Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE CIS3186

 
TITLE Mobile Device Programming

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 5

 
DEPARTMENT Computer Information Systems

 
DESCRIPTION The need to develop applications for mobile devices for various domains has increased. This study-unit aims to cover key advanced aspects on how to design the best apps and websites for mobile devices and tablets. Professionals in the industry will be invited to discuss different topics required to solve problems related to designing mobile application. A number of sessions will be planned giving students the opportunity to implement what they have learnt, in a practical scenario and using state of the art technology such as those provided by Apple, Android and Windows. With the use of various tools students will have the opportunity to practice key concepts in the use of internet technology which will be adopted for mobile applications by providing platforms such as Microsoft Azure.

Developing web apps for mobile users: this set of lectures will introduce emerging web application development approaches and techniques that acknowledge and respect the mobile browser as a growing user-agent. Current development trends (e.g. “mobile-first”) as well as future or speculative directions (e.g. “offline-first”) will be investigated.

Students will be introduced to a set of tools that they can use to generate ideas for innovative mobile device applications and to evaluate the feasibility and market relevance of these applications.

A set of lectures will cover topics such as the following: mobile commerce, human mobile interface techniques, internet technology for mobiles, spatial data model and location-based services. Main concepts of Geographic Information Systems will also be covered.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims to get students to design, implement mobile applications.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- analyse different requirements by evaluating different case studies from different domains;
- acquire knowledge on recent technologies including platforms wireless technology in respect to mobile applications;
- apply HCI techniques to design user-friendly applications;
- handle data in distributed scenario;
- describe and use appropriately geographic information systems (GIS);
- apply geographic information to LBS;
- apply solutions when designing applications that required the use of indoor location;
- through the adoption of existing and emerging web technologies, design and build mobile-friendly web applications.

2. Skills:
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- evaluate mobile platforms and their respective development environments;
- adopt creative techniques in problem solving to given set of requirements;
- understand client needs and translate them into effective solutions that are useful and successful;
- design and develop applications for mobile devices;
- refer to best practice to design application using HCI techniques required to develop applications;
- implement software by using technologies available today in the following areas:
    - context Awareness and related algorithms to achieve goals required;
    - different models adopted for Mobile commerce;
    - distributed databases and local databases stored on mobile devices;
    - data collection, creation and its management.
    - Within the GIS scenarios:
        - improve data quality by reducing data error;
        - analyse data spatially;
        - visualise the data and apply it to their needs.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Allen, Grant, publish date 2015 - Beginning Android - ISBN 978-1-4302-4687-9.
- Talukder Asoke and Yavagal Roopa, Mobile Computing: Technology, applications and services creation. ISBN 9780071477338. Latest edition.
- Dino Esposito, Architecture Mobile Solutions for the Enterprise. ISBN 978 0 7356 6302 2.
- Longley Paul, Geographic Information Systems and Science. ISBN 0471892750, Wiley. Latest edition.

Other Texts:

- Mobile Computing Journals.
- Technical Documentation or Manuals related to Mobile devices and programming language chosen.

 
ADDITIONAL NOTES Pre-requisite Qualifications: Object-Oriented Programming and Databases

Pre-requisite Study-unit: CIS2109 or similar

Students taking this study-unit need to have a technical background.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture, Independent Study and Practical

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Presentation SEM1 Yes 15%
Project SEM1 Yes 85%

 
LECTURER/S Eman Buhagiar
Conrad Attard
Daniel Cauchi
Margaret Mangion

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit