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CSE 390HA - 142 Honors Seminar

Instructor: Hunter Schafer (hschafer [at] cs [dot] washington [dot] edu)

Welcome to CSE 390HA, the Honors section for CSE 142!

In this course we'll be exploring the impact technology has on society and being introduced to various facets of computer science that you would not see in CSE 142. Throughout the course our goal is to explore these topics through a mix readings out of the book "Weapons of Math Destruction" and articles, small exploratory homework assignments, and weekly discussions.

Required Book: The Ethical Algorithm

Authors: Michael Kearns and Aaron Roth

We recommend getting an e-book of this book to avoid the risk of trying to get a physical book during these times. It seems like the easiest purchasing option for the e-book is through Amazon ($10), but if you find another copy that's totally fine!

Please contact Hunter if you are have concerns 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 6 weeks of discussion activities. To "complete" a week, you need to do the assigned reading and any assigned activities (requires some effort for completion) and attend the discussion for that week (if you finish all the tasks and attend for a week, it's "completed"). There are 9 8 weeks that we will be meeting so that means you are able to miss 2 and still receive credit for the class!

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 - 5:00 pm. Our dicsussion meetings will happen via Zoom. You can find the join link here.

Course Content

Date Info
3/31
4/7

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 preview what a career as a professional computer programmer or researcher is like
  • To look more indepth at how we apply computational thinking to our daily lives

We emphasized that 142 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 computer science even is
  • What computers can and can't do
  • A brief intro to some sub-fields of CS and their potential impacts on society.
Intersting Links

Assignment Due Today:

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

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

  • Fill out this topic interest survey.
  • Read the Introduction of The Ethical Algorithm and fill out the reading reflection.
4/14

In this section, we will discuss some of the background context for The Ethical Algorithm. We discussed what the authors meant by algorithms, models, and meta-algorithms (learning algorithms). We also discussed some historical context for why ethics in algorithms is important; namely focusing on the infamous COMPAS predictions of recidivism rate.

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

  • Fill out this topic interest survey.
  • Read the Introduction of The Ethical Algorithm and fill out the reading reflection.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.
4/21

In this section, we will talk about privacy. We discussed two notions of privacy the authors presented: k-anonymity and differential privacy. We talked a bit about the implications of these privacy definitions and a bit about the role of privacy in our society.

Intersting Links

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.
4/28

In this section, we will talk about algorithmic fairness.

Intersting Links

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

None! Enjoy the week off!
5/5

Enjoy the week off!

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

  • Next week we will have some special guests joining our seminar. We will be having a panel of UW graduates who now work in the tech industry. We will have a Q&A for them after they share a bit about their experiences at UW and working after graudation. To prepare, you should think of some questions you might want to ask them and write them down in this Google Form.
5/12

This week, we will have guest panelists who graduated from UW that now work in the tech industry. They will share their experiences from being at UW and transitioning into the workforce.

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.
5/19

This week, we will talk about the process of scientific discovery and how this gets more complicated in the world of big data.

Intersting Links

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.
5/26

This week, we will talk about a discussion of ethics to these domains we have discussed this quarter.

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

Assignment Due Next Tuesday @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

  • Read Some Concluding Thoughts of the Ethical Algorithm and fill out the reading reflection.
6/2

This week, we will wrap up our discussion of the quarter and talk about some future directions.

Assignment Due Today @ 2:00 pm:

For this class, we will use Google Forms that require UW authentication to access. If you are having trouble accessing these forms, try to follow the instructions here.

  • Read Some Concluding Thoughts of the Ethical Algorithm and fill out the reading reflection.