engineering 103 may be substituted for one elective (credit is not given for both Computer Science 170A and Electrical Engineering 103 unless one of the courses is included in the technical breadth area); 4 units of either Computer Science 194 or 199 may be applied as an elective by petition.

For information on University and general education requirements, see Requirements for B.S. Degrees on page 20 or http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/ge/.

Computer Science B.S.

Capstone Major

The computer science curriculum is designed to accommodate students who want professional preparation in computer science but do not necessarily have a strong interest in computer systems hardware. The curriculum consists of components in computer science, a minor or technical support area, and a core of courses from the social sciences, life sciences, and humanities. Within the curriculum, students study subject matter in software engineering, principles of programming languages, data structures, computer architecture, theory of computation and formal languages, operating systems, distributed systems, computer modeling, computer networks, compiler construction, and artificial intelligence. Majors are prepared for employment in a wide range of industrial and business environments.

The computer science curriculum is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012, (410) 347-7700.

Preparation for the Major

Required: Chemistry and Biochemistry 20A; Computer Science 1, 31, 32, 33, 35L, M51A (or Electrical Engineering M16); Electrical Engineering 1; Mathematics 31A, 31B, 32A, 32B, 33A, 33B, 61; Physics 1A, 1B, 4AL, 4BL.

The Major

Required: Computer Science 111, 118, 131, M151B (or Electrical Engineering M116C), M152A (or Electrical Engineering M116L), 180, 181, Statistics 100A; three science and technology courses (12 units) not used to satisfy other requirements, that may include three upper division computer science courses or three courses selected from an approved list available in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs; three technical breadth courses (12 units) selected from an approved list available in the Office of Academic and Student Affairs; one capstone software engineering or design course from Computer Science 130 or 152B; and six upper division computer science elective courses (24 units), two of which must be selected from Computer Science 143, 161, or 174A and one of which must be from 112 or 170A or Electrical Engineering 103 (credit is not given for both Computer Science 170A and Electrical Engineering 103 unless one of the courses is included in the technical breadth area). The remaining three elective courses must be selected from Computer Science 112, 113, 114, M117 (or Electrical Engineering M117), CM121 (or Chemistry and Biochemistry CM160A), CM122 (or Chemistry and Biochemistry CM160B), CM124 (or Human Genetics CM124), 130 (unless taken as a required course), 132, 133, 136, 143, 144, 151C, 152B (unless taken as a required course), 161, 170A, M171L (or Electrical Engineering M171L), 174A, 174B, C174C, 183, M184 (or Biomedical Engineering M184 or Computational and Systems Biology M184), CM186 (or Biomedical Engineering CM186 or Computational and Systems Biology M186), CM187 (or Biomedical Engineering CM187 or Computational and Systems Biology M187). If students have not taken Computer Science 130, one elective course must be 132; 4 units of either Computer Science 194 or 199 may be applied as an elective by petition.

For information on University and general education requirements, see Requirements for B.S. Degrees on page 20 or http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/ge/.

Graduate Study

For information on graduate admission, see Graduate Programs, page 24.

The following introductory information is based on the 2011-12 edition of Program Requirements for UCLA Graduate Degrees. Complete annual editions of Program Requirements are available at http://www.gdnet.ucla.edu/gasaa/library/pgmrqintro.htm. Students are subject to the degree requirements as published in Program Requirements for the year in which they enter the program.

The Department of Computer Science offers Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Computer Science and participates in a concurrent degree program (Computer Science M.S./Management M.B.A.) with the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Computer Science M.S.

Course Requirements

Course Requirement. A total of nine courses is required for the M.S. degree, including a minimum of five graduate courses. No specific courses are required, but a majority of both the total number of formal courses and the total number of graduate courses must consist of courses offered by the Computer Science Department.

Undergraduate Courses. No lower division courses may be applied toward graduate degrees. In addition, the following upper division courses are not applicable toward graduate degrees: Chemical Engineering 102A, 199; Civil and Environmental Engineering 106A, 108, 199; Computer Science M152A, 152B, 199; Electrical Engineering 100, 101, 102, 103, 110L, M116L, 199; Materials Science and Engineering 110, 120, 130, 131, 131L, 132, 140, 141L, 150, 160, 161L, 199; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 102, 103, 105A, 105D, 199.

Breadth Requirement. M.S. degree students must satisfy the computer science breadth requirement by the end of the third term in graduate residence at UCLA. The requirement is satisfied by mastering the contents of five undergraduate courses or equivalent: Computer Science 180, two courses from 111, 118, and M151B, one course from 130, 131, or 132, and one course from 143, 161, or 174A. A UCLA undergraduate course taken by graduate students cannot be used to satisfy graduate degree requirements if students have already received a grade of B– or better for a course taken elsewhere that covers substantially the same material.

For the M.S. degree, students must also complete at least three terms of Computer Science 201 with grades of Satisfactory.

Competence in any or all courses in breadth requirements may be demonstrated in one of three ways:

  1. Satisfactory completion of the course at UCLA with a grade of B– or better
  2. Satisfactory completion of an equivalent course at another university with a grade of B– or better
  3. Satisfactory completion of a final examination in the course at UCLA

Comprehensive Examination Plan

In the comprehensive examination plan, at least five of the nine courses must be 200-series courses. The remaining four courses may be either 200-series or upper division courses. No units of 500-series courses may be applied toward the comprehensive examination plan requirements.

Thesis Plan

In the thesis plan, seven of the nine courses must be formal courses, including at least four from the 200 series. The remaining two courses may be 598 courses involving work on the thesis.

The thesis is a report on the results of student investigation of a problem in the major field of study under the supervision of the thesis committee, which approves the subject and plan of the thesis and reads and approves the complete manuscript. While the problem may be one of only limited scope, the thesis must exhibit a satisfactory style, organization, and depth of understanding of the subject. Students should normally start to plan the thesis at least one year before the award of the M.S. degree is expected. There is no examination under the thesis plan.

Computer Science M.S./Management M.B.A.

The Department of Computer Science and the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management offer a concurrent degree program that enables students to complete the requirements for the M.S. in Computer Science and the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration) in three academic years. Students should request application materials from both the M.B.A. Admissions Office, John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, and the Department of Computer Science.

Computer Science Ph.D.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Artificial intelligence; computational systems biology; computer networks; computer science theory; computer system architecture; graphics and vision; information and data management; and software systems.

Course Requirements

Normally, students take courses to acquire the knowledge needed to prepare for the written and oral examinations and for conducting Ph.D. research. The basic program of study for the Ph.D. degree is built around the major field requirement and two minor fields. The major field and at least one minor field must be in computer science.

The fundamental examination is common for all Ph.D. candidates in the department and is also known as the written qualifying examination.

To satisfy the major field requirement, students are expected to attain a body of knowledge contained in six courses, as well as the current literature in the area of specialization. In particular, students are required to take a minimum of four graduate courses in the major field of Ph.D. research, selecting these courses in accordance with guidelines specific to the major field. Guidelines for course selection in each major field are available from the departmental Student Affairs Office. Grades of B– or better, with a grade-point average of at least 3.33 in all courses used to satisfy the major field requirement, are required. Students are required to satisfy the major field requirement within the first nine terms after enrolling in the graduate program.

Each minor field normally embraces a body of knowledge equivalent to three courses, at least two of which are graduate courses. Grades of B– or better, with a grade-point average of at least 3.33 in all courses included in the minor field, are required. By petition and administrative approval, a minor field may be satisfied by examination.

Breadth Requirement. Ph.D. degree students must satisfy the computer science breadth requirement by the end of the third term in graduate residence at UCLA. The requirement is satisfied by mastering the contents of five undergraduate courses or equivalent: Computer Science 180, two courses from 111, 118, and M151B, one course from 130, 131, or 132, and one course from 143, 161, or 174A. A UCLA undergraduate course taken by graduate students cannot be used to satisfy graduate degree requirements if students have already received a grade of B– or better for a course taken elsewhere that covers substantially the same material.

For the Ph.D. degree, students must also complete at least three terms of Computer Science 201 with grades of Satisfactory (in addition to the three terms of 201 that may have been completed for the M.S. degree).

Competence in any or all courses may be demonstrated in one of three ways:

  1. Satisfactory completion of the course at UCLA with a grade of B– or better
  2. Satisfactory completion of an equivalent course at another university with a grade of B– or better
  3. Satisfactory completion of a final examination in the course at UCLA

For requirements for the Graduate Certificate of Specialization, see Engineering Schoolwide Programs.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

The written qualifying examination consists of a high-quality paper, solely authored by the student. The paper can be either a research paper containing an original contribution or a focused critical survey paper. The paper should demonstrate that the student understands and can integrate and communicate ideas clearly and concisely. It should be approximately 10 pages single-spaced, and the style should be suitable for submission to a first-rate technical conference or journal. The paper must represent work that the student did as a graduate student at UCLA. Any contributions that are not the student’s own, including those of the student’s adviser, must be explicitly acknowledged in detail. Prior to submission, the paper must by reviewed by the student’s adviser on a cover page with the adviser’s signature indicating review. After submission, the paper must be reviewed and approved by at least two other members of the faculty. There are two deadlines a year for submission of papers.

After passing the preliminary examination and coursework for the major and minor fields, the student should form a doctoral committee and prepare to take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. A doctoral committee consists of a minimum of four members. Three members, including the chair, must hold appointments in the Computer Science Department at UCLA. The remaining member must be a UCLA faculty member outside the Computer Science Department. The nature and content of the oral qualifying examination are at the discretion of the doctoral committee but ordinarily include a broad inquiry into the student’s preparation for research. The doctoral committee also reviews the prospectus of the dissertation at the oral qualifying examination.

Fields of Study

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the study of intelligent behavior. While other fields such as philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, and linguistics are also concerned with the study of intelligence, the distinguishing feature of AI is that it deals primarily with information processing models. Thus the central scientific question of artificial intelligence is how intelligent behavior can be reduced to information processing. Since even the simplest computer is a completely general information processing device, the test of whether some behavior can be explained by information processing mechanisms is whether a computer can be programmed to produce the same behavior. Just as human intelligence involves gathering sensory input and producing physical action in the world, in addition to purely mental activity, the computer for AI purposes is extended to include sense organs such as cameras and microphones, and output devices such as wheels, robotic arms, and speakers.

The predominant research paradigm in artificial intelligence is to select some behavior that seems to require intelligence on the part of humans, to theorize about how the behavior might be accounted for, and to implement the theory in a computer program to produce the same behavior. If successful, such an experiment lends support to the claim that the selected behavior is reducible to information processing terms, and may suggest the program’s architecture as a candidate explanation of the corresponding human process.

The UCLA Computer Science Department has active research in the following major subfields of artificial intelligence:

  1. Problem Solving. Analysis of tasks, such as playing chess or proving theorems, that require reasoning about relatively long sequences of primitive actions, deductions, or inferences
  2. Knowledge representation and qualitative reasoning. Analysis of tasks such as commonsense reasoning and qualitative physics. Here the deductive chains are short, but the amount of knowledge that potentially may be brought to bear is very large
  3. Expert systems. Study of large amounts of specialized or highly technical knowledge that is often probabilistic in nature. Typical domains include medical diagnosis and engineering design
  4. Natural language processing. Symbolic, statistical, and artificial neural network approaches to text comprehension and generation
  5. Computer vision. Processing of images, as from a TV camera, to infer spatial properties of the objects in the scene (three-dimensional shape), their dynamics (motion), their photometry (material and light), and their identity (recognition)
  6. Robotics. Translation of a high-level command, such as picking up a particular object, into a sequence of low-level control signals that might move the joints of a robotic arm/hand combination to accomplish the task; often this involves using a computer vision system to locate objects and provide feedback
  7. Machine learning. Study of the means by which a computer can automatically improve its performance on a task by acquiring knowledge about the domain
  8. Parallel architecture. Design and programming of a machine with thousands or even millions of simple processing elements to produce intelligent behavior; the human brain is an example of such a machine

Computational Systems Biology

The computational systems biology (CSB) field can be selected as a major or minor field for the Ph.D. or as a specialization area for the M.S. degree in Computer Science.

Graduate studies and research in the CSB field are focused on computational modeling and analysis of biological systems and biological data.

Core coursework is concerned with the methods and tools development for computational, algorithmic, and dynamic systems network modeling of biological systems at molecular, cellular, organ, whole organism, or population levels—and leveraging them in biosystem and bioinformatics applications. Methodological studies include bioinformatics and systems biology modeling, with focus on genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and higher levels of biological/physiological organization, as well as multiscale approaches integrating the parts.

