Welcome to the Senior Conference! This is a living document. Please check back regularly for updates!
This page reflects the course content of Section 01. See here for Section 02.

Class info

Instructor: Sindhu Kutty

• Office hours:
  • MWF 12:20-12:50pm (priority will be given to presentation discussions)
  • MF 3:30-4:30pm
• Office: SCI 253
  
• email: firstname AT cs DOT swarthmore DOT edu
  
• Phone: 690-5313
  

Lecture: MWF 11:30–12:20 CS Seminar Room
Lab: M 1:15–2:45 SCI 240

Useful Resources

There is no required text for this course. However, you might find these useful:

• Algorithmic Game Theory
• Multiagent Systems
• How to Read a Technical Paper
• How to Read a Book

Introduction

Have you ever wondered about the mechanisms behind the "Related Items" segment on your amazon.com homepage? Or about the "Best of Yelp" reviews? If you've liked a post on your Facebook feed, planned a route with google maps, or used piazza to respond to a post, you may have pondered on questions at the intersection of Economics and Computer Science.

In this seminar style course, we will explore this pretty broad and burgeoning area. Even though computer science as a discipline has arguably existed for over seventy years now, newer applications such as social media, e-commerce and internet search engines continue to drive the need for foundational research. Our goal in this course will be to dip into this field, while simultaneously learning how to read papers, write papers and think like a computer science researcher.

The focus in our initial weeks will be on prediction markets, recommender systems and social computing. Towards the end of the course, you will take the reigns and steer the course as you wish by exploring topics of your choice in this arena. This will be a significant part of your learning experience (and grade!) so please choose your projects with care!

I hope you will have fun with this!

Goals for the course

• Learn how to think like a computer science researcher.
• Analyze and critically discuss technical, research papers both in writing and in class.
• Understand the fundamental questions in a research field and be able to analyze different approaches to answering these questions.
• Formulate and evaluate a research question in a technical field by completing a substantial project.
• Relate your project to prior research via a review of related literature.
• Orally present a clear and accessible summary of your project.
• Write a coherent conference-style paper describing and evaluating your project.

Grading

• Class Presentations: 30%
  Over the course of the semester, you will give two 10-minute presentations for which you will sign up beforehand. The goal of the presentation is to give a brief overview of the assigned reading of the day and to set up the class for discussing the material.

• Class Participation: 5%
  Each week we will discuss papers in a seminar style. This is not a lecture-based course; we as a collective group generate the course content, and you need to be present (not just physically!) in class to contribute.

• Paper Responses and Labs: 20%
  
  • Paper Responses: You will submit responses for the assigned reading for each class. These will be due the day of the class by 1:00am in the format specified in class. This is a hard deadline. Reaction notes are graded on a scale of 0-3. Your lowest 3 scores over the semester will be dropped and will not be considered when calculating your grade.
  • Labs: The due date for each lab assignment will be determined based on length and difficulty and will be indicated on the assignment. You are allowed 3 late days (a day is defined as a 24-hour period) for the semester. You can use at most 1 late day per lab. Please use these wisely! I will not accept any submissions beyond 24 hours after a lab is due. Please indicate your remaining late days on every lab assignment submission.

• Project Deliverables: 45%
  A large component of this class is your class project. You will have some autonomy in picking the topic and content of the project. However you must get this approved by me. There will be graded checkpoints along the way so that you will work on this in bite-sized chunks. Collaborating on research is fun and fruitful and you are strongly encouraged to work with a partner on this.
• Proposal: 10%
• Progress Report: 10%
• Presentation: 10%
• Paper: 15%

Assignments

• Final project report guidelines available here. Latex template available here.
• Progress report guidelines available here. Latex template available here.
• Proposal guidelines available here. Latex template available here.
• Reaction Notes due 1:00am the day of assigned reading. Email these to me with the subject line CS97: Week X Day Y
• Lab Assignments available here. Email these to me with the subject line CS97: Week X Lab
• Week 1 lab due 12:01am Sunday 9/13.
• Week 2 lab due 1:00am Monday 9/21.
• Week 3 lab due 1:00am Monday 9/28.
• Presentation schedule available here.

Disability Accomodations

If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Leslie Hempling in the Office of Student Disability Services (Parrish 113) or email lhempli1@swarthmore.edu to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs. As appropriate, she will issue students with documented disabilities a formal Accommodations Letter. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact her as soon as possible. For details about the accommodations process, visit the Student Disability Service Website. You are also welcome to contact me privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged through the Office of Student Disability Services.

Schedule

Feedback

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