Computer Science Colloquia

In conjunction with: Contemporary Issues in Computer Science (CS 400/501) (syllabus, lecture notes)

Past semesters' speakers have included: Barry Boehm (USC), Krishna Kavi (UNT), Patrick McDaniel (Penn State), Michael Langston (Tenn).

Suggested topics for Fall 2018. Not scheduled or finalized yet. This list started from the book used in Spring 2018 (Baase/Henry).

• Pace of Change; Fastest Changing Topics in Computing
• Professional Ethics and Responsibilities
• Privacy
• Freedom of Speech
• Intellectual Property
• Crime, Security
• Work
• Evaluating and Controlling Technology
• Errors, Failures, and Risks

Fall 2018

CS 400/501 Syllabus

• Contact information:
  • Clinton Jeffery (PhD), JEB 230,
  • Phone: 208-885-4789, fax: 208-885-9052.
  • Seminar times: Monday 3:30pm room EP 202/204

• Current Catalog Description:
  Ethical, legal, and intellectual property issues; current research topics; and other issues of importance to the professional computer scientist. Graded P/F.

• Course Goals:
  The course provides students with a greater understanding of computer science through research talks aimed to present state-of-the-art research, discussion of social and ethical issues surrounding the work of a CS professional, as well as the limits and impacts of computing. Students are exposed to a variety of research topics and current research activities in the community and beyond.

• Prerequisites by Topic:
  To take the seminar for credit, senior or graduate standing is required, so that the students will be able to understand the technical aspects of various talks.

• Student Responsibilities:
  You will have to submit an evaluation for each talk that indicates the following: 0) Your name 1) Title and presenter 2) One Summary Paragraph summarizing the talk 3) One or more Personalization Paragraphs stating what you got out of the talk. Identify what was useful to you. 4) One or more Feedback Paragraphs containing suggestions, critique or questions you may have that may be useful to the presenter as feedback.
  Submit this on Blackboard (bblearn.uidaho.edu). Each week's talk will have its own assignment, titled "Speaker #n", where you can submit. The CS Seminar evaluations are due within 72 hours after the talk, and I recommend that you do them immediately after the talks when possible.

• CS400 Paper:
  You are to investigate one specific topic this semester, either based on one of the talks, or broadly within the area of Computer Ethics and Social Implications of Computing. Example topics might include:
  • Whistleblowing: discuss the ethical issues related to a whistleblower such as Edward Snowdon, Bradley Manning, or Roger Boisjoly.
  • Software Obfuscation: technologies, impacts and risks
  • Should Apple have assisted the government with decrypting the San Bernardino iPhone?
  • Should silicon valley companies such as Mozilla be free to fire employees for political views that they express privately?
  • How should software engineers respond when their companies ask them to undertake projects that are infeasible?
  • Electronic voting: is it secret? Is it safe?
  • The role of bitcoins in the Hollywood Hospital ransomware case.
  • Impacts of computer game addiction: are developer or publisher liable?
  • The observed effect of software patents on innovation and society over the past three decades.
  Select one topic (either from this list, or your own ideas), and clear it (i.e. obtain permission, based on relevance) with your instructor. Investigate 3+ Credible references for your topic (clear with instructor if you aren't sure your references are sufficient). Then write a summary, using your own words, quoting the references. Use the IEEE transaction proceedings format and in the abstract state clearly what your specific angle of the topic is. Select your title appropriately! Then discuss in depth your points, based on the references you select. Pay close attention to referencing any materials from the sources properly, since the lack thereof constitutes plagiarism! The page requirement is 3 pages, strictly using the IEEE transaction format available at https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_templates.html.
  The due date for submission of the project is 12/07/2018, 11:59pm. Submission process: submit a .pdf or .doc file on blackboard.

• CS501 Students:
  You may fulfill your "deeper participation and more work than the undergrads" commitment with one or more alternatives to be determined. One option is to write a 6 page paper based on 6+ references, instead of a three page paper, and otherwise comply with the instructions for CS 401 students above. Or you may present a talk one of the weeks, or design your own project based on a contemporary issue in CS.

• Invitation to all students, staff, faculty and friends:
  I want to invite everybody to come and join the research seminar. Such colloquiums are an important platform to build research culture and community. They are part of every research institution and university. This is where we get exposed to different ideas, find out what other people are working on, find common ground, get inspired, find potential research topics for a thesis or dissertation or a match for advisor, and get to see a bit beyond our own environment. Please take ownership in the building of our research culture by participating.