Typical research areas with a systems focus include molecular and cellular systems biology, organ systems physiology, medical, pharmacological, pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD), toxicokinetic (TK), physiologically based PBPK-PD, PBTK, and pharmacogenomic system studies; neurosystems, imaging and remote sensing systems, robotics, learning and knowledge-based systems, visualization, and virtual clinical environments. Typical research areas with a bioinformatics focus include development of computational methods for analysis of high-throughput molecular data, including genomic sequences, gene expression data, protein-protein interaction, and genetic variation. These computational methods leverage techniques from both statistics and algorithms.

Computer Networks

The computer networks field involves the study of computer networks of different types, in different media (wired, wireless), and for different applications. Besides the study of network architectures and protocols, this field also emphasizes distributed algorithms, distributed systems, and the ability to evaluate system performance at various levels of granularity (but principally at the systems level). In order to understand and predict systems behavior, mathematical models are pursued that lead to the evaluation of system throughput, response time, utilization of devices, flow of jobs and messages, bottlenecks, speedup, power, etc. In addition, students are taught to design and implement computer networks using formal design methodologies subject to appropriate cost and objective functions. The tools required to carry out this design include probability theory, queueing theory, distributed systems theory, mathematical programming, control theory, operating systems design, simulation methods, measurement tools, and heuristic design procedures. The outcome of these studies provides the following:

  1. An appropriate model of the computer system under study
  2. An adequate (exact or approximate) analysis of the behavior of the model
  3. The validation of the model as compared to simulation and/or measurement of the system
  4. Interpretation of the analytical results in order to obtain behavioral patterns and key parameters of the system
  5. Design methodology

Resource Allocation

A central problem in the design and evaluation of computer networks deals with the allocation of resources among competing demands (e.g., wireless channel bandwidth allocation to backlogged stations). In fact, resource allocation is a significant element in most of the technical (and nontechnical) problems we face today.

Most of our resource allocation problems arise from the unpredictability of the demand for the use of these resources, as well as from the fact that the resources are geographically distributed (as in computer networks). The computer networks field encounters such resource allocation problems in many forms and in many different computer system configurations. Our goal is to find allocation schemes that permit suitable concurrency in the use of devices (resources) so as to achieve efficiency and equitable allocation. A very popular approach in distributed systems is allocation on demand, as opposed to prescheduled allocation. On-demand allocation is found to be effective, since it takes advantage of statistical averaging effects. It comes in many forms in computer networks and is known by names such as asynchronous time division multiplexing, packet switching, frame relay, random access, and so forth.

Computer Science Theory

Computer science is in large measure concerned with information processing systems, their applications, and the corresponding problems of representation, transformation, and communication. The computer science fields are concerned with different aspects of such systems, and each has its own theoretical component with appropriate models for description and analysis, algorithms for solving the related problems, and mathematical tools. Thus in a certain sense computer science theory involves all of computer science and participates in all disciplines.

The term theoretical computer science has come to be applied nationally and intentionally to a certain body of knowledge emphasizing the interweaving themes of computability and algorithms , interpreted in the broadest sense. Under computability, one includes questions concerning which tasks can and cannot be performed by information systems of different types restricted in various ways, as well as the mathematical analysis of such systems, their computations, and the languages for communication with them. Under algorithms, one includes questions concerning (1) how a task can be performed efficiently under reasonable assumptions on available resources (e.g., time, storage, type of processor), (2) how efficiently a proposed system performs a task in terms of resources used, and (3) the limits on how efficiently a task can be performed. These questions are often addressed by first developing models of the relevant parts of an information processing system (e.g., the processors, their interconnections, their rules of operation, the means by which instructions are conveyed to the system, or the way the data is handled) or of the input/output behavior of the system as a whole. The properties of such models are studied both for their own interest and as tools for understanding the system and improving its performance or applications.

   Emphasis of Computer Science Theory

     • Design and analysis of algorithms
     • Distributed and parallel algorithms
     • Models for parallel and concurrent computation
     • Online and randomized algorithms
     • Computational complexity
     • Automata and formal languages
     • Cryptography and interactive proofs

Computer System Architecture

Computer system architecture deals with the design, implementation, and evaluation of computer systems and their building bIocks. It deals with general-purpose systems as well as embedded special-purpose systems. The field also encompasses the development of tools to enable system designers to describe, model, fabricate, and test highly complex computer systems.

Computer systems are implemented as a combination of hardware and software. Hence, research in the field of computer architecture often involves both hardware and software issues. The requirements of application software and operating systems, together with the capabilities of compilers, play a critical role in determining the features implemented in hardware. At the same time, the computer architect must also take into account the capabilities and limitations of the underlying implementation technology as well as of the design tools.

The goal of research in computer architecture is to develop building blocks, system organizations, design techniques, and design tools that lead to improved performance and reliability as well as reduced power consumption and cost.

Corresponding to the richness and diversity of computer systems architecture research at UCLA, a comprehensive set of courses is offered in the areas of advanced processor architecture, arithmetic processor systems. parallel and distributed architectures, fault-tolerant systems, reconfigurable systems, embedded systems, and computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems.

  1. Novel architectures encompass the study of computations that are performed in ways that are quite different than those used by conventional machines. Examples include various domain-specific architectures characterized by high computational rates, low power, and reconfigurable hardware implementations.
  2. The study of high-performance processing algorithms deals with algorithms for very high-performance numerical processing. Techniques such as redundant-digit representations of number systems, fast arithmetic, and the use of highly parallel arrays of processing elements are studied with the goal of providing the extremely high processing speeds required in a number of upcoming computer applications.
  3. The study of computational algorithms and structures deals with the relationship between computational algorithms and the physical structures that can be employed to carry them out. It includes the study of interconnection networks, and the way that algorithms can be formulated for efficient implementation where regularity of structure and simplicity of interconnections are required.
  4. Computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems is an active research area that develops techniques for the automated synthesis and analysis of large-scale systems. Topics include high-level and logic-level synthesis, technology mapping, physical design, interconnect modeling, and optimization of various VLSI technologies such as full-custom designs, standard cells, programmable logic devices (PLDs), multichip modules (MCMs), system-on-a-chip (SaCs), network-on-a-chip (NoC), system-in-a-package (SIPs), and design for nanotechnologies.
  5. VLSI architectures and implementation is an area of current interest and collaboration between the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departments that addresses the impact of large-scale integration on the issues of computer architecture. Application of these systems in medicine and healthcare, multimedia, and finance is being studied in collaboration with other schools on
    campus.

Graphics and Vision

See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/magix/ and http://vision.ucla.edu for more information.

Information and Data Management

The information and data management field focuses on basic problems of modeling and managing data and knowledge, and their relation with other fundamental areas of computer science, such as operating systems and networking, programming languages, and human-computer interface design.

A data management system embodies a collection of data, devices in which the data are stored, and logic or programs used to manipulate that data. Information management is a generalization of data management in which the data being stored are permitted to be arbitrarily complex data structures, such as rules and trees. In addition, information management goes beyond simple data manipulation and query and includes inference mechanisms, explanation facilities, and support for distributed and web-based access.

The need for rapid, accurate information is pervasive in all aspects of modern life. Modern systems are based on the coordination and integration of multiple levels of data representation, from characteristics of storage devices to conceptual and abstract levels. As human enterprises have become more complex, involving more complicated decisions and trade-offs among decisions, the need for sophisticated information and data management has become essential.

Software Systems

The programming languages and systems field is concerned with the study of theory and practice in the development of software systems. Well-engineered systems require appreciation of both principles and architectural trade-offs. Principles provide abstractions and rigor that lead to clean designs, while systems-level understanding is essential for effective design.

Principles here encompass the use of programming systems to achieve specified goals, the identification of useful programming abstractions or paradigms, the development of comprehensive models of software systems, and so forth. The thrust is to identify and clarify concepts that apply in many programming contexts.

Development of software systems requires an understanding of many methodological and architectural issues. The complex systems developed today rely on concepts and lessons that have been extracted from years of research on programming languages, operating systems, database systems, knowledge-based systems, real-time systems, and distributed and parallel systems.

Facilities

Departmental laboratory facilities for instruction and research include:

Artificial Intelligence Laboratories

Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is used for investigating knowledge representation systems, pattern recognition, expert systems, intelligent user agents, planning, problem solving, heuristic search, and related areas.

Cognitive Systems Laboratory

The Cognitive Systems Laboratory is used for studying systems that emulate human cognition, especially learning, planning, and reasoning under uncertainty. Topics include causal reasoning, knowledge discovery, knowledge compilation, physical systems diagnosis, and automated explanation. See http://singapore.cs.ucla.edu.

Collaborative Design Laboratory

The Collaborative Design Laboratory is used for investigating methods for effective computer support of small teams involved in design and research.

Computational Systems Biology Laboratories

Biocybernetics Laboratory

The Biocybernetics Laboratory emphasizes integrative, interdisciplinary computational biology and experimentation in life sciences, medicine, physiology, and pharmacology. Laboratory pedagogy involves development and exploitation of the synergistic and methodologic interface between modeling and laboratory data and experimentation, and integrated approaches for solving complex biosystem problems from sparse biodata. See http://biocyb.cs.ucla.edu.

Biomedical Engineering Laboratory

The Biomedical Engineering Laboratory was established jointly by HSSEAS and the School of Medicine to support courses and research projects in health care information systems, covering issues in user requirement specifications, image data processing and retrieval, feature abstraction, simulation and analysis, visualization, and systems integration.

Computational Cardiology Laboratory

The Computational Cardiology Laboratory is a computational laboratory for mathematical modeling and computer simulation of cardiac systems in normal and pathological conditions. The goals of laboratory researchers are twofold: to find the mechanism of heart fibrillation, the main cause of sudden cardiac death; and to improve the efficiency of computer simulation by using parallel computer architecture with specially-developed numerical algorithms. All research is carried out in collaboration with the UCLA Cardiology Department.

Human/Computer Interface Laboratory

The Human/Computer Interface Laboratory focuses on the use of cognitive science concepts to design more reliable user-friendly interfaces with computer and communication systems and the modeling and visualization of scientific data. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/hcip/.

Computer Graphics and Vision Laboratories

Center for Image and Vision Science (CIVS)

The Center for Image and Vision Science supports interdisciplinary research between the departments of Statistics and Computer Science in various aspects of visual modeling and inference. See http://civs.stat.ucla.edu/research.html.

W. M. Keck Laboratory for Computer Vision

The laboratory, sponsored by a grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation, hosts a variety of high-end equipment for vision research including a full 360-degree light dome, 3-D laser scanners, cameras, lights, lenses, mobile robots, and virtual reality setup to support vision research in the departments of Statistics, Computer Science, Psychology, and Neuroscience.

MAGIX: Modeling Animation and Graphics Laboratory

The MAGIX: Modeling Animation and Graphics Laboratory is used for research on computer graphics, especially targeted towards the video game and motion picture industries, with emphasis on geometric, physics-based, and artificial life modeling and animation, including motion capture techniques, biomechanical simulation, behavioral animation, and graphics applications of machine learning, AI, and robotics. See http://www.magix.ucla.edu.

UCLA Collective on Vision and Image Sciences

The Collective brings together researchers from multiple departments at UCLA, including Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Brain Mapping, Computational Biology, Neuro Imaging, Image Informatics, Psychology, and Radiology. See http://visciences.ucla.edu.

UCLA Vision Laboratory

The UCLA Vision Laboratory is used for computer vision research, in particular the processing of sensory information to retrieve mathematical models of the environment in order for machines to interact with it. Applications include shape analysis, visual motion analysis, visual recognition, 3-D reconstruction, and vision-based control (for instance, autonomous vehicle navigation). See http://vision.ucla.edu.

Computer Networks Laboratories

CENS Systems Laboratory

The CENS Systems Laboratory is used for research on the architectural challenges posed by massively distributed, large-scale, physically coupled, and usually untethered and small-form-factor computing systems. Through prototype implementations and simulation, such issues as data diffusion protocols, localization, time synchronization, low-power wireless communications, and self-configuration are explored. See http://lecs.cs.ucla.edu.

Computer Communications Laboratory

The Computer Communications Laboratory is used for investigating local-area networks, packet-switching networks, and packet-radio networks.

High-Performance Internet Laboratory

The High-Performance Internet Laboratory is used for investigating high-performance quality of service (QoS) techniques in the Internet, including QoS routing in Internet domains, QoS fault-tolerant multicast, TCP congestion control, and gigabit network measurements. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/NRL/hpi/.

Internet Research Laboratory

The Internet Research Laboratory (IRL) is used for exploring the forefront of current Internet architecture and protocol development, including quantifying the dynamics in large-scale networks and securing large-scale systems such as the Internet routing infrastructure and Domain Name System (DNS). See http://irl.cs.ucla.edu.

Network Research Laboratory

The Network Research Laboratory is used for investigating wireless local-area networks (with specific interest in ad-hoc networks, vehicular networks, and personal-area networks) and the interaction between wired and wireless network layers, middleware, and applications. Activities include protocol development, protocol analysis and simulation, and wireless testbed experiments. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/NRL/wireless/.

