CS 181 |
Computers, Ethics and Public Policy |
| General Info | Contact Info|
Announcements | Course Materials
|
Handouts | Assignments | Links |
Course Description
An analysis of
the ethical, social and policy issues related to the development and use of
computer technology. Topics include: Ethical analysis; Professional
responsibility and accountability; Privacy; Intellectual Property; Risks and
reliability of computer systems; Social issues and technology; Impact of the
web; Open source; etc.
The goals of the course are to:
• Understand the current challenges engineers and computer scientists face in
being socially responsible
• Sensitize students to the impact of technology on society and culture
• Gain an understanding of how policy decisions relating to technology are made
and their impact
Please see
Syllabus
for details.
Intructor and
CAs
Please see Contact Info.
Lectures:
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Tuesday |
4:15 |
Location: 420-041 |
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Thursday |
4:15 |
Location: 420-041 |
Office Hours:
Professor Johnson:
Eric Mibuari:
Biyun Pan:
Prerequisites for this course are CS106B or CS106X. We expect you to have advanced programming experience in any language. Although we will not do any programming in this course, it's important that you have an appreciation of the inherent complexity of programming to understand the relevant ethical issues.
All students who wish to take CS181 must submit an online registration form. The text of the registration form will be posted to the course web page as soon as we decide how many sections we need and assign section times. Read the message on the website, answer the questions on the registration form, and return the completed form by email to our CA by Friday, January 9.
The required work for
CS181 consists of the following:
Paper #1 Book Report on a book with subject relevant to the material in this
course. The initial draft of this paper is due on January 20. Comments—both on
the technical content and the writing— will be returned by January 27, with
rewrites due on February 3.
Paper #2 The second paper required for the course focuses on the risk of
computer
failures in critical systems. The details of the paper assignment will be handed
out on February 3, and the first draft of the paper will be due on February 10.
You will receive comments by February 17 and must submit a revised version of
the paper on February 24.
Presentation You and a partner will research and develop materials on some
aspect of computer science that raises significant ethical or social issues.
Your project will be presented at mini-conferences held during the last week of
class. All topics must be approved by the course staff and will usually be
chosen from a list circulated on February 17. The deliverables are as follows:
1. An abstract for the project, which is due on February 24
2. A detailed outline which is due on March 3
3. A 10-minute oral presentation at the mini-conferences scheduled during the
last week of class (March 10 and 12)
4. A Powerpoint (or whatever application you would like to use) presentation
with detailed notes of the materials presented.
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Final: |
Wednesday 12:15 PM to 3:15 PM, March 18th |
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Location: 380-380C |
Final grades for the course will be determined
using the following weights:
20% Paper #1: Book Report
20% Paper #2: Risks
10% Section and class participation
20% Presentation
30% Final Exam