CSE490R: Broader Impacts of Computer Science and Computer Science Research

 

 

Announcements

Administration

Instructor: Magdalena Balazinska

Meeting times: Tuesdays 12:30pm-1:20pm, so feel free to bring your lunch to class.

Location: CSE 203.

Mailling list:

Overview

As computing becomes increasingly pervasive, computer science is touching our lives and society in a variety of both obvious and hidden ways: from computers in airplanes, voting machines, surgery rooms, and scientific laboratories to RFID chips implanted under the skin and spammers filling our inboxes. In this seminar, we discuss concrete examples of such broader impacts of computer science, paying special attention to the impacts of ongoing computer science research.

Target audience: Undergraduate students at all levels in the CSE major. Priority is given to ACM and ACM-W students to promote involvement in professional organizations.

Format

We meet weekly. Every week a group of students presents a news article related to computing and society (e.g., a case of identity theft or a new invention that enables humans to control a robot with their thoughts). We discuss the article and the computer science or computer science research behind it. A group of students writes a blog entry about our discussion.

Evaluation

The seminar is graded as credit or no credit. To get credit, you must perform the following three tasks through the course of the quarter:


Course Blog

Here is a link to the class blog. We will use this blog to post summaries of our discussions.

 

Course Calendar

Date

Topic and readings

09/30

Class CANCELLED

10/07

Topic: Neurobotics

Readings: Trying to give robots a human touch (Seattle PI) [article] [Prof. Matsuoka's home page]

Additional info : Short video and some other extra information.

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

10/14

Topic: Nike+iPod Story and the Impacts of Security Research

Readings: "Nike+ IPod = Surveillance" (Wired). [article] [Prof. Kohnos's home page]

Presenters: Magda Balazinska

Bloggers: Sandra Li and Linden Essa

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

10/21

Topic: Mozilla's Geode

Readings: "Mozilla Geode to Join Google, Yahoo for Geolocation Web Services" (eWeek) [article].

Presenters: Mack Talcott and Blake Thomson

Bloggers: Jonathon Ricaurte and Michael Eng

Discussion notes:

10/28

Topic: Quantum Internet

Readings:

  • "Welcome to the Quantum Internet" (ScienceNews) [article].
  • "Quantum Cryptography" (Wired) [article]

Presenters: Sandra Li and Linden Essa

Bloggers: Mack Talcott and Blake Thomson

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

11/04

Topic: Can we trust electronic voting machines?

Readings:

Presenters: Jonathon Ricaurte and Michael Eng

Bloggers: Benjamin Ullom and Sunil Garg

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

11/11

Veteran's Day Holiday

11/18

Topic: Computing for the developing world

Readings:

  • "Computing at the Bottom of the Pyramid" (Forbes) [article]
  • "New application registers births and deaths" (Ericsson) [article]

Presenters: Benjamin Ullom and Sunil Garg

Bloggers: Kevin Wallace and Leilani Battle

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

11/25

Topic: Machine intelligence and its implications

Readings: "Q&A: Kurzweil on tech as a double-edged sword" (CNet) [article]

Presenters: Aida Urrutia, Hakson Teh

Bloggers: Iva Dermendjieva and Sunetra Deshpande

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

 

Topic 2 : The ethics of security disclosure

Readings: "Seattle security expert helped uncover major design flaw on Internet" (SeattlePI) [article]

Presenters: Kevin Wallace and Leilani Battle

Bloggers: Iva Dermendjieva and Sunetra Deshpande

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry

12/02

Topic: Integrating Embedded Systems with the Human Body

Readings:

  • "Mixed Feelings" (Wired) [article]
  • "Tongue Drive System' Controls Wheelchair, Computer" (Wired) [article]

Presenters: Iva Dermendjieva and Sunetra Deshpande

Bloggers: Aida Urrutia and Hakson Teh

Discussion notes: Slides and blog entry