Computer Science Theory Laboratories

Center for Information and Computation Security (CICS)

The Center for Information and Computation Security (CICS) promotes all aspects of research and education in cryptography and computer security. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/security/.

Theory Laboratory

The Theory Laboratory is used for developing theoretical foundations for all areas of computer science. Activities include fundamental research into algorithms, computational complexity, distributed computing, cryptography, hardware and software security, quantum computing, biological computing, machine learning, and computational geometry.

Computer Systems Architecture Laboratories

Concurrent Systems Laboratory

The Concurrent Systems Laboratory is used for investigating the design, implementation, and evaluation of computer systems that use state-of-the-art technology to achieve high performance and high reliability. Projects involve both software and hardware, and often focus on parallel and distributed systems in the context of general-purpose as well as embedded applications. See http://www.cs.ucla.edu/csd/research/labs/csl/.

Digital Arithmetic and Reconfigurable Architecture Laboratory

The Digital Arithmetic and Reconfigurable Architecture Laboratory is used for fast
digital arithmetic (theory, algorithms, and design) and numerically intensive computing on reconfigurable hardware. Research includes floating-point arithmetic, online arithmetic, application-specific architectures, and design tools. See http://arith.cs.ucla.edu.

Embedded and Reconfigurable System Design Laboratory

The Embedded and Reconfigurable System Design Laboratory is used for studying reconfigurable cores in embedded systems that provide the required adaptability and reconfigurability, and the design and CAD aspects of low-power embedded systems. See http://er.cs.ucla.edu.

VLSI CAD Laboratory

The VLSI CAD Laboratory is used for computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems. Areas include high-level and logic-level synthesis, technology mapping, physical design, interconnect modeling and optimization of various VLSI technologies such as full-custom designs, standard cells, programmable logic devices (PLDs), multichip modules (MCMs), system-on-a-chip (SOCs), system-in-a-package (SIPs), and design for nanotechnologies. See http://cadlab.cs.ucla.edu.

Information and Data Management Laboratories

Data Mining Laboratory

The Data Mining Laboratory is used for extraction of patterns, anomalies, concepts, classification rules, and other forms of high-level relationships that are latent in large commercial and scientific databases. See http://dml.cs.ucla.edu/main.html.

Knowledge-Based Multimedia Medical Distributed Database Systems Laboratory

The Knowledge-Based Multimedia Medical Distributed Database Systems Laboratory is used for developing new methodologies to access multimedia (numeric, text, image/picture) data by content and feature rather than by artificial keys such as patient ID. See http://www.kmed.cs.ucla.edu.

Multimedia Stream System Laboratory

The Multimedia Stream System Laboratory is used for investigation and development of stream-based data model constructs and the corresponding querying facilities in response to the growing requirements of advanced multimedia database applications. See http://www.mmss.cs.ucla.edu.

Multimedia Systems Laboratory

The Multimedia Systems Laboratory is used for research on all aspects of multimedia: physical and logical modeling of multimedia objects, real-time delivery of continuous multimedia, operating systems and networking issues in multimedia systems, and development of multimedia courseware. See http://www.mmsl.cs.ucla.edu.

UCLA Web Information Systems Laboratory

The UCLA Web Information Systems Laboratory is used for investigating Web-based information systems. The laboratory seeks to develop the enabling technology for such systems by integrating the Web with database systems. Current projects focus on the preservation and warehousing of XML and database information to support temporal queries on historical archives, and data systems management systems to support advanced queries and data mining applications on the massive streams of information that are continuously flowing through the Web. See http://wis.cs.ucla.edu.

Software Systems Laboratories

Compilers Laboratory

The Compilers Laboratory is used for research into compilers, embedded systems, and programming languages.

Distributed Simulation Laboratory

The Distributed Simulation Laboratory is used for research on operating system support and applications and utilization of special architectures such as the Intel Hypercube.

Laboratory for Advanced System Research

The Laboratory for Advanced System Research is used for developing advanced operating systems, distributed systems, and middleware and conducting research in systems security.

Parallel Computing Laboratory

The Parallel Computing Laboratory is used for research in scalable simulation, providing an efficient lightweight simulation language, as well as tools for large-scale parallel simulation on modern supercomputers. See http://pcl.cs.ucla.edu.

Software Systems Laboratory

The Software Systems Laboratory is used for research into the design, implementation, and evaluation of operating systems, networked systems, programming languages, and software engineering tools.

Some of these research laboratories also provide support for upper division and/or graduate courses.

Computing Resources

In summarizing the resources now available to conduct experimentally based research in the UCLA Computer Science Department, it is useful to identify the major components of the research environment: the departmental computing facility, other hardware and software systems, administrative structure, and technical support staff.

Hardware

Computing facilities range from large campus-operated supercomputers to a major local network of servers and workstations that are administered by the department computing facilities (DCF) or school network (SEASnet).

The departmental research network includes Sun servers and shared workstations, on the school’s own ethernet TCP/IP local network. A wide variety of peripheral equipment is also part of the facility, and many more research-group workstations share the network; the total number of machines exceeds 700, the majority running the Linux operating system. The network consists of switched10/100/1000 ethernet to the desktop with a gigabit backbone connection. The department LAN is connected to the campus gigabit backbone. An 802.11g wireless network is also available to faculty, staff, and graduate students.

Administrative Structure

The central facilities and wide-area networking are operated by the campuswide Communications Technology Services. Access to the departmental and SEASnet machines is controlled so as to maximize the usefulness of these computers for education and research, but no direct charges are involved.

Technical Support Staff

The support staff consists of hardware and software specialists. The hardware laboratory supports network connections, configures routers, switches, and network monitoring tools. The software group administers the department UNIX servers, providing storage space and backup for department users.

Faculty Areas of Thesis Guidance

Professors

Alfonso F. Cardenas, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1969)

Database management, distributed heterogeneous and multimedia (text, image/picture, video, voice) systems, information systems planning and development methodologies, software engineering, medical informatics, legal and intellectual property issues

Tony F.C. Chan, Ph.D. (Stanford, 1978)

Image processing and computer vision, multi-level techniques for VLSI physical design, computational techniques for brain mapping

Jason (Jingsheng) Cong, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1990)

Computer-aided design of VLSI circuits, fault-tolerant design of VLSI systems, design and analysis of algorithms, computer architecture, reconfigurable computing, design for nanotechnologies

Adnan Y. Darwiche, Ph.D. (Stanford, 1993)

Knowledge representation and automated reasoning (symbolic and probabilistic), applications to diagnosis, prediction, planning, and verification

*Joseph J. DiStefano III, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1966)1

Biocybernetics; computational systems biology; dynamic biosystems modeling, simulation, clinical therapy and experiment design optimization methodologies; pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD), and physiologically-based PK (PKPD) modeling; knowledge-based (expert) systems for life science research

Michael G. Dyer, Ph.D. (Yale, 1982)

Artificial intelligence; natural language processing; connectionist, cognitive, and animat-based modeling

Milos D. Ercegovac, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1975)

Application-specific architectures, digital computer arithmetic, digital design, low-power systems, reconfigurable systems

Deborah L. Estrin, Ph.D. (MIT, 1985)

Sensor networks, embedded network sensing, environmental monitoring, computer networks

Eliezer M. Gafni, Ph.D. (MIT, 1982)

Computer communication, networks, mathematical programming algorithms

Mario Gerla, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1973)

Wireless ad-hoc networks: MAC, routing and transport protocols, vehicular communications, peer-to-peer mobile networks, personal-area networks (Bluetooth and Zigbee), underwater sensor networks, Internet transport protocols (TCP, streaming), Internet path characterization, capacity and bandwidth estimates, analytic and simulation models for network and protocol performance evaluation

Richard E. Korf, Ph.D. (Carnegie Mellon, 1983)

Problem solving, heuristic search, planning in artificial intelligence

Songwu Lu, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1999)

Integrated-service support over heterogeneous networks, e.g. mobile computing environments, Internet and Activenet: networking and computing, wireless communications and networks, computer communication networks, dynamic game theory, dynamic systems, neural networks, and information economics

Rupak Majumdar, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 2003)

Computer-aided verification of hardware and software systems; logic and automata theory; embedded, hybrid, and probabilistic systems

Stanley J. Osher, Ph.D. (NYU, 1966)

Scientific computing and applied mathematics

†Rafail Ostrovsky, Ph.D. (MIT, 1992)2

Theoretical computer science algorithms, cryptography, complexity theory, randomization, network protocols, geometric algorithms, data mining

Jens Palsberg, Ph.D. (Aarhus U., Denmark, 1992)

Compilers, embedded systems, programming languages

D. Stott Parker, Jr., Ph.D. (Illinois, 1978)

Data mining, information modeling, scientific computing, bioinformatics, database and knowledge-based systems

Miodrag Potkonjak, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 1991)

Computer-aided analysis and synthesis of system level designs, behavioral synthesis, and interaction between high-performance application-specific computations and communications

Majid Sarrafzadeh, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1987)

Computer engineering, embedded systems, VLSI CAD, algorithms

Stefano Soatto, Ph.D. (Caltech, 1996)

Computer vision; shape analysis, motion analysis, texture analysis, 3-D reconstruction, vision-based control; computer graphics: image-based modeling and rendering; medical imaging: registration, segmentation, statistical shape analysis; autonomous systems: sensor-based control, planning non-linear filtering; human-computer interaction: vision-based interfaces, visibility, visualization

Mani B. Srivastava, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 1992)

Energy aware networking and computing, embedded networked sensing, embedded software, low-power wireless systems and applications of wireless and embedded technology

Demetri Terzopoulos, Ph.D. (MIT, 1984)

Computer graphics, computer vision, medical image analysis, computer-aided design, artificial life/intelligence

Alan L. Yuille, Ph.D. (Cambridge University, 1986)

Computer vision, computational models of cognition, machine learning

Carlo A. Zaniolo, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1976)

Knowledge bases and deductive databases, parallel execution of PROLOG programs, formal software specifications, distributed systems, artificial intelligence, and computational biology

Lixia Zhang, Ph.D. (MIT, 1989)

Computer network, Internet architecture, protocol designs, security and resiliency of large-scale systems

Song-Chun Zhu, Ph.D. (Harvard, 1996)

Computer vision, statistical modeling and computing, vision and visual arts, machine learning

Professors Emeriti

Algirdas A. Avizienis, Ph.D. (Illinois, 1960)

Digital computer architecture and design, fault-tolerant computing, digital arithmetic

Rajive L. Bagrodia, Ph.D. (U. Texas, 1987)

Wireless networks, nomadic computing, parallel programming, performance evaluation of computer and communication systems

Bertram Bussell, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1962)

Computer systems architecture, interactive computer graphics

Jack W. Carlyle, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 1961)

Communication, computation theory and practice, algorithms and complexity, discrete system theory, developmental and probabilistic systems

Wesley W. Chu, Ph.D. (Stanford, 1966)

Distributed computing, distributed database, memory management, computer communications, performance measurement and evaluation for distributed systems and multiaccess packet-switched systems

Gerald Estrin, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1951)

Computer systems architecture, methodology and supporting tools for design of concurrent systems, automating design teamwork, restructurable architectures

Thelma Estrin, Ph.D. (Wisconsin, 1951)

Biomedical engineering, application of technology and computers to health care, computer methods in neuroscience, engineering education

Sheila A. Greibach, Ph.D. (Harvard, 1963)

Theoretical computer science, computational complexity, program schemes and semantics, formal languages, automata, computability

Leonard Kleinrock, Ph.D. (MIT, 1963)

Computer networks, computer-communication systems, resource sharing and allocation, computer systems modeling analysis and design, queueing systems theory and applications, performance evaluation of congestion-prone systems, performance evaluation and design of distributed multiaccess packet-switching systems, wireless networks, mobile computing, nomadic computing, and distributed and parallel processing systems

Allen Klinger, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 1966)

Pattern recognition, picture processing, biomedical applications, mathematical modeling

Lawrence P. McNamee, Ph.D. (Pittsburgh, 1964)

Computer graphics, discrete simulation, digital filtering, computer-aided design, LSI fabrication techniques, printed circuit board design

Michel A. Melkanoff, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1955)

Programming languages, data structures, database design, relational models, simulation systems, robotics, computer-aided design and manufacturing, numerical-controlled machinery

Richard R. Muntz, Ph.D. (Princeton, 1969)

Multimedia systems, database systems, data mining

Judea Pearl, Ph.D. (Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, 1965)

Artificial intelligence, philosophy of science, reasoning under uncertainty, causal inference, causal and counterfactual analysis

David A. Rennels, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1973)

