In conjunction with: Contemporary Issues in Computer Science (CS 401/501)
The Computer Science Colloquium is open to the public and usually held Mondays
at 3:30 in Janssen Engineering Building (JEB), room 328. The event brings in
speakers from research, industry, and government to address advances in
the state of the art, contemporary best practices, and societal impacts
on computing and vice-versa. The talks are followed by a reception to
foster interaction between the speakers and the community. You are most
welcome!
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.
CS401 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 5/06/2016, 5:00pm.
Submission process: submit a .pdf or .doc file on blackboard. Alternatively,
you can e-mail it to the instructor using the
naming convention "last-name.doc" (or .pdf) and use the email header "CS 401
Project Submission". In addition, you need to submit two
hard-copy with a cover page indicating 1) your name and 2) paper title,
followed by your paper *without* your name, i.e., replace your name
with "author name". This anonymous version will be used for a double
blind peer review. Evaluation Sheet
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.
