Detailed schedule
Class 28, Tuesday 5/2/2023
- Informal discussion: Big ideas in computing
- optional reading: The list of recent Turing award winners on Wikipedia. In class we will focus on the era 2006-2022.
Class 27, Tuesday 5/2/2023
Afternoon tea party at the instructor’s house (attendance optional). Please see invitation sent by email for details. Feel free to arrive any time after 1:30 PM – you are not required to be on time for this class!
Class 26, Friday 4/28/2023
No class: Attendance at the Civic Engagement Symposium earlier in the week takes the place of this class meeting.
Class 25, Tuesday 4/25/2023
-
Please complete the official feedback form for this course.
-
Discussion of human computing. See the Readings webpage for required reading/viewing.
Class 24, Friday 4/21/2023
-
Important announcement: you can add an optional fun twist to your senior seminar project. See the Assignments page for details.
- Informal discussion: Reflections on trusting trust
- optional reading:
- Reflections on trusting trust, Turing award lecture by Ken Thompson, published in Communications of the ACM, Volume 27, Issue 8, Aug 1984, pp 761–763, https://doi.org/10.1145/358198.358210
- optional tools for playing with Ken Thompson’s idea: self-rep-tools.zip
- some possible discussion questions:
- Does this mean we cannot actually trust the implementation of any computer system, whether or not it is open source?
- What are the practical implications of this?
- Do you think Thompson-style Easter eggs are hidden in e.g. Windows, MacOS, Linux?
- What would it take for you to actually trust a computer system?
- optional reading:
- Remaining time for project work
Class 23, Tuesday 4/18/2023
- Informal discussion: ChatGPT and generative AI
- optional reading: Issue 183 of The Batch, by Andrew Ng and DeepLearning.AI, February 8, 2023.
- Remaining time for project work
Class 22, Friday 4/14/2023
No class – instructor away at a conference.
Class 21, Tuesday 4/11/2023
- Informal discussion: portrayal of computation in movies, TV, and literature
- No preparation required.
- If you get a chance, try to think of a few examples for discussion.
- Remaining time for project work
Class 20, Friday 4/7/2023
Poster peer review + project work day
Posters for review:
Class 19, Tuesday 4/4/2023
- Discussion of blockchain and cryptocurrency. See the Readings webpage for required reading and activities. Note the instructions about no dicussion question – link to an article instead.
Class 18, Friday 3/31/2023
Poster abstract peer review + project work day
Class 17, Tuesday 3/28/2023
Project checkpoint presentations.
Presentation order, courtesy of our friends at random.org:
- Wagtail
- Transformers
- Genetic algorithm research
- Oppia
Class 16, Friday 3/24/2023
project work day
Class 15, Tuesday 3/21/2023
-
Special discussion: Reflections on a Dickinson education
-
Also, please complete the mid-semester survey.
Class 14, Friday 3/10/2023
project work day
Class 13, Tuesday 2/28/2023
- Alumni videoconference
Class 12, Friday 3/3/2023
project work day
Class 11, Tuesday 2/28/2023
- Discussion of spam, politics, and censorship
Class 10, Friday 2/24/2023
project work day
Class 9, Tuesday 2/21/2023
- Discussion of social media recommendation algorithms. See the Readings webpage for required reading.
Class 8, Friday 2/24/2023
project work day
Class 7, Tuesday 2/21/2023
- Discussion of the digital divide
Class 6, Friday 2/17/2023
project work day
Class 5, Tuesday 1/31/2023
- Discussion of automation and globalization
Class 4, Friday 2/3/2023
project work day
Class 3, Tuesday 1/31/2023
- Vote on future discussion topics
- Discussion of professional ethics. Resources:
- Handout with overview of professional ethics: professional-ethics-summary.pptx
- The latest ACM code of ethics
Class 2, Friday 1/27/2023
- Discussion of ethical theories
- handout: ethical-theories-handout.pptx
Class 1, Tuesday 1/24/2023
- Overview of the course.
- Project work day
Last modified: Fri May 05 00:03:17 UTC 2023 by jmac.