Digital computer architecture and design, fault-tolerant computing, digital arithmetic

*Jacques J. Vidal, Ph.D. (U. Paris, Sorbonne, 1961)3

Information processing in biological systems, with emphasis on neuroscience, cybernetics, online laboratory computer systems, and pattern recognition, analog and hybrid systems/signal processing

Associate Professors

Junghoo (John) Cho, Ph.D. (Stanford, 2002)

Databases, web technologies, information discovery and integration

Eleazar Eskin, Ph.D. (Columbia, 2002)

Bioinformatics, genetics, genomics, machine learning

Todd D. Millstein, Ph.D. (U. Washington, 2003)

Programming language design, static type systems, formal methods, software model checking, compilers

Glenn D. Reinman, Ph.D. (UC San Diego, 2001)

Microprocessor architecture, exploitation of instruction/thread/memory-level parallelism, power-efficient design, hardware/software co-design, multicore and multiprocessor design

Amit Sahai, Ph.D. (MIT, 2000)

Theoretical computer science, cryptology, computer security, algorithms, error-correcting codes and learning theory

Yuval Tamir, Ph.D. (UC Berkeley, 1985)

Computer systems, computer architecture, software systems, parallel and distributed systems, dependable systems, cluster computing, reliable network services, interconnection networks and switches, multi-core architectures, reconfigurable systems

Assistant Professors

Petros Faloutsos, Ph.D. (Toronto, 2002)

Computer graphics, computer animation

Alexander Sherstov, Ph.D. (Texas, Austin, 2009)

Complexity theory with a focus on communication and circuit complexity, computational learning theory, quantum computing

Zhuowen Tu, Ph.D. (Ohio State, 2002)

Statistical modeling/computing, computational biology, machine learning, brain imaging

Jennifer N. Vaughan, Ph.D. (U. Pennsylvania, 2009)

Machine learning, computational/algorithmic economics, social network theory, algorithms

Senior Lecturer

Leon Levine, M.S. (MIT, 1949), Emeritus

Computer methodology

Lecturers S.O.E.

Paul R. Eggert, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1980)

Programming languages, operating systems principles, compilers, Internet

David A. Smallberg, M.S. (UCLA, 1998)

Programming languages, software development

Adjunct Professors

Alan Kay, Ph.D. (Utah, 1969)

Object-oriented programming, personal computing, graphical user interfaces

Boris Kogan, Ph.D. (Moscow, Russia, 1962)

Mathematical modeling and computer simulation (using parallel supercomputers) of dynamic processor in excitable biological systems, particularly mechanisms of heart arrhythmias, fibrillation and defibrillation

Peter L. Reiher, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1987)

Computer and network security, ubiquitous computing, file systems, distributed systems

M. Yahya Sanadidi, Ph.D. (UCLA, 1982)

Computer networking, path characteristics estimation and applications in flow control, adaptive streaming and overlays design, probability models of computing systems, algorithms and networks

Lower Division Courses

1. Freshman Computer Science Seminar. (1)

Seminar, one hour; discussion, one hour. Introduction to department resources and principal topics and key ideas in computer science and computer engineering. Assignments given to bolster independent study and writing skills. Letter grading. Mr. Cong (F)

2. Great Ideas in Computer Science. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Broad coverage for liberal arts and social sciences students of computer science theory, technology, and implications, including artificial and neural machine intelligence, computability limits, virtual reality, cellular automata, artificial life, programming languages survey, and philosophical and societal implications. P/NP or letter grading. Mr. Dyer

19. Fiat Lux Freshman Seminars. (1)

Seminar, one hour. Discussion of and critical thinking about topics of current intellectual importance, taught by faculty members in their areas of expertise and illuminating many paths of discovery at UCLA. P/NP grading.

31. Introduction to Computer Science I. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Introduction to computer science via theory, applications, and programming. Basic data types, operators and control structures. Input/output. Procedural and data abstraction. Introduction to object-oriented software development. Functions, recursion. Arrays, strings, pointers. Abstract data types, object-oriented programming. Examples and exercises from computer science theory and applications. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg, Mr. Smallberg (F,W,Sp)

32. Introduction to Computer Science II. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Enforced requisite: course 31. Object-oriented software development. Abstract data type definition and use. Overloading, inheritance, polymorphism. Object-oriented view of data structures: stacks, queues, lists. Algorithm analysis. Trees, graphs, and associated algorithms. Searching and sorting. Case studies and exercises from computer science applications. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg, Mr. Smallberg (W,Sp)

33. Introduction to Computer Organization. (5)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, nine hours. Enforced requisite: course 32. Introductory course on computer architecture, assembly language, and operating systems fundamentals. Number systems, machine language, and assembly language. Procedure calls, stacks, interrupts, and traps. Assemblers, linkers, and loaders. Operating systems concepts: processes and process management, input/output (I/O) programming, memory management, file systems. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg, Mr. Smallberg (W,Sp)

35L. Software Construction Laboratory. (2)

Laboratory, four hours; outside study, two hours. Requisite: course 31. Fundamentals of commonly used software tools and environments, particularly open-source tools to be used in upper division computer science courses. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Palsberg (F,W,Sp)

M51A. Logic Design of Digital Systems. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M16.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Introduction to digital systems. Specification and implementation of combinational and sequential systems. Standard logic modules and programmable logic arrays. Specification and implementation of algorithmic systems: data and control sections. Number systems and arithmetic algorithms. Error control codes for digital information. Letter grading. Mr. Ercegovac, Mr. Potkonjak (F,W)

97. Variable Topics in Computer Science. (1 to 4)

Lecture, one to four hours; discussion, zero to two hours. Designed for freshmen/sophomores. Variable topics in computer science not covered in regular computer science courses. May be repeated once for credit with topic or instructor change. Letter grading. Mr. Smallberg

99. Student Research Program. (1 to 2)

Tutorial (supervised research or other scholarly work), three hours per week per unit. Entry-level research for lower division students under guidance of faculty mentor. Students must be in good academic standing and enrolled in minimum of 12 units (excluding this course). Individual contract required; consult Undergraduate Research Center. May be repeated. P/NP grading.

Upper Division Courses

111. Operating Systems Principles. (5)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, nine hours. Requisites: courses 32, 33, 35L. Introduction to operating systems design and evaluation. Computer software systems performance, robustness, and functionality. Kernel structure, bootstrapping, input/output (I/O) devices and interrupts. Processes and threads; address spaces, memory management, and virtual memory. Scheduling, synchronization. File systems: layout, performance, robustness. Distributed systems: networking, remote procedure call (RPC), asynchronous RPC, distributed file systems, transactions. Protection and security. Exercises involving applications using, and internals of, real-world operating systems. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Kohler (W,Sp)

112. Computer System Modeling Fundamentals. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: Statistics 100A. Designed for juniors/seniors. Probability and stochastic process models as applied in computer science. Basic methodological tools include random variables, conditional probability, expectation and higher moments, Bayes theorem, Markov chains. Applications include probabilistic algorithms, evidential reasoning, analysis of algorithms and data structures, reliability, communication protocol and queueing models. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla, Mr. Muntz (Sp)

113. Introduction to Distributed Embedded Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, four hours; outside study, four hours. Requisites: courses 111, 118. Introduction to basic concepts needed to understand, design, and implement wireless distributed embedded systems. Topics include design implications of energy and otherwise resource-constrained nodes, network self-configuration and adaptation, localization and time synchronization, applications, and usage issues such as human interfaces, safety, and security. Heavily project based. Letter grading. Ms. Estrin

114. Peer-to-Peer Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Recommended requisites: courses 32, 118. Optional: courses 111, 218. Fundamental concepts on peer-to-peer networks, such as distributed hash-tables, routing, searching, and related network management protocols (Join, Leave, death management, routing, table repair). Video streaming and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) applications, with emphasis on thin clients such as PDAs and smart phones. Introduction to mesh-based and tree-based topologies for live streaming, with emphasis on key aspects of peer selection metrics and illustration of common optimization techniques (peer capacity, network delay). Hands-on approach to guide students to development and testing of actual experimental system on PlanetLab. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla (W)

M117. Computer Networks: Physical Layer. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M117.) Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Not open to students with credit for course M171L. Introduction to fundamental computer communication concepts underlying and supporting modern networks, with focus on wireless communications and media access layers of network protocol stack. Systems include wireless LANs (IEEE802.11) and ad hoc wireless and personal area networks (e.g., Bluetooth, ZigBee). Experimental laboratory sessions included. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla (W)

118. Computer Network Fundamentals. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 32, 33, 35L, 111. Designed for juniors/seniors. Introduction to design and performance evaluation of computer networks, including such topics as what protocols are, layered network architecture, Internet protocol architecture, network applications, transport protocols, routing algorithms and protocols, internetworking, congestion control, and link layer protocols including Ethernet and wireless channels. Letter grading.
Mr. Gerla, Ms. Zhang (F,Sp)

CM121. Introduction to Bioinformatics. (4)

(Same as Chemistry CM160A.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: course 180 or Program in Computing 60 with grade of C– or better, and Biostatistics 100A or 110A or Mathematics 170A or Statistics 100A or 110A. Introduction to bioinformatics and methodologies, with emphasis on concepts and inventing new bioinformatic methods. Focus on sequence analysis and alignment algorithms. Concurrently scheduled with course CM221. P/NP or letter grading. Mr. Eskin (F)

CM122. Algorithms in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. (4)

(Same as Chemistry CM160B.) Lecture, four hours; laboratory, four hours. Enforced requisite: course CM121 or Chemistry CM160A with grade of C– or better. Recommended: Computer Science 32 or Program in Computing 60, Statistics 100A, 110A. Development and application of computational approaches to biological questions. Understanding of mechanisms for determining statistical significance of computationally derived results. Development of foundation for innovative work in bioinformatics and systems biology. Concurrently scheduled with course CM222. Letter grading. Mr. Eskin (Not offered 2011-12)

CM124. Computational Genetics. (4)

(Same as Human Genetics CM124.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: course 32 or Program in Computing 10C with grade of C– or better, and Biostatistics 100A or 110A or Mathematics 170A or Statistics 100A. Designed for engineering students as well as students from biological sciences and medical school. Introduction to computational analysis of genetic variation and computational interdisciplinary research in genetics. Topics include introduction to genetics, identification of genes involved in disease, inferring human population history, technologies for obtaining genetic information, and genetic sequencing. Focus on formulating interdisciplinary problems as computational problems and then solving those problems using computational techniques from statistics and computer science. Concurrently scheduled with course CM224. Letter grading. Mr. Eskin (Sp)

130. Software Engineering. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 32, 35L. Recommended: Engineering 183EW or 185EW. Structured programming, program specification, program proving, modularity, abstract data types, composite design, software tools, software control systems, program testing, team programming. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Majumdar (F,Sp)

131. Programming Languages. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 32, 33, 35L. Basic concepts in design and use of programming languages, including abstraction, modularity, control mechanisms, types, declarations, syntax, and semantics. Study of several different language paradigms, including functional, object-oriented, and logic programming. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Millstein (F,W,Sp)

132. Compiler Construction. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 32, 35L, 131, 181. Compiler structure; lexical and syntactic analysis; semantic analysis and code generation; theory of parsing. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Palsberg (F)

133. Parallel and Distributed Computing. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 111 (may be taken concurrently), 131. Distributed memory and shared memory parallel architectures; asynchronous parallel languages: MPI, Maisie; primitives for parallel computation: specification of parallelism, interprocess communication and synchronization; design of parallel programs for scientific computation and distributed systems. Letter grading. Mr. Cong

136. Introduction to Computer Security. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 111, 118. Introduction to basic concepts of information security necessary for students to understand risks and mitigations associated with protection of systems and data. Topics include security models and architectures, security threats and risk analysis, access control and authentication/authorization, cryptography, network security, secure application design, and ethics and law. Letter grading. Mr. Eggert, Mr. Reiher (F)

143. Database Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 32. Information systems and database systems in enterprises. File organization and secondary storage structures. Relational model and relational database systems. Network, hierarchical, and other models. Query languages. Database design principles. Transactions, concurrency, and recovery. Integrity and authorization. Letter grading. Mr. Cardenas, Mr. Zaniolo (W,Sp)

144. Web Applications. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Enforced requisite: course 143. Important concepts and theory for building effective and safe Web applications and first-hand experience with basic tools. Topics include basic Web architecture and protocol, XML and XML query language, mapping between XML and relational models, information retrieval model and theory, security and user model, Web services and distributed transactions. Letter grading. Mr. Cho (F)

M151B. Computer Systems Architecture. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M116C.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 33, and M51A or Electrical Engineering M16. Recommended: courses 111, and M152A or Electrical Engineering M116L. Computer system organization and design, implementation of CPU datapath and control, instruction set design, memory hierarchy (caches, main memory, virtual memory) organization and management, input/output subsystems (bus structures, interrupts, DMA), performance evaluation, pipelined processors. Letter grading. Mr. Reinman, Mr. Tamir (W,Sp)

