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CSE 390HB - 123 Honors Seminar

Instructor: Brett Wortzman (brettwo [at] cs [dot] washington [dot] edu)

Welcome to CSE 390HB, the Honors section for CSE 123!

Each week, we will discuss various topics related to computer science. Our sessions will mostly relate to the societal and cultural impacts of technology and CS, and some exploration of some technical concepts. This course is NOT an opportunity to learn more programming or add more "rigor" to CSE 123, nor is any background or familiarity with computer science required outside of what is necessary for CSE 123. This is an opportunity to think about computer science and other related topics in a broader context.

Required Book: The Ethical Algorithm

Author: Michael Kearns & Aaron Roth

Michael Kearns is Professor and the National Center Chair in the Computer and Information Science department of the University of Pennsylvania, where he has secondary appointments in Economics and the Wharton School. He is also the Founding Director of Penn's Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences. Kearns has published widely in machine learning, artificial intelligence, algorithmic game theory and quantitative finance. He has worked extensively in the finance and technology industries, and consulted on various legal and regulatory matters involving algorithms, data, and machine learning. Together with U.V. Vazirani, he is the author of An Introduction to Computational Learning Theory.

Aaron Roth is the class of 1940 Bicentennial Term Associate Professor in the Computer and Information Science department at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-directs Penn's program in Networked and Social Systems Engineering. Roth has published widely in algorithms, machine learning, data privacy, and algorithmic game theory, and has consulted extensively about algorithmic privacy. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) awarded by President Obama in 2016. Together with Cynthia Dwork, he is the author of The Algorithmic Foundations of Differential Privacy.

Some Purchasing Options: Third Place Books, Powell's Books, Amazon (eBook cheaper). Also available online through UW Libraries.

Please contact Brett if you are have concerns about getting a copy of this book.

Credit

This is a 1-credit, discussion-based course. To earn credit for this course, you need to "complete" 7 weeks of discussion activities and the culminating project.

To "complete" a weekly discussion activity , you need to complete all of the following 3 things that week:

  1. Do the assigned reading
  2. Complete the required post-reading reflection (requires some effort for completion)
  3. Attend the discussion for that week

If you finish all the tasks and attend for a week, it's "completed". There are 9 weeks that we will be meeting so that means you are able to miss 2 and still receive credit for the class!

Details about the culminating activity will be posted towards the end of the quarter. It will involve researching and writing a paper on a new topic based on our discussions throughout the quarter.

The readings and activities for this class are not meant to take up a lot of time and you are not being tested on your understanding of the material. The exercises are there to get you thinking about computer science, how you can apply it to your own areas of interest, and how it impacts your day to day life.

Meetings

Our class meets on Tuesdays from 3:30 pm - 4:50 pm in CSE 403. (The Allen Center)

Course Content

Date Info
10/3

In this section, we will all meet and get to know each other and have a broad overview of what we want the discussion to look like this quarter. We discussed the high level goals of this course:

  • To explore the impact of technology and computer science concepts on society
  • To explore computer science and its applications as an academic field
  • To look more in-depth at how we apply computational thinking to our daily lives

We emphasized that CSE 123 is about how to program computers while computer science (and computational/algorithmic thinking) is a much large scope than just programming. As a group, we discussed:

  • What is computer science?
  • Why is it important?

Assignment Due Today:

  • None! Just show up and it will count for attendance!

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 3:00 pm:

  • Read the Introduction to The Ethical Algorithm.
10/10

In this class, we will discuss some of the background context for The Ethical Algorithm. We will discuss what the authors meant by algorithms, models, and meta-algorithms (learning algorithms).

Here are some links related to our discussion today:

Assignment Due Today @ 3:00 pm:

  • Read the Introduction to The Ethical Algorithm and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 1 - Algorithmic Privacy: From Anonymity to Noise, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.
10/17

Assignment Due Today @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 1 - Algorithmic Privacy: From Anonymity to Noise, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 2 - Algorithmic Fairness: From Parity to Pareto, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.
10/24

In this section, we will talk about algorithmic fairness and the implications of what world views we take. We'll also be joined by a special guest, Prof. Jamie Morgenstern!

Assignment Due Today @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 2 - Algorithmic Fairness: From Parity to Pareto, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 3 - Games People Play (With Algorithms), fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.
10/31

This week we will talk about how to reason about systems where individuals might acting according to their self-interests.

Assignment Due Today @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 3 - Games People Play (With Algorithms), fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 4 - Lost in the Garden: Led Astray by Data, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.
11/7

This we will talk about the problems, scientific and organizational, that leads to the "reproducibility crisis" in many scientific fields

Assignment Due Today @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 4 - Lost in the Garden: Led Astray by Data, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 5 - Risky Business: Interpretability, Morality, and the Singularity, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.
11/14

We will discuss some of the next steps in one of the final chapters of the book, trying to think about what might happen with technology in the future.

Assignment Due Today @ 12:00 pm:

  • Read Chapter 5 - Risky Business: Interpretability, Morality, and the Singularity, fill out the reading reflection, and attend the class discussion.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 12:00 pm:

  • None - no class!
11/21
11/28
12/5
12/12

The last requirement for earning credit for the class is earning credit for the final paper. See the requirements for more information.

Due Thursday, December 14th at 11:59pm