Schedule for CS 4001B: Computing, Society, & Professionalism, Fall 2008

Week Date Topic Readings Assignment
1 8/19 Welcome & Overview    
  8/21 Case Study: Therac-25 "Medical Devices: The Therac-25" by Nancy Leveson  
2 8/26 Reading Arguments WA 1 & 2  
8/28 Utilitarianism Quinn Chapter 2
3 9/2 Deontology & Social Contract Theory Quinn Chapter 2, continued Reading the Argument of a Current Article
9/4 Stakeholder Analysis & Virtue Ethics
  • In a Different Voice by Carol Gilligan, pp. 25-39 (electronic reserve)
  • Virtue Ethics, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 Please come to class with a short quote from one of the readings that you find interesting.
4 9/9 Writing Arguments WA 3  
9/11 Professional Ethics
  • Quinn Chapter 8
  • Article "Using the New ACM Code of Ethics in Decision Making" by Anderson et al (electronic reserve)
Applying Ethical Frameworks to a Dilemma
5 9/16 Networking Quinn Chapter 3
9/18 Privacy Quinn Chapter 5  
6 9/23 Privacy, continued Term Paper Proposals  
9/25 Discussion of Term Paper Proposals
& Midterm Review		 Come to class prepared to tell everyone about your term paper topic.
7 9/30 Midterm
(asb out of town)
  10/2 Structure of Argument WA 4 & 5
8 10/7 The Patriot Act, FISA, and the Protect America Act Read articles online and see if you can figure out what The Patriot Act, The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the Protect America Act provide for    
  10/9 Using Evidence WA 6
9 10/14
Fall Break
  10/16 Intellectual Property Quinn Chapter 4, through end of 4.6 Term Paper Outline
10 10/21 Software as Intellectual Property Quinn Chapter 4, continued (4.7-end)
  10/23 Writing for an Audience WA 7 & 8  
11 10/28 Case Studies in Using Evidence: The Cholera Epidemic & The Challenger Disaster Tufte Visual and Statistical Thinking
10/30 eVoting Please select an article on risks of electronic voting, and add it to the list on the wiki on TSquare. Pick one that no one else has picked yet. Come to class prepared to summarize your article for the class.
12 11/4 Computers and Democracy  
11/6

Term Paper Presentations

 Term Papers
13 11/11 Term Paper Presentations  
11/13 Term Paper Presentations  
15 11/18 Work & Wealth Quinn Chapter 9
11/20 Internet Censorship in China & Other Nations Wikipedia article on Internet Censorship in China
14 11/25 Happy Thanksgiving!
(no class)
  11/27

Happy Thanksgiving!
(no class)

   
16 12/2 Simulation Sedutions of Sim by Paul Starr
12/4 Final Exam Review Revised Term Papers (optional)

Readings and assignments are subject to change.