151C. Design of Digital Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses M51A, M151B, M152A. Design of complex digital systems using hierarchal approaches and regular structures. Combinational, sequential, and algorithmic systems. Microprogramming and firmware engineering. Cost/performance measures and technology constraints. Use of design tools. Design project. Letter grading. Mr. Ercegovac (Sp)

M152A. Introductory Digital Design Laboratory. (2)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M116L.) Laboratory, four hours; outside study, two hours. Requisite: course M51A or Electrical Engineering M16. Hands-on design, implementation, and debugging of digital logic circuits, use of computer-aided design tools for schematic capture and simulation, implementation of complex circuits using programmed array logic, design projects. Letter grading. Mr. Sarrafzadeh (F,W,Sp)

152B. Digital Design Project Laboratory. (4)

Laboratory, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course M151B or Electrical Engineering M116C. Design and implementation of complex digital subsystems using field-programmable gate arrays (e.g., processors, special-purpose processors, device controllers, and input/output interfaces). Students work in teams to develop and implement designs and to document and give oral presentations of their work. Letter grading. Mr. Sarrafzadeh (F,W,Sp)

161. Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 32. Introduction to fundamental problem solving and knowledge representation paradigms of artificial intelligence. Introduction to Lisp with regular programming assignments. State-space and problem reduction methods, brute-force and heuristic search, planning techniques, two-player games. Knowledge structures including predicate logic, production systems, semantic nets and primitives, frames, scripts. Special topics in natural language processing, expert systems, vision, and parallel architectures. Letter grading. Mr. Darwiche, Mr. Korf (F,Sp)

170A. Mathematical Modeling and Methods for Computer Science. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: Mathematics 33B. Introduction to methods for modeling and simulation using interactive computing environments. Extensive coverage of methods for numeric and symbolic computation, matrix algebra, statistics, floating point, optimization, and spectral analysis. Emphasis on applications in simulation of physical systems. Letter grading. Mr. Parker (Not offered 2011-12)

M171L. Data Communication Systems Laboratory. (2 to 4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M171L.) Laboratory, four to eight hours; outside study, two to four hours. Recommended preparation: course M152A. Limited to seniors. Interpretation of analog-signaling aspects of digital systems and data communications through experience in using contemporary test instruments to generate and display signals in relevant laboratory setups. Use of oscilloscopes, pulse and function generators, baseband spectrum analyzers, desktop computers, terminals, modems, PCs, and workstations in experiments on pulse transmission impairments, waveforms and their spectra, modem and terminal characteristics, and interfaces. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla (F,Sp)

174A. Introduction to Computer Graphics. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 32. Basic principles behind modern two- and three-dimensional computer graphics systems, including complete set of steps that modern graphics pipelines use to create realistic images in real time. How to position and manipulate objects in scene using geometric and camera transformations. How to create final image using perspective and orthographic transformations. Basics of modeling primitives such as polygonal models and implicit and parametric surfaces. Basic ideas behind color spaces, illumination models, shading, and texture mapping. Letter grading. Mr. Faloutsos, Mr. Soatto (F,W,Sp)

174B. Introduction to Computer Graphics: Three-Dimensional Photography and Rendering. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 174A. State of art in three-dimensional photography and image-based rendering. How to use cameras and light to capture shape and appearance of real objects and scenes. Process provides simple way to acquire three-dimensional models of unparalleled detail and realism. Applications of techniques from entertainment (reverse engineering and postprocessing of movies, generation of realistic synthetic objects and characters) to medicine (modeling of biological structures from imaging data), mixed reality (augmentation of video), and security (visual surveillance). Fundamental analytical tools for modeling and inferring geometric (shape) and photometric (reflectance, illumination) properties of objects and scenes, and for rendering and manipulating novel views. Letter grading. Mr. Faloutsos, Mr. Soatto (Not offered 2011-12)

C174C. Computer Animation. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 174A. Designed for juniors/seniors. Introduction to computer animation, including basic principles of character modeling, forward and inverse kinematics, forward and inverse dynamics, motion capture animation techniques, physics-based animation of particles and systems, and motor control. Concurrently scheduled with course C274C. Letter grading. Mr. Faloutsos (W, alternate years)

180. Introduction to Algorithms and Complexity. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: course 32, and Mathematics 61 or 180. Designed for junior/senior Computer Science majors. Introduction to design and analysis of algorithms. Design techniques: divide-and-conquer, greedy method, dynamic programming; selection of prototypical algorithms; choice of data structures and representations; complexity measures: time, space, upper, lower bounds, asymptotic complexity; NP-completeness. Letter grading. Mr. Gafni, Mr. Meyerson (F,W)

181. Introduction to Formal Languages and Automata Theory. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: course 32, and Mathematics 61 or 180. Designed for junior/senior Computer Science majors. Grammars, automata, and languages. Finite-state languages and finite-state automata. Context-free languages and pushdown story automata. Unrestricted rewriting systems, recursively enumerable and recursive languages, and Turing machines. Closure properties, pumping lemmas, and decision algorithms. Introduction to computability. Letter grading. Ms. Greibach, Mr. Ostrovsky, Mr. Sahai (W,Sp)

183. Introduction to Cryptography. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Preparation: knowledge of basic probability theory. Requisite: course 180. Introduction to cryptography, computer security, and basic concepts and techniques. Topics include notions of hardness, one-way functions, hard-core bits, pseudorandom generators, pseudorandom functions and pseudorandom permutations, semantic security, public-key and private-key encryption, key-agreement, homomorphic encryption, private information retrieval and voting protocols, message authentication, digital signatures, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge proofs, collision-resistant hash functions, commitment protocols, and two-party secure computation with static security. Letter grading. Mr. Ostrovsky (Sp)

M184. Introduction to Computational and Systems Biology. (2)

(Formerly numbered M186A.) (Same as Biomedical Engineering M184 and Computational and Systems Biology M184.) Lecture, two hours; outside study, four hours. Requisites: course 31 (or Program in Computing 10A), Mathematics 31A, 31B. Survey course designed to introduce students to computational and systems modeling and computation in biology and medicine, providing motivation, flavor, culture, and cutting-edge contributions in computational biosciences and aiming for more informed basis for focused studies by students with computational and systems biology interests. Presentations by individual UCLA researchers discussing their active computational and systems biology research. P/NP grading. Mr. DiStefano (F)

CM186. Computational Systems Biology: Modeling and Simulation of Biological Systems. (5)

(Formerly numbered CM186B.) (Same as Biomedical Engineering CM186 and Computational and Systems Biology M186.) Lecture, four hours; laboratory, three hours; outside study, eight hours. Corequisite: Electrical Engineering 102. Dynamic biosystems modeling and computer simulation methods for studying biological/biomedical processes and systems at multiple levels of organization. Control system, multicompartmental, predator-prey, pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD), and other structural modeling methods applied to life sciences problems at molecular, cellular (biochemical pathways/networks), organ, and organismic levels. Both theory- and data-driven modeling, with focus on translating biomodeling goals and data into mathematics models and implementing them for simulation and analysis. Basics of numerical simulation algorithms, with modeling software exercises in class and PC laboratory assignments. Concurrently scheduled with course CM286. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano (F)

CM187. Thesis Research and Research Communication in Computational and Systems Biology. (2 to 4)

(Formerly numbered CM186C.) (Same as Biomedical Engineering CM187 and Computational and Systems Biology M187.) Lecture, one hour; discussion, two hours; laboratory, one hour; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course CM186. Closely directed, interactive, and real research experience in active quantitative systems biology research laboratory. Direction on how to focus on topics of current interest in scientific community, appropriate to student interests and capabilities. Critiques of oral presentations and written progress reports explain how to proceed with search for research results. Major emphasis on effective research reporting, both oral and written. Concurrently scheduled with course CM287. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano (Sp)

188. Special Courses in Computer Science. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Special topics in computer science for undergraduate students taught on experimental or temporary basis, such as those taught by resident and visiting faculty members. May be repeated once for credit with topic or instructor change. Letter grading.

194. Research Group Seminars: Computer Science. (4)

Seminar, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for undergraduate students who are part of research group. Discussion of research methods and current literature in field or of research of faculty members or students. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading. (F,W,Sp)

199. Directed Research in Computer Science. (2 to 8)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to juniors/seniors. Supervised individual research or investigation under guidance of faculty mentor. Culminating paper or project required. May be repeated for credit with school approval. Individual contract required; enrollment petitions available in Office of Academic and Student Affairs. Letter grading. (F,W,Sp)

Graduate Courses

201. Computer Science Seminar. (2)

Seminar, four hours; outside study, two hours. Designed for graduate computer science students. Seminars on current research topics in computer science. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading. (F,W,Sp)

202. Advanced Computer Science Seminar. (4)

Seminar, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Preparation: completion of major field examination in computer science. Current computer science research into theory of, analysis and synthesis of, and applications of information processing systems. Each member completes one tutorial and one or more original pieces of work in one specialized area. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading. Ms. Estrin

211. Network Protocol and Systems Software Design for Wireless and Mobile Internet. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 118. Designed for graduate students. In-depth study of network protocol and systems software design in area of wireless and mobile Internet. Topics include (1) networking fundamentals: design philosophy of TCP/IP, end-to-end arguments, and protocol design principles, (2) networking protocols: 802.11 MAC standard, packet scheduling, mobile IP, ad hoc routing, and wireless TCP, (3) mobile computing systems software: middleware, file system, services, and applications, and (4) topical studies: energy-efficient design, security, location management, and quality of service. Letter grading. Mr. Lu (F,W)

212A. Queueing Systems Theory. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: course 112, Electrical Engineering 131A. Resource sharing issues and theory of queueing (waiting-line) systems. Review of Markov chains and baby queueing theory. Method of stages. M/E r /1. E r /M/1. Bulk arrival and bulk service systems. Series-parallel stages. Fundamentals of open and closed queueing networks. Intermediate queueing theory: M/G/1; G/M/m. Collective marks. Advanced queueing theory: G/G/1; Lindley integral equation; spectral solution. Inequalities, bounds, approximations. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla

212B. Queueing Applications: Scheduling Algorithms and Queueing Networks. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 212A. Priority queueing. Applications to time-sharing scheduling algorithms: FB, Round Robin, Conservation Law, Bounds. Queueing networks: definitions; job flow balance; product form solutions — local balance, M—>M; computational algorithms for performance measures; asymptotic behavior and bounds; approximation techniques — diffusion — iterative techniques; applications. Letter grading. Mr. Muntz

M213A. Embedded Systems. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M202A.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 111. Designed for graduate computer science and electrical engineering students. Methodologies and technologies for design of embedded systems. Topics include hardware and software platforms for embedded systems, techniques for modeling and specification of system behavior, software organization, real-time operating system scheduling, real-time communication and packet scheduling, low-power battery and energy-aware system design, timing synchronization, fault tolerance and debugging, and techniques for hardware and software architecture optimization. Theoretical foundations as well as practical design methods. Letter grading. Mr. Potkonjak, Mr. Srivistava (F)

M213B. Distributed Embedded Systems. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M202B.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 111, and 118 or Electrical Engineering 132B. Designed for graduate computer science and electrical engineering students. Interdisciplinary course with focus on study of distributed embedded systems concepts needed to realize systems such as wireless sensor and actuator networks for monitoring and control of physical world. Topics include network self-configuration with localization and timing synchronization; energy-aware system design and operation; protocols for MAC, routing, transport, disruption tolerance; programming issues and models with language, OS, database, and middleware; in-network collaborative processing; fundamental characteristics such as coverage, connectivity, capacity, latency; techniques for exploitation and management of actuation and mobility; data and system integrity issues with calibration, faults, debugging, and security; and usage issues such as human interfaces and safety. Letter grading. Ms. Estrin, Mr. Srivistava

214. Data Transmission in Computer Communications. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 112. Limited to graduate computer science students. Discrete data streams, formats, rates, transductions; digital data transmissions via analog signaling in computer communication; media characteristics, systems methodologies, performance analysis; modem designs; physical interfaces in computer communication links; national/international standards; tests and measurements. Letter grading. Mr. Carlyle

215. Computer Communications and Networks. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 112. Resource sharing; computer traffic characterizations; multiplexing; network structure; packet switching and other switching techniques; ARPANET and other computer network examples; network delay and analysis; network design and optimization; network protocols; routing and flow control; satellite and ground radio packet switching; local networks; commercial network services and architectures. Optional topics include extended error control techniques; modems; SDLC, HDLC, X.25, etc.; protocol verification; network simulation and measurement; integrated networks; communication processors. Letter grading. Mr. Chu

