Course Description

This course covers a wide variety of electronic payment mechanisms.  It is designed to stimulate creative thinking about the future of money and systems issues concerning electronic payments.

Instructor

Michael I. Shamos is Distinguished Career Professor in the School of Computer Science at CMU, Director of the Universal Library and Co-Director of the Master of Science in Electronic Commerce degree program at GSIA.  He is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar and the Bar of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Office: 4515 Newell Simon Hall.  Telephone: 268-8193.

Email: shamos@cs.cmu.edu

The teaching assistant is Lecturer Jie Hu, jieh@cs.cmu.edu.

TWO ROOMS AND TWO TIMES (occasionally more): Monday 5:30-7:30 Newell Simon 1305 and Friday 2:00 - 3:20 Posner 146.  EXCEPTION: Friday, March 19 is in Wean 5409 8:30-10:20 a.m.

Textbook (Required)

SECOND EDITION of Protocols for Secure Electronic Commerce, by M. H. Sharif, ISBN 0849315096.  The First Edition is obsolete.

Readings

Assigned readings for a particular lecture are to be completed before the lecture.  Some of the readings are quite long and detailed.  In such cases you should familiarize yourself with the material generally and delve deeply only into the topics listed in the syllabus.

Course Format

14 lectures, readings, two homework assignments and final exam. The basis for the course is the lectures. The reading assignments provide important background information. Because no textbook exists that presents all the necessary course material, you should make frequent reference to the list of links.  All homework assignments will be linked to this web page and thus can be obtained on-line.    Paper copies will not be handed out in class.

Grading

Each of the two homework assignments counts for 25% of the final grade.  The final exam counts for 40% of the final grade. Class participation counts for 10% of the final grade.

Submitting Work

All work required for this course must be submitted electronically by emailing it as an attachment (preferably Microsoft Word, but plain ASCII is ok) to the teaching assistant, with a copy to shamos@cs.cmu.edu.  ALL EXAMINATION WORK MUST BE SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY.  Handwritten materials are not acceptable and will not be read.

The MSEC program encourages teamwork.  However, we must evaluate each student's progress individually.  Therefore, you may work together on homework assignments provided that (1) each person's written submission is his or hers alone; and (2) you identify on the homework each person with whom you worked in connection with that assignment.  For example, you may work in pairs or groups to research, discuss and debate the homework, but then each person must go off and write their own paper.   You may never hand in work of another even if you state that you have worked with that person.  Violations of these rules will be dealt with harshly to the fullest extent of University policy.

Feedback

If you are having any problems with this course or the MSEC program in general, please see the instructor during after class, during office hours or make an appointment. We are all committed to a successful program. If problems are not addressed quickly you may find the course at an end before any remedial action can be taken.