Course Project

Conversations analyzing computing systems often occur in academic articles, blogs, Medium, and on Twitter. Becoming a citizen of the “society of tech” involves participating in this discourse critically and staying informed. As a means to foster your participation, this class project asks you to research a specific technology, idea, or system and attempt to analyze, criticize, and re-imagine it.

So far, your work as a computer scientist has likely focused on building computer systems. In this project, and throughout the class, you will consider such systems within the context of larger political and social questions. As such, much of your work in this project will be to analyze how specific technical decisions can have broad, rippling effects.

The project is divided in three parts, each of which you will turn in independently:

Figures from the 1963 “Proposal for a Study to Determine the Feasibility of a Simplified Face Recognition Machine” by Dr. W. W. Bledsoe of Panoramic Research, Inc.
Figures from the 1963 “Proposal for a Study to Determine the Feasibility of a Simplified Face Recognition Machine” by Dr. W. W. Bledsoe of Panoramic Research, Inc.

Part one: Technical analysis

Turned in to Canvas by Friday April 30th at 10 pm

Computing systems appear throughout your daily life. Here, in this project, we ask you to focus on one of those systems and to learn more about it. The first part of analyzing such a sociotechnical system, and thus the first part of this project, is to understand and explain it. While a computer science education provides you a unique technical background to understand such systems, it also poses difficulties in reaching a non-technical audience.

In this assignment, we ask you to:

  • Select a research subject. If you’re stuck, consider the list of example areas below.
  • Then, research it, keeping track of your sources along the way.
    • Go beyond the suggested articles. Identify related research papers, technical journal articles, textbooks, and blog posts.
  • In approximately one page, explain to a general audience how your chosen system works.
    • You may assume the audience is college educated, but be sure to carefully explain any jargon. Feel free to include diagrams if they help your explanation.
  • Consider questions such as:
    • What’s the conceptual or theoretical background on which this technology or system is based?
    • What data does the system require as inputs? What are its outputs?
      • (if yours is a cyber-physical system) How does it interact with the physical world?
      • What types of sensors does it use? What are their limitations?
    • What algorithms does it use? How does it work? What are some relevant implementation details?
    • What is the current state of the art of this technology? What are its current limitations?
  • Looking ahead to the next assignment, you may find it useful to consider the historical arcs that produced this technology. But generally leave discussion of this history to part two (unless it directly informs the function of your technology).
    • For example, one cannot consider early American analog and electronic computers without also considering their role in the Manhattan Project.

Submissions must be:

Patsy Simmers, holding ENIAC board; Gail Taylor, holding EDVAC board; Milly Beck, holding ORDVAC board; and Norma Stec, holding BRLESC-I board. Source: U.S. Army/ARL Technical Library Archives
Patsy Simmers, holding ENIAC board; Gail Taylor, holding EDVAC board; Milly Beck, holding ORDVAC board; and Norma Stec, holding BRLESC-I board. Source: U.S. Army/ARL Technical Library Archives

Part two: Historical analysis

Turned in to Canvas by Friday May 14th at 10 pm

In the second part of the course project, we ask you to:

  • Use the same research subject as from part one.
  • Then, using your research, articulate a sequence of events that brought it into existence in its current form.
  • When doing so, consider:
    • What are the technical and social components of the system? How do they relate? How have they changed over time?
    • Who are the stakeholders of the system? Think about its designers, funders, beneficiaries and benefactors.
    • What stories do the articles tell to justify its existence? Do these narratives accurately describe it?
      • Do they employ metaphors which are deceptive or confusing?
    • What are possible blind-spots? What people might be overlooked in the development of these systems?
      • Are there moral positions not accounted for in the discussions you’ve observed?

Submissions must be:

From 'The Seattle that might have been' by the Seattle Times: Virgil Bogue’s 'Plan of Seattle' was inspired by the design of European cities. His proposal called for leafy, radial boulevards that would converge on a Beaux Arts Civic Center. Voters rejected the proposal in 1912. (Seattle Municipal Plans Commission / Seattle Public Library)
From 'The Seattle that might have been' by the Seattle Times: Virgil Bogue’s 'Plan of Seattle' was inspired by the design of European cities. His proposal called for leafy, radial boulevards that would converge on a Beaux Arts Civic Center. Voters rejected the proposal in 1912. (Seattle Municipal Plans Commission / Seattle Public Library)

Part three: Synthesis

Turned in to Canvas by Friday June 4th at 10 pm

There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free of barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another. A historical materialist therefore dissociates himself [sic] from it as far as possible. He regards it as his task to brush history against the grain.