216. Distributed Multiaccess Control in Networks. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 212A, 215. Topics from field of distributed control and access in computer networks, including terrestrial distributed computer networks; satellite packet switching; ground radio packet switching; local network architecture and control. Letter grading. Mr. Kleinrock

217A. Internet Architecture and Protocols. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 118. Focus on mastering existing core set of Internet protocols, including IP, core transport protocols, routing protocols, DNS, NTP, and security protocols such as DNSSEC, to understand principles behind design of these protocols, appreciate their design tradeoffs, and learn lessons from their operations. Letter grading. Ms. Zhang (W)

217B. Advanced Topics in Internet Research. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 217A. Designed for graduate students. Overview of Internet development history and fundamental principles underlying TCP/IP protocol design. Discussion of current Internet research topics, including latest research results in routing protocols, transport protocols, network measurements, network security protocols, and clean-slate approach to network architecture design. Fundamental issues in network protocol design and implementations. Letter grading. Ms. Zhang

218. Advanced Computer Networks. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 112, 118. Review of seven-layer ISO-OSI model. High-speed networks: LANs, MANs, ATM. Flow and congestion control; bandwidth allocation. Internetting. Letter grading. Mr. Gerla (F,W)

219. Current Topics in Computer System Modeling Analysis. (4)

Lecture, eight hours; outside study, four hours. Review of current literature in area of computer system modeling analysis in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. Letter grading. Ms. Estrin, Mr. Lu (Sp)

CM221. Introduction to Bioinformatics. (4)

(Same as Bioinformatics M260A, Chemistry CM260A, and Human Genetics M260A.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: course 180 or Program in Computing 60 with grade of C– or better, and Biostatistics 100A or 110A or Mathematics 170A or Statistics 100A or 110A. Introduction to bioinformatics and methodologies, with emphasis on concepts and inventing new bioinformatic methods. Focus on sequence analysis and alignment algorithms. Concurrently scheduled with course CM121. S/U or letter grading. Mr. Eskin (F)

CM222. Algorithms in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology. (4)

(Same as Chemistry CM260B.) Lecture, four hours; laboratory, four hours. Enforced requisite: course CM221 or Chemistry CM260A with grade of C– or better. Recommended: Computer Science 32 or Program in Computing 60, Statistics 100A, 110A. Development and application of computational approaches to biological questions. Understanding of mechanisms for determining statistical significance of computationally derived results. Development of foundation for innovative work in bioinformatics and systems biology. Concurrently scheduled with course CM122. Letter grading. Mr. Eskin

CM224. Computational Genetics. (4)

(Same as Bioinformatics M224 and Human Genetics CM224.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: course 32 or Program in Computing 10C with grade of C– or better, and Biostatistics 100A or 110A or Mathematics 170A or Statistics 100A. Designed for engineering students as well as students from biological sciences and medical school. Introduction to computational analysis of genetic variation and computational interdisciplinary research in genetics. Topics include introduction to genetics, identification of genes involved in disease, inferring human population history, technologies for obtaining genetic information, and genetic sequencing. Focus on formulating interdisciplinary problems as computational problems and then solving those problems using computational techniques from statistics and computer science. Concurrently scheduled with course CM124. Letter grading. Mr. Eskin (Sp)

M229S. Seminar: Current Topics in Bioinformatics. (4)

(Same as Human Genetics M229S.) Seminar, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate engineering students, as well as students from biological sciences and medical school. Introduction to current topics in bioinformatics, genomics, and computational genetics and preparation for computational interdisciplinary research in genetics and genomics. Topics include genome analysis, regulatory genomics, association analysis, association study design, isolated and admixed populations, population substructure, human structural variation, model organisms, and genomic technologies. Computational techniques include those from statistics and computer science. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Eskin (W)

230A. Models of Information and Computation. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 131, 181. Paradigms, models, frameworks, and problem solving; UML and metamodeling; basic information and computation models; axiomatic systems; domain theory; least fixed point theory; well-founded induction. Logical models: sentences, axioms and rules, normal forms, derivation and proof, models and semantics, propositional logic, first-order logic, logic programming. Functional models: expressions, equations, evaluation; combinators; lambda calculus; functional programming. Program models: program derivation and verification using Hoare logic, object models, standard templates, design patterns, frameworks. Letter grading. Mr. Bagrodia, Mr. Parker, Mr. Zaniolo

231. Types and Programming Languages. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 131. Introduction to static type systems and their usage in programming language design and software reliability. Operational semantics, simply-typed lambda calculus, type soundness proofs, types for mutable references, types for exceptions. Parametric polymorphism, let-bound polymorphism, polymorphic type inference. Types for objects, subtyping, combining parametric polymorphism and subtyping. Types for modules, parameterized modules. Formal specification and implementation of variety of type systems, as well as readings from recent research literature on modern applications of type systems. Letter grading. Mr. Millstein (F)

232. Static Program Analysis. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 132. Introduction to static analysis of object-oriented programs and its usage for optimization and bug finding. Class hierarchy analysis, rapid type analysis, equality-based analysis, subset-based analysis, flow-insensitive and flow-sensitive analysis, context-insensitive and context-sensitive analysis. Soundness proofs for static analyses. Efficient data structures for static analysis information such as directed graphs and binary decision diagrams. Flow-directed method inlining, type-safe method inlining, synchronization optimization, deadlock detection, security vulnerability detection. Formal specification and implementation of variety of static analyses, as well as readings from recent research literature on modern applications of static analysis. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg (Sp)

233A. Parallel Programming. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 111, 131. Mutual exclusion and resource allocation in distributed systems; primitives for parallel computation: specification of parallelism, interprocess communication and synchronization, atomic actions, binary and multiway rendezvous; synchronous and asynchronous languages: CSP, Ada, Linda, Maisie, UC, and others; introduction to parallel program verification. Letter grading. Mr. Cong

233B. Verification of Concurrent Programs. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 233A. Formal techniques for verification of concurrent programs. Topics include safety, liveness, program and state assertion-based techniques, weakest precondition semantics, Hoare logic, temporal logic, UNITY, and axiomatic semantics for selected parallel languages. Letter grading. Mr. Bagrodia

234. Computer-Aided Verification. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 181. Introduction to theory and practice of formal methods for design and analysis of concurrent and embedded systems, with focus on algorithmic techniques for checking logical properties of hardware and software systems. Topics include semantics of reactive systems, invariant verification, temporal logic model checking, theory of omega automata, state-space reduction techniques, compositional and hierarchical reasoning. Letter grading. Mr. Majumdar

235. Advanced Operating Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours. Preparation: C or C++ programming experience. Requisite: course 111. In-depth investigation of operating systems issues through guided construction of research operating system for PC machines and consideration of recent literature. Memory management and protection, interrupts and traps, processes, interprocess communication, preemptive multitasking, file systems. Virtualization, networking, profiling, research operating systems. Series of laboratory projects, including extra challenge work. Letter grading. Mr. Kohler (F)

236. Computer Security. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 111, 118. Basic and research material on computer security. Topics include basic principles and goals of computer security, common security tools, use of cryptographic protocols for security, security tools (firewalls, virtual private networks, honeypots), virus and worm protection, security assurance and testing, design of secure programs, privacy, applying security principles to realistic problems, and new and emerging threats and security tools. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg, Mr. Reiher

239. Current Topics in Computer Science: Programming Languages and Systems. (2 to 12)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Review of current literature in area of computer science programming languages and systems in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Palsberg (F)

240A. Databases and Knowledge Bases. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 143. Theoretical and technological foundation of Intelligent Database Systems, that merge database technology, knowledge-based systems, and advanced programming environments. Rule-based knowledge representation, spatio-temporal reasoning, and logic-based declarative querying/programming are salient features of this technology. Other topics include object-relational systems and data mining techniques. Letter grading. Mr. Zaniolo (W)

240B. Advanced Data and Knowledge Bases. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 143, 240A. Logical models for data and knowledge representations. Rule-based languages and nonmonotonic reasoning. Temporal queries, spatial queries, and uncertainty in deductive databases and object relational databases (ORDBs). Abstract data types and user-defined column functions in ORDBs. Data mining algorithms. Semistructured information. Letter grading. Mr. Parker, Mr. Zaniolo (Sp)

241A. Object-Oriented and Semantic Database Systems. (4)

Lecture, three and one-half hours; discussion, 30 minutes; laboratory, one hour; outside study, seven hours. Requisite: course 143. Object database principles and requirements. Data models, accessing, and query languages. Object data management standards. Extended relational-object systems. Database systems architecture and functional components. Systems comparison. Commercial products. Database design, organization, indexing, and performance. Future directions. Other topics at discretion of instructor. Letter grading. Mr. Cardenas (F)

241B. Pictorial and Multimedia Database Management. (4)

Lecture, three and one-half hours; discussion, 30 minutes; laboratory, one hour; outside study, seven hours. Requisite: course 143. Multimedia data: alphanumeric, long text, images/pictures, video, and voice. Multimedia information systems requirements. Data models. Searching and accessing databases and across Internet by alphanumeric, image, video, and audio content. Querying, visual languages, and communication. Database design and organization, logical and physical. Indexing methods. Internet multimedia streaming. Other topics at discretion of instructor. Letter grading. Mr. Cardenas (Sp)

244A. Distributed Database Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 215 and/or 241A. File allocation, intelligent directory design, transaction management, deadlock, strong and weak concurrency control, commit protocols, semantic query answering, multidatabase systems, fault recovery techniques, network partitioning, examples, trade-offs, and design experiences. Letter grading. Mr. Chu

245A. Intelligent Information Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 241A, 255A. Knowledge discovery in database, knowledge-base maintenance, knowledge-base and database integration architectures, and scale-up issues and applications to cooperative database systems, intelligent decision support systems, and intelligent planning and scheduling systems; computer architecture for processing large-scale knowledge-base/database systems. Letter grading. Mr. Chu

246. Web Information Management. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 112, 143, 180, 181. Designed for graduate students. Scale of Web data requires novel algorithms and principles for their management and retrieval. Study of Web characteristics and new management techniques needed to build computer systems suitable for Web environment. Topics include Web measuring techniques, large-scale data mining algorithms, efficient page refresh techniques, Web-search ranking algorithms, and query processing techniques on independent data sources. Letter grading. Mr. Cho (F)

249. Current Topics in Data Structures. (2 to 12)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Review of current literature in area of data structures in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. Letter grading. Mr. Parker (W)

251A. Advanced Computer Architecture. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M151B. Recommended: course 111. Design and implementation of high-performance systems, advanced memory hierarchy techniques, static and dynamic pipelining, superscalar and VLIW processors, branch prediction, speculative execution, software support for instruction-level parallelism, simulation-based performance analysis and evaluation, state-of-art design examples, introduction to parallel architectures. Letter grading. Mr. Ercegovac, Mr. Tamir (F)

251B. Parallel Computer Architectures. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M151B. Recommended: course 251A. SIMD and MIMD systems, symmetric multiprocessors, distributed-shared-memory systems, messages-passing systems, multicore chips, clusters, interconnection networks, host-network interfaces, switching element design, communication primitives, cache coherency, memory consistency models, synchronization primitives, state-of-art design examples. Letter grading. Mr. Ercegovac, Mr. Tamir (W)

252A. Arithmetic Algorithms and Processors. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 251A. Number systems: conventional, redundant, signed-digit, and residue. Types of algorithms and implementations. Complexity measures. Fast algorithms and implementations for two-operand addition, multioperand addition, multiplication, division, and square root. Online arithmetic. Evaluation of transcendental functions. Floating-point arithmetic and numerical error control. Arithmetic error codes. Residue arithmetic. Examples of contemporary arithmetic ICs and processors. Letter grading. Mr. Ercegovac (W)

253A. Design of Fault-Tolerant Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite or corequisite: course 251A. Fundamental concepts of dependable computing. Design methodology for fault-tolerant systems. Analytic models and measures, modeling tools. Design for critical applications: long-life, real-time, and high-availability systems. Tolerance of design faults: design diversity and fault-tolerant software. Letter grading.

