Course Offerings

Explore the leveraging of data, information, and technology for the greater benefit of society and to help ensure a level playing field for everyone in the information age. Offered on the letter-grade basis only. This course carries the Cultural Diversity in the United States flag. The purpose of the Cultural Diversity in the United States Flag is for students to explore in-depth the shared practices and beliefs of one or more underrepresented cultural groups subject to persistent marginalization. In addition to learning about these diverse groups in relation to their specific contexts, you’ll also reflect on your own cultural experiences.

*THIS TOPIC WILL NO LONGER BE OFFERED AFTER SPRING 2025In this course, we will work to understand and address the challenges of misinformation, disinformation, and strategic manipulation in online environments. First, we will work to develop a deep understanding of the problem space. We will read and discuss existing research (both historical and contemporary) on how and why misinformation and disinformation spread. Next, we will explore the process, both personal and interpersonal, by which these issues can be approached and addressed in our own lives. This will involve reflecting on our own presuppositions, beliefs, and biases about information; and doing a project in which we apply the principles of Human-Centered Design to investigate different design directions for addressing misleading information. Students will gain important contextual knowledge and hands-on design experience that they can take into future professional domains (from education to policy to technology), where they can contribute to building more trustworthy information systems.

Critical exploration of the intersection between digital technologies and information access in emerging economies. Investigate the historical, socio-economic, and ethical dimensions of digital adoption in the Global South, analyzing its impact on governance, economies, cultures, and societal dynamics. Emphasis on critical thinking, ethical considerations, and collaborative approaches to address challenges such as the digital divide(s), data sovereignty, and technology-driven inequality. Through case studies and practical exercises, students will develop skills in digital research, global cultures, policy analysis, and technology innovation with a focus on promoting inclusive and sustainable digital transformation in Global South contexts. Also offered as I 320S.

In this course, we will work to understand and address the challenges of misinformation, disinformation, and strategic manipulation in online environments. First, we will work to develop a deep understanding of the problem space. We will read and discuss existing research (both historical and contemporary) on how and why misinformation and disinformation spread. Next, we will explore the process, both personal and interpersonal, by which these issues can be approached and addressed in our own lives. This will involve reflecting on our own presuppositions, beliefs, and biases about information; and doing a project in which we apply the principles of Human-Centered Design to investigate different design directions for addressing misleading information. Students will gain important contextual knowledge and hands-on design experience that they can take into future professional domains (from education to policy to technology), where they can contribute to building more trustworthy information systems.

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This class explores how to make arguments about and through design. The first half focuses on values, criticism, ethics, and analysis of technology, the latter portion aims to help a soon-to-graduate technologist envision positive social impact in a mission-driven enterprise. Students will practice synthesizing ethical tech considerations – as they will have to do for the rest of their careers – and combining this with an organizational mindset. Through exercises, role-playing, discussions, guest lectures from activist technologists, and wide-ranging readings, students will practice connecting broader implications of their designs with technical choices. Design for Social Impact seeks to arm students with diverse ways of reflecting on their authorial relationship to technology, drawing from art and design to political science and anthropology. Course participants will be encouraged to focus on areas of personal interest, enumerating the social, political, and economic parameters of particular technical systems: parameters that are as important as power consumption, usability, or efficiency.

Project-based learning course in which students will apply a combination of research and evaluation methods (scientific, sociological, historical, computational) to identify and explore a research question of community impact. Students will first learn about applied research and evaluation from a team of faculty and community-based nonprofit leaders, then work in small groups apply their knowledge.

Explore common data collection, management, and sharing practices in information technology and emerging technologies, such as search engines and AI systems. Students will read papers and engage in discussions about the pros and cons of established data practices and learn about the three main components of responsible data management: 1) consent and ownership, 2) privacy and anonymity, and 3) broader impact. Students will also practice how to collect data, make data-driven decisions, and design data-driven products through group projects as UX designers, researchers, and data scientists. The course will bring in interdisciplinary perspectives with guest speakers from archive science, engineering, and respponsible AI, to provide a holistic view of broader data ecosystems and infrastructures.

Develop prompts for text and image generation through an iterative cycle, making the most of foundation models, including large language models and diffusion models. Overview of the field of prompt engineering, including historical development, ethical dilemmas, and the creation of chatbots.

Develop prompts for text and image generation through an iterative cycle, making the most of foundation models, including large language models and diffusion models. Overview of the field of prompt engineering, including historical development, ethical dilemmas, and the creation of chatbots.

The current Web has experienced tremendous changes to connect data, people, and knowledge. There are a couple of exciting efforts trying to bring the Web to its full potential. The Semantic Web is one of them which is heavily embedded in the Artificial Intelligence area with the long-term goal to enhance the human and machine interaction by representing data semantics, integrating data silos, and enabling intelligent search and discovery. This course aims to provide the basic overview of the Semantic Web in general, and data semantics in particular, and how they can be applied to enhance data integration and knowledge inference. Ontology is the backbone of the Semantic Web. It models the semantics of data and represents them in markup languages proposed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C plays a significant role in directing major efforts at specifying, developing, and deploying standards for sharing information. Semantically enriched data paves the crucial way to facilitate the Web functionality and interoperability. This course contains three parts: Semantic Web language, RDF graph database (i.e., RDF triple store), and its applications. The fundamental part of the course is the Semantic Web languages. It starts from XML and goes further to RDF and OWL. The RDF graph database part introduces different APIs of Jena and its reasoners. The application part showcases current trends on semantic applications. Prerequisites Basic knowledge of HTML and XML is desired. Course Objectives This course aims to develop a critical appreciation of semantic technologies as they are currently being developed. At the end of this course, students should be able to: • sketch the overall architecture of the Semantic Web. • identify the major technologies of the Semantic Web and explain their roles. • illustrate the design principles of the Semantic Web by applying the technologies. • understand certain limitations of the Semantic Web technologies, and be aware of the kinds of services it can and cannot deliver. Course aims are achieved through: • Lectures covers basic knowledge of the Semantic Web • Projects applying semantic technologies to concrete problems of information delivery and use • Assignments of practicing and utilizing key semantic technologies

Introduction to combining human and machine intelligence to benefit people and society. Explore cutting-edge research on a number of subjects related to human-AI interaction, including the psychological and societal impacts of AI as well as design guidelines and methods for human-centered AI.