—Walter Benjamin in Theses on the Philosophy of History

The final part of the project, “Brushing history against the grain,” asks you to synthesize what we’ve learned in the course with your own perspective. Part three should include both parts one and parts two. Combined, they’re meant to read as one big paper, but you don’t need to focus too much on editing. Remember to keep your audience in mind!

We encourage, but do not require, diagrams and data visualizations. If you would like to propose an alternative format, let us know early by submitting a one page proposal for your concept.

If, in parts one and two, you already offered an argument about your topic and have 1400 to 2200 words, consider focusing more on editing. That is to say, you don’t need to write a distinct part three.

In the third part of the course project, we ask you to:

  • Expand on your chosen topic: challenge or invite closer attention to its underlying assumptions and motives.
    • How should things be different?
  • Motivate your argument based on some of the strategies we discussed during the course in terms of one or more of politics, rhetoric, and history.
  • Consider including Critical Perspectives concepts from the reading, class, and your own research.
  • Literally copy your responses for part one and part two into the text of part three.
    • Expect to write about an additional 400-1000 words (e.g. part three should not be more work than the other parts).

Your might challenge or invite closer attention to your topic by:

  • Re-imagining or speculating on design (as we saw with “Dynamicland”);
  • Questioning underlying presumptions or methodologies (such as “Do algorithms reveal sexual orientation or just expose our stereotypes” or “Physiognomy’s New Clothes”);
  • Proposing technical or policy changes concerning the design, deployment, etc. of a sociotechnical system (such as “On the Triple Revolution”);
  • Illuminating a system-level presentation of a sociotechnical system (such as “Anatomy of an AI system”);
  • Or providing an overview of a specific technical issue and opinion (such as “Big data’s end run around procedural privacy protections”).

Submissions must be:

Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at MIT. Source: MIT News Office
Computer scientist Margaret Hamilton poses with the Apollo guidance software she and her team developed at MIT. Source: MIT News Office

Guidance

For the course project, select a specific subject related to issues concerning a technology, idea, or sociotechnical system. Below we list a number of areas from which you might choose that subject. We welcome project proposals outside of these areas. Use the accompanying references to jump-start your research and get a feel for discussions surrounding the issue.

The project is small in scope so be sure to be specific with what you choose. For example, facial recognition would not be an appropriate focus—it’s too broad. Instead, you could select one aspect of facial recognition technology, such as automated gender recognition as Os Keyes does in “The Misgendering Machine.” Alternatively, you might investigate the use of facial recognition in a specific social context such as in public housing.

Contact the instructor if you’re wondering whether the subject of your project is appropriately scoped.

Example projects

Here are two example projects, in their final submission form, from previous quarters. Note that these submissions were longer than was required. You may think of these examples as an ideal which does not need to be copied. You may not choose the same or very similar topics for your own project.

Example project one clearly contains all parts of the project:

  • “Introduction” and “Debuggers in a Nutshell” approximately encompass part one.
  • “An Abbreviated History” approximately encompasses part two. It is shorter because the student had already met the length requirement and included many historical examples in part one.
  • “An Academic Blindspot” and “The Future?” encompass the additional writing of part three.

Example project two does not have as clearly separable parts, as does the above example, but it is no worse for it. Still, this project might have also spent more time on the specific computational means of content moderation. Nevertheless, you might think of the following as its parts:

  • Until “Facebook is an incredibly young company” approximately encompasses part one.
  • From “Facebook is an incredibly young company” on to the “Facebook now has a choice to make” approximately encompasses part two.
  • From “Facebook now has a choice to make” on approximately encompasses the additional writing of part three.

Example topics

Here are some example articles to consider molding yours after:

Delivery Robots and Labor

Autonomous Vehicles and Accountability

Facial Recognition

Computational Photography and Synthesis

Platforms and Content Moderation

Synthesized misinformation (and Deepfakes)

Data collection and “ghost workers”