253C. Testing and Testable Design of VLSI Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M51A. Detailed study of various problems in testing and testable designs of VLSI systems, including fault modeling, fault simulation, testing for single stuck faults and multiple stuck faults, functional testing, design for testability, compression techniques, and built-in self-test. Letter grading. Mr. Cong

254A. Computer Memories and Memory Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 251A. Generic types of memory systems; control, access modes, hierarchies, and allocation algorithms. Characteristics, system organization, and device considerations of ferrite memories, thin film memories, and semiconductor memories. Letter grading. Mr. Chu

255A. Distributed Processing Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 215 and/or 251A. Task partitioning and allocation, interprocess communications, task response time model, process scheduling, message passing protocols, replicated file systems, interface, cache memory, actor model, fine grain multicomputers, distributed operating system kernel, error recovery strategy, performance monitoring and measurement, scalability and maintainability, prototypes and commercial distributed systems. Letter grading. Mr. Chu

256A. Advanced Scalable Architectures. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M151B. Recommended: course 251A. State-of-art scalable multiprocessors. Interdependency among implementation technology, chip microarchitecture, and system architecture. High-performance building blocks, such as chip multiprocessors (CMPs). On-chip and off-chip communication. Mechanisms for exploiting parallelism at multiple levels. Current research areas. Examples of chips and systems. Letter grading. Mr. Tamir

M258A. Design of VLSI Circuits and Systems. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M216A.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, four hours; outside study, three hours. Requisites: course M51A or Electrical Engineering M16, and Electrical Engineering 115A. Recommended: Electrical Engineering 115C. LSI/VLSI design and application in computer systems. Fundamental design techniques that can be used to implement complex integrated systems on chips. Letter grading.

M258C. LSI in Computer System Design. (4)

(Same as Electrical Engineering M216C.) Lecture, four hours; laboratory, four hours; outside study, four hours. Requisite: course M258A. LSI/VLSI design and application in computer systems. In-depth studies of VLSI architectures and VLSI design tools. Letter grading.

258E. Foundations of VLSI CAD Algorithms. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Preparation: one course in analysis and design of algorithms. Basic theory of combinatorial optimization for VLSI physical layout, including mathematical programming, network flows, matching, greedy and heuristic algorithms, and stochastic methods. Emphasis on practical application to computer-aided physical design of VLSI circuits at high-level phases of layout: partitioning, placement, graph folding, floorplanning, and global routing. Letter grading.

258F. Physical Design Automation of VLSI Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Detailed study of various physical design automation problems of VLSI circuits, including logic partitioning, floorplanning, placement, global routing, channel and switchbox routing, planar routing and via minimization, compaction and performance-driven layout. Discussion of applications of number of important optimization techniques, such as network flows, Steiner trees, simulated annealing, and generic algorithms. Letter grading. Mr. Cong

258G. Logic Synthesis of Digital Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses M51A, 180. Detailed study of various problems in logic-level synthesis of VLSI digital systems, including two-level Boolean network optimization; multilevel Boolean network optimization; technology mapping for standard cell designs and field-programmable gate-array (FPGA) designs; retiming for sequential circuits; and applications of binary decision diagrams (BDDS). Letter grading. Mr. Cong

258H. Analysis and Design of High-Speed VLSI Interconnects. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses M258A, 258F. Detailed study of various problems in analysis and design of high-speed VLSI interconnects at both integrated circuit (IC) and packing levels, including interconnect capacitance and resistance, lossless and lossy transmission lines, cross-talk and power distribution noise, delay models and power dissipation models, interconnect topology and geometry optimization, and clocking for high-speed systems. Letter grading. Mr. Cong

259. Current Topics in Computer Science: System Design/Architecture. (2 to 12)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Review of current literature in area of computer science system design in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. (F,W,Sp)

260. Machine Learning Theory. (4)

Lecture, four hours. Preparation: basic knowledge of probability and ability to read and write mathematical proofs. Theoretical foundations underlying common machine learning algorithms. Topics include introduction to PAC learning model, uniform convergence theory, VC dimension, online learning, no-regret learning, online convex optimization, ensemble methods and boosting, SVMs, and connections to game theory. Letter grading. Ms. Vaughn

261A. Problem Solving and Search. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 180. In-depth treatment of systematic problem-solving search algorithms in artificial intelligence, including problem spaces, brute-force search, heuristic search, linear-space algorithms, real-time search, heuristic evaluation functions, two-player games, and constraint-satisfaction problems. Letter grading. Mr. Korf (Sp)

262A. Reasoning with Partial Beliefs. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 112 or Electrical Engineering 131A. Review of several formalisms for representing and managing uncertainty in reasoning systems; presentation of comprehensive description of Bayesian inference using belief networks representation. Letter grading. Mr. Darwiche (F)

262B. Knowledge-Based Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 262A. Machine representation of judgmental knowledge and uncertain relationships. Inference on inexact knowledge bases. Rule-based systems — principles, advantages, and limitations. Signal understanding. Automated planning systems. Knowledge acquisition and explanation producing techniques. Letter grading. Mr. Pearl

M262C. Current Topics in Causal Modeling, Inference, and Reasoning. (4)

(Same as Statistics M241.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: one graduate probability or statistics course such as course 262A, Statistics 200B, or 202B. Review of Bayesian networks, causal Bayesian networks, and structural equations. Learning causal structures from data. Identifying causal effects. Covariate selection and instrumental variables in linear and nonparametric models. Simpson paradox and confounding control. Logic and algorithmization of counterfactuals. Probabilities of counterfactuals. Direct and indirect effects. Probabilities of causation. Identifying causes of events. Letter grading. Mr. Pearl

262Z. Current Topics in Cognitive Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 262A. Additional requisites for each offering announced in advance by department. Theory and implementation of systems that emulate or support human reasoning. Current literature and individual studies in artificial intelligence, knowledge-based systems, decision support systems, computational psychology, and heuristic programming theory. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Pearl (Sp)

263A. Language and Thought. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 130 or 131 or 161. Introduction to natural language processing (NLP), with emphasis on semantics. Presentation of process models for variety of tasks, including question answering, paraphrasing, machine translation, word-sense disambiguation, narrative and editorial comprehension. Examination of both symbolic and statistical approaches to language processing and acquisition. Letter grading. Mr. Dyer

263B. Connectionist Natural Language Processing. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 161 or 263A. Examination of connectionist/ANN architectures designed for natural language processing. Issues include localist versus distributed representations, variable binding, instantiation and inference via spreading activation, acquisition of language and world knowledge (for instance, via back propagation in PDP networks and competitive learning in self-organizing feature maps), and grounding of symbols in sensory/motor experience. Letter grading. Mr. Dyer

263C. Animats-Based Modeling. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 130 or 131 or 161. Animats are mobile/sensing animal-like software agents embedded in simulated dynamic environments. Emphasis on modeling: goal-oriented behavior via neurocontrollers, adaptation via reinforcement learning, evolutionary programming. Animat-based tasks include foraging, mate finding, predation, navigation, predator avoidance, cooperative nest construction, communication, and parenting. Letter grading. Mr. Dyer (W)

264A. Automated Reasoning: Theory and Applications. (4)

Lecture, four hours; laboratory, four hours; outside study, four hours. Requisite: course 161. Introduction to theory and practice of automated reasoning using propositional and first-order logic. Topics include syntax and semantics of formal logic; algorithms for logical reasoning, including satisfiability and entailment; syntactic and semantic restrictions on knowledge bases; effect of these restrictions on expressiveness, compactness, and computational tractability; applications of automated reasoning to diagnosis, planning, design, formal verification, and reliability analysis. Letter grading. Mr. Darwiche

265A. Machine Learning. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: courses 263A, 264A. Introduction to machine learning. Learning by analogy, inductive learning, modeling creativity, learning by experience, role of episodic memory organization in learning. Examination of BACON, AM, Eurisko, HACKER, teachable production systems. Failure-driven learning. Letter grading.

M266A. Statistical Modeling and Learning in Vision and Science. (4)

(Same as Statistics M232A.) Lecture, three hours. Preparation: basic statistics, linear algebra (matrix analysis), computer vision. Computer vision and pattern recognition. Study of four types of statistical models for modeling visual patterns: descriptive, causal Markov, generative (hidden Markov), and discriminative. Comparison of principles and algorithms for these models; presentation of unifying picture. Introduction of minimax entropy and EM-type and stochastic algorithms for learning. S/U or letter grading.

M266B. Statistical Computing and Inference in Vision and Image Science. (4)

(Same as Statistics M232B.) Lecture, three hours. Preparation: basic statistics, linear algebra (matrix analysis), computer vision. Introduction to broad range of algorithms for statistical inference and learning that could be used in vision, pattern recognition, speech, bioinformatics, data mining. Topics include Markov chain Monte Carlo computing, sequential Monte Carlo methods, belief propagation, partial differential equations. S/U or letter grading.

267A. Neural Models. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate students. Review of major neurophysiological milestones in understanding brain architecture and processes. Focus on brain theories that are important for modern computer science and, in particular, on models of sensory perception, sensory-motor coordination, and cerebellar and cerebral structure and function. Students required to prepare papers analyzing research in one area of interest. Letter grading. Mr. Vidal

267B. Artificial Neural Systems and Connectionist Computing. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate students. Analysis of major connectionist computing paradigms and underlying models of biological and physical processes. Examination of past and current implementations of artificial neural networks along with their applications to associative knowledge processing, general multisensor pattern recognition including speed and vision, and adaptive robot control. Students required to prepare papers analyzing research in one area of interest. Letter grading. Mr. Vidal

268. Machine Perception. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate students. Computational aspects of processing visual and other sensory information. Unified treatment of early vision in man and machine. Integration of symbolic and iconic representations in process of image segmentation. Computing multimodal sensory information by “neural-net” architectures. Letter grading.

268S. Seminar: Computational Neuroscience. (2)

Seminar, two hours; outside study, four hours. Designed for students undertaking thesis research. Discussion of advanced topics and current research in computational neuroscience. Neural networks and connectionism as paradigm for parallel and concurrent computation in application to problems of perception, vision, multimodal sensory integration, and robotics. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading.

269. Seminar: Current Topics in Artificial Intelligence. (4)

Seminar, to be arranged. Review of current literature and research practicum in area of artificial intelligence in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Soatto, Ms. Vaughn (F,Sp)

270A. Computer Methodology: Advanced Numerical Methods. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: Electrical Engineering 103 or Mathematics 151B or comparable experience with numerical computing. Designed for graduate computer science and engineering students. Principles of computer treatment of selected numerical problems in algebraic and differential systems, transforms and spectra, data acquisition and reduction; emphasis on concepts pertinent to modeling and simulation and applicability of contemporary developments in numerical software. Computer exercises. Letter grading. Mr. Carlyle

271A. Modeling and Simulation of Lumped Parameter Systems. (4)

Lecture, eight hours; outside study, four hours. Recommended preparation: course 270A. Characterization of electrical, electromechanical, and other engineering problems by systems of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. Survey of integration algorithms. Digital simulation languages for continuous systems. Real-time simulation using array processor and multiprocessor computer systems. Letter grading.

271B. Modeling and Simulation of Distributed Parameter Systems. (4)

Lecture, eight hours; outside study, four hours. Recommended preparation: course 270A. Mathematical formulation of engineering field problems governed by partial differential equations. Finite difference and finite element approximations. Principal algorithms for solving elliptic, parabolic, and hyperbolic partial differential equations. Supercomputers, vector processors, multiprocessors, and array processors. Letter grading.

271C. Seminar: Advanced Simulation Methods. (2)

Seminar, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 271A. Discussion of advanced topics in simulation of systems characterized by ordinary and partial differential equations. Topics include (among others) simulation languages, dataflow machines, array processors, and advanced mathematical modeling techniques. Topics vary each term. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading.

272. Advanced Discrete Event Simulation and Modeling Techniques. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. In-depth study in discrete event simulation and modeling techniques, including building valid and credible simulation models, output analysis of systems, comparisons of alternative system configurations. Variance reduction techniques, simulation models of computer systems and manufacturing systems. Letter grading.

273A. Digital Processing of Engineering and Statistical Data. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Computer methods for processing engineering and statistical data. Algorithms to evaluate recursive filter functions, Fourier series, power spectral, analysis correlation computations, and statistical testing. Letter grading.

C274C. Computer Animation. (4)

Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisite: course 174A. Introduction to computer animation, including basic principles of character modeling, forward and inverse kinematics, forward and inverse dynamics, motion capture animation techniques, physics-based animation of particles and systems, and motor control. Concurrently scheduled with course C174C. Letter grading. Mr. Faloutsos (W, alternate years)

275. Artificial Life for Computer Graphics and Vision. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Enforced requisite: course 174A. Recommended: course 161. Investigation of important role that concepts from artificial life, emerging discipline that spans computational and biological sciences, can play in construction of advanced computer graphics and vision models for virtual reality, animation, interactive games, active vision, visual sensor networks, medical image analysis, etc. Focus on comprehensive models that can realistically emulate variety of living things (plants and animals) from lower animals to humans. Exposure to effective computational modeling of natural phenomena of life and their incorporation into sophisticated, self-animating graphical entities. Specific topics include modeling plants using L-systems, biomechanical simulation and control, behavioral animation, reinforcement and neural-network learning of locomotion, cognitive modeling, artificial animals and humans, human facial animation, and artificial evolution. Letter grading. Mr. Terzopoulos (W)

M276A. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. (4)

(Same as Statistics M231.) Lecture, three hours. Designed for graduate students. Fundamental concepts, theories, and algorithms for pattern recognition and machine learning that are used in computer vision, image processing, speech recognition, data mining, statistics, and computational biology. Topics include Bayesian decision theory, parametric and nonparametric learning, clustering, complexity (VC-dimension, MDL, AIC), PCA/ICA/TCA, MDS, SVM, boosting. S/U or letter grading. Mr. Zhu

276B. Structured Computer Vision. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Designed for graduate students. Methods for computer processing of image data. Systems, concepts, and algorithms for image analysis, radiologic and robotic applications. Letter grading.

276C. Speech and Language Communication in Artificial Intelligence. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M276A or 276B. Topics in human-computer communication: interaction with pictorial information systems, sound and symbol generation by humans and machines, semantics of data, systems for speech recognition and understanding. Use of speech and text for computer input and output in applications. Letter grading.

M278. Probabilistic Models of Cognition. (4)

(Same as Statistics M239.) Seminar, three hours; discussion, one hour. Requisites: course 180, Mathematics 33A, Statistics 100B. Modeling aspects of human cognition, designing artificial intelligence systems. Introduction to conceptual foundations and basic mathematical and computational techniques. Topics illustrated on different aspects of cognition. S/U or letter grading.

279. Current Topics in Computer Science: Methodology. (2 to 12)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Review of current literature in area of computer science methodology in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading.

280A-280ZZ. Algorithms. (4 each)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 180. Additional requisites for each offering announced in advance by department. Selections from design, analysis, optimization, and implementation of algorithms; computational complexity and general theory of algorithms; algorithms for particular application areas. Subtitles of some current sections: Principles of Design and Analysis (280A); Distributed Algorithms (280D); Graphs and Networks (280G). May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor and topic change. Letter grading:

280AP. Approximation Algorithms. (4) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 180. Background in discrete mathematics helpful. Theoretically sound techniques for dealing with NP-Hard problems. Inability to solve these problems efficiently means algorithmic techniques are based on approximation — finding solution that is near to best possible in efficient running time. Coverage of approximation techniques for number of different problems, with algorithm design techniques that include primal-dual method, linear program rounding, greedy algorithms, and local search. Letter grading. Mr. Meyerson (F)

281A. Computability and Complexity. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 181 or compatible background. Concepts fundamental to study of discrete information systems and theory of computing, with emphasis on regular sets of strings, Turing-recognizable (recursively enumerable) sets, closure properties, machine characterizations, nondeterminisms, decidability, unsolvable problems, “easy” and “hard” problems, PTIME/NPTIME. Letter grading. Mr. Ostrovsky (W)

281D. Discrete State Systems. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Recommended requisite: course 181. Finite-state machines, transducers, and their generalizations; regular expressions, transduction expressions, realizability; decomposition, synthesis, and design considerations; topics in state and system identification and fault diagnosis, linear machines, probabilistic machines, applications in coding, communication, computing, system modeling, and simulation. Letter grading. Mr. Carlyle

M282A. Cryptography. (4)

(Same as Mathematics M209A.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Introduction to theory of cryptography, stressing rigorous definitions and proofs of security. Topics include notions of hardness, one-way functions, hard-core bits, pseudorandom generators, pseudorandom functions and pseudorandom permutations, semantic security, public-key and private-key encryption, secret-sharing, message authentication, digital signatures, interactive proofs, zero-knowledge proofs, collision-resistant hash functions, commitment protocols, key-agreement, contract signing, and two-party secure computation with static security. Letter grading. Mr. Ostrovsky

M282B. Cryptographic Protocols. (4)

(Same as Mathematics M209B.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M282A. Consideration of advanced cryptographic protocol design and analysis. Topics include noninteractive zero-knowledge proofs; zero-knowledge arguments; concurrent and non-black-box zero-knowledge; IP=PSPACE proof, stronger notions of security for public-key encryption, including chosen-ciphertext security; secure multiparty computation; dealing with dynamic adversary; nonmalleability and composability of secure protocols; software protection; threshold cryptography; identity-based cryptography; private information retrieval; protection against man-in-middle attacks; voting protocols; identification protocols; digital cash schemes; lower bounds on use of cryptographic primitives, software obfuscation. May be repeated for credit with topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Ostrovsky (F)

M283A-M283B. Topics in Applied Number Theory. (4-4)

(Same as Mathematics M208A-M208B.) Lecture, three hours. Basic number theory, including congruences and prime numbers. Cryptography: public-key and discrete log cryptosystems. Attacks on cryptosystems. Primality testing and factorization methods. Elliptic curve methods. Topics from coding theory: Hamming codes, cyclic codes, Gilbert/Varshamov bounds, Shannon theorem. S/U or letter grading.

284A-284ZZ. Topics in Automata and Languages. (4 each)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 181. Additional requisites for each offering announced in advance by department. Selections from families of formal languages, grammars, machines, operators; pushdown automata, context-free languages and their generalizations, parsing; multidimensional grammars, developmental systems; machine-based complexity. Subtitles of some current and planned sections: Context-Free Languages (284A), Parsing Algorithms (284P). May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor and topic change. Letter grading. Mr. Sahai (Sp)

CM286. Computational Systems Biology: Modeling and Simulation of Biological Systems. (5)

(Formerly numbered CM286B.) (Same as Biomedical Engineering CM286.) Lecture, four hours; laboratory, three hours; outside study, eight hours. Corequisite: Electrical Engineering 102. Dynamic biosystems modeling and computer simulation methods for studying biological/biomedical processes and systems at multiple levels of organization. Control system, multicompartmental, predator-prey, pharmacokinetic (PK), pharmacodynamic (PD), and other structural modeling methods applied to life sciences problems at molecular, cellular (biochemical pathways/networks), organ, and organismic levels. Both theory- and data-driven modeling, with focus on translating biomodeling goals and data into mathematics models and implementing them for simulation and analysis. Basics of numerical simulation algorithms, with modeling software exercises in class and PC laboratory assignments. Concurrently scheduled with course CM186. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano (F)

CM287. Thesis Research and Research Communication in Computational and Systems Biology. (2 to 4)

(Formerly numbered CM286C.) (Same as Biomedical Engineering CM287.) Lecture, one hour; discussion, two hours; laboratory, one hour; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course CM286. Closely directed, interactive, and real research experience in active quantitative systems biology research laboratory. Direction on how to focus on topics of current interest in scientific community, appropriate to student interests and capabilities. Critiques of oral presentations and written progress reports explain how to proceed with search for research results. Major emphasis on effective research reporting, both oral and written. Concurrently scheduled with course CM187. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano (Sp)

287A. Theory of Program Structure. (4)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 181. Models of computer programs and their syntax and semantics; emphasis on programs and recursion schemes; equivalence, optimization, correctness, and translatability of programs; expressive power of program constructs and data structures; selected current topics. Letter grading. Ms. Greibach

288S. Seminar: Theoretical Computer Science. (2)

Seminar, two hours; outside study, six hours. Requisites: courses 280A, 281A. Intended for students undertaking thesis research. Discussion of advanced topics and current research in such areas as algorithms and complexity models for parallel and concurrent computation, and formal language and automata theory. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading. Ms. Greibach

289A-289ZZ. Current Topics in Computer Theory. (2 to 12 each)

Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Review of current literature in area of computer theory in which instructor has developed special proficiency as consequence of research interests. Students report on selected topics. Letter grading:

289CO. Complexity Theory. (4). Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Diagonalization, polynomial-time hierarchy, PCP theorem, randomness and de-randomization, circuit complexity, attempts and limitations to proving P does not equal NP, average-case complexity, one-way functions, hardness amplification. Problem sets and presentation of previous and original research related to course topics. Letter grading. Mr. Sahai (F)

289OA. Online Algorithms. (4) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 180. Introduction to decision making under uncertainty and competitive analysis. Review of current research in online algorithms for problems arising in many areas, such as data and memory management, searching and navigating in unknown terrains, and server systems. Letter grading. Mr. Meyerson (Sp, alternate years)

289RA. Randomized Algorithms. (4) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Basic concepts and design techniques for randomized algorithms, such as probability theory, Markov chains, random walks, and probabilistic method. Applications to randomized algorithms in data structures, graph theory, computational geometry, number theory, and parallel and distributed systems. Letter grading. Mr. Meyerson

M296A. Advanced Modeling Methodology for Dynamic Biomedical Systems. (4)

(Same as Biomedical Engineering M296A and Medicine M270C.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: Electrical Engineering 141 or 142 or Mathematics 115A or Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 171A. Development of dynamic systems modeling methodology for physiological, biomedical, pharmacological, chemical, and related systems. Control system, multicompartmental, noncompartmental, and input/output models, linear and nonlinear. Emphasis on model applications, limitations, and relevance in biomedical sciences and other limited data environments. Problem solving in PC laboratory. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano

M296B. Optimal Parameter Estimation and Experiment Design for Biomedical Systems. (4)

(Same as Biomathematics M270, Biomedical Engineering M296B, and Medicine M270D.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M296A or Biomathematics 220. Estimation methodology and model parameter estimation algorithms for fitting dynamic system models to biomedical data. Model discrimination methods. Theory and algorithms for designing optimal experiments for developing and quantifying models, with special focus on optimal sampling schedule design for kinetic models. Exploration of PC software for model building and optimal experiment design via applications in physiology and pharmacology. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano

M296C. Advanced Topics and Research in Biomedical Systems Modeling and Computing. (4)

(Same as Biomedical Engineering M296C and Medicine M270E.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course M296A. Recommended: course M296B. Research techniques and experience on special topics involving models, modeling methods, and model/computing in biological and medical sciences. Review and critique of literature. Research problem searching and formulation. Approaches to solutions. Individual M.S.- and Ph.D.-level project training. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano

M296D. Introduction to Computational Cardiology. (4)

(Same as Biomedical Engineering M296D.) Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course CM186. Introduction to mathematical modeling and computer simulation of cardiac electrophysiological process. Ionic models of action potential (AP). Theory of AP propagation in one-dimensional and two-dimensional cardiac tissue. Simulation on sequential and parallel supercomputers, choice of numerical algorithms, to optimize accuracy and to provide computational stability. Letter grading. Mr. DiStefano, Mr. Kogan

298. Research Seminar: Computer Science. (2 to 4)

Seminar, two to four hours; outside study, four to eight hours. Designed for graduate computer science students. Discussion of advanced topics and current research in algorithmic processes that describe and transform information: theory, analysis, design, efficiency, implementation, and application. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading. (F,W,Sp)

375. Teaching Apprentice Practicum. (1 to 4)

Seminar, to be arranged. Preparation: apprentice personnel employment as teaching assistant, associate, or fellow. Teaching apprenticeship under active guidance and supervision of regular faculty member responsible for curriculum and instruction at UCLA. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading. (F,W,Sp)

495. Teaching Assistant Training Seminar. (2)

Seminar, two hours; outside study, six hours. Limited to graduate Computer Science Department students. Seminar on communication of computer science materials in classroom: preparation, organization of material, presentation, use of visual aids, grading, advising, and rapport with students. S/U grading.

495B. Teaching with Technology. (2)

Seminar, two hours; outside study, four hours. Limited to graduate Computer Science Department teaching assistants. Seminar for teaching assistants covering how technology can be used to aid instruction in and out of classroom. S/U grading. Mr. Korf

497D-497E. Field Projects in Computer Science. (4-4)

Fieldwork, to be arranged. Students are divided into teams led by instructor; each team is assigned one external company or organization that they investigate as candidate for possible computerization, submitting team report of their findings and recommendations. In Progress (497D) and S/U or letter (497E) grading. Mr. Cardenas

596. Directed Individual or Tutorial Studies. (2 to 8)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Petition forms to request enrollment may be obtained from assistant dean, Graduate Studies. Supervised investigation of advanced technical problems. S/U grading.

597A. Preparation for M.S. Comprehensive Examination. (2 to 12)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Reading and preparation for M.S. comprehensive examination. S/U grading.

597B. Preparation for Ph.D. Preliminary Examinations. (2 to 16)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Preparation for Ph.D. preliminary examinations. S/U grading.

597C. Preparation for Ph.D. Oral Qualifying Examination. (2 to 16)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Preparation for oral qualifying examination, including preliminary research on dissertation. S/U grading.

598. Research for and Preparation of M.S. Thesis. (2 to 12)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Supervised independent research for M.S. candidates, including thesis prospectus. S/U grading.

599. Research for and Preparation of Ph.D. Dissertation. (2 to 16)

Tutorial, to be arranged. Limited to graduate computer science students. Petition forms to request enrollment may be obtained from assistant dean, Graduate Studies. S/U grading.

 

1. Also Professor of Medicine
2. Also Professor of Mathematics
3. Member of Brain Research Institute