Class meets live on Google Meet on Monday from 4:00 pm - 4:50 pm and on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm unless otherwise indicated. Readings shown should be completed before class that day (since we'll discuss in class). 

Note that UMD defines 1 credit hour as being equal to 3 hours of work. This is a 4 credit hour class, so in total you should expect to spend about 12 hours a week on this class. 4 hours are devoted to attending class, leaving 8 hours per week for reading, writing, etc. Please let me know if you find that you are spending significantly more time on this class than that. 

Week 1

• Mon Aug 26 : First Day of Class. Introductions.

• Tue Aug 27 : What is Ethics? What is Justice? What is Virtue?

• Thu Aug 29: Read Chapter 1 of Justice. Discuss. What is a Personal Essay?

  • Note that Chapter 1 is approximately 30 pages.

• Fri Aug 30 : Orientation to Course participation exercise due today by 11:59 pm. Counts as attendance for today. This is how I give credit for participation exercises done outside of class (ie, mark for attendance on a day we don't have class). 

Week 2

• Mon Sept 2 : No Class, Labor Day.

• Tue Sept 3 : Read Chapter 2 of Justice. Discuss. Orientation Questions.

• Wed Sept 4 : Personal Essay #1 due by 11:59 pm. 

  • Here is your prompt : Describe a scenario from your life that you personally experienced where you faced an ethical dilemma that you had to resolve. Describe the scenario in some detail, who was involved, when and where did this take place, and what options did you have? Make it clear why you considered this to be an ethical dilemma. How did you resolve this dilemma? In retrospect, do you feel like you did the right thing? Why or why not? You may use ideas from Justice, but you are not required to do so. 

• Thur Sept 5 : Read Chapter 3 and 4 of Justice. Discuss. Orientation Questions.

  • Note that Chapters 2, 3, and 4 total approximately 70 pages.

Week 3

• Mon Sept 9 : Read Chapter 5 of Justice. Discuss. 

• Tue Sept 10 : Read Chapter 6 of Justice. Discuss. Orientation Questions. 

• Thur Sept 12 : Read Chapter 7 of Justice. Discuss. Wrap up Orientation Questions. 

  • • Note that Chapters 5, 6, and 7 total approximately 80 pages.

  • Sun Sept 15 : Personal Essay #2 due by 11:59 pm. 

    • Here is your prompt : Find a news article about a current event that occurred in 2024 that illustrates an ethical dilemma. In your essay explain the ethical dilemma in your own words and then reason about what the right thing to do is according to two of our foundations. One of your foundations should be Utilitarianism or Libertarianism and the other should be Kant or Rawls. It is fine if these foundations lead to different or contradictory conclusions. Finally, what do you think the right thing to do is, and why? Make sure you find a news article and not a blog post, opinion piece, editorial, etc. Your article should be accessible on the open web via a URL and should not be behind a paywall or subscription service. Provide that URL at the top or bottom of your essay. 

Week 4

• Mon Sept 16 : Read Chapter 8 of Justice. Discuss.

• Tue Sept 17 :  Read Chapter 9 of Justice. Discuss.

• Thur Sept 19 : Read Chapter 10 of Justice. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 8, 9, and 10 total approximately 80 pages.

• Sun Sept 22 : Midterm 1 (take home exam) questions will be posted on this page by 5:00 pm today. Exam is due by 11:59 pm on Weds Sept 25. 

Week 5

• Mon Sept 23 : [no class] Work on Midterm 1.

• Tue Sept 24 : [no class] Work on Midterm 1.

• Wed Sept 25 : Midterm 1 is due by 11:59 pm today. 

• Thur Sept 26 : Read Introduction to Weapons of Math Destruction. Discuss. More on the Podcast assignment. Please read the Podcast Guidelines before class.

  • Note that the Introduction is 12 pages.

Week 6

• Mon Sept 30 : Read Ch 1 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 1 :  Read Ch 2 of WMD. Discuss. 

• Thur Oct 3 : Read Ch 3 of WMD. Discuss. Midterm 1 post mortem.

  • • Note that Chapters 1, 2, and 3 total approximately 55 pages.

Week 7

• Mon Oct 7 : Read Ch 4 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 8 : Read Ch 5 of WMD. Discuss. Midterm 1 post mortem.

• Wed Oct 9 : Personal Essay #3 due by 11:59 pm.

  • • Prompt is here : Think about an app you regularly use and find helpful or interesting in some way that you either suspect or know is building a model about you. Write a personal essay that describes the app, how you use it, what kind of model it is building about you, how it does that, what the model does, and how well that model works. Describe how the model may use information it collects as proxies to determine things about you that you might consider private or protected. Does this model have the potential to become a Weapon of Math Destruction (or is it already?) Include specific examples in your essay regarding your experiences with this app to support your conclusions. I understand you may need to speculate about some aspects of your app, that is fine. You can reverse engineer quite a bit by thinking about the data trail your app has access to, and any feedback or data you provide through your interactions with the app. Be specific in your descriptions.

• Thur Oct 10 : Read Ch 6 of WMD. Discuss.

  • • Note that Chapters 4, 5, and 6 total approximately 55 pages.

Week 8

• Mon Oct 14 :  Read Ch 7 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 15 :  Read Ch 8 of WMD. Discuss. 

• Thur Oct 17 : Read Ch 9 of WMD. Discuss.

  • • Note that Chapter 7, 8, 9 total approximately 55 pages.

• Sun Oct 20 : Personal Essay #4 due is due by 11:59 pm.

  • • Prompt is here : Is ChatGPT a Weapon of Math Destruction as defined in Cathy O'Neil's book WMD? Why or why not? If it is, could anything be done to make it not a WMD? Whether it is a WMD or not, what feedback loops exist at the level of the model, the user, and society more generally? Support your essay with examples based on your own personal experiences with ChatGPT (or another Large Language Model with similar functionality). If you have not used ChatGPT much, please take the opportunity to experiment with it to gather some experience for this essay. Your essay should focus on your personal perspective and personal experience and not ideas or commentary from other sources.

Week 9

• Mon Oct 21 : Read Ch 10 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 22 :  Read Conclusion of WMD. Discuss. 

  • • Note that Chapter 10 and the Conclusion total approximately 40 pages.

• Thur Oct 24 : [no class] Fall Break

• Sun Oct 27 : Midterm 2 questions posted by 5:00 pm.

Week 10

• Mon Oct 28 : [no class] Work on Midterm 2

• Tue Oct 29 : [no class] Work on Midterm 2

• Wed Oct 30 : Midterm 2 due by 11:59 pm.

• Thur Oct 31 : Read Introduction (Not Just a Pretty Face : Tech's Original Sin, 15 pages) to Brotopia. Discuss.

Week 11

• Mon Nov 4 : General discussion of representation in CS. 

• Tue Nov 5 : Read Chapter 1 (From Nerd to Bro : How Tech Bypassed Women, 26 pages) of Brotopia. Discuss.

• Thur Nov 7 : Read Chapter 2 (The Paypal Mafia and the Myth of the Meritocracy, 26 pages) of Brotopia. Discuss. 

• Sun Nov 10 : Personal Essay #5 is due by 11:59 pm. 

  1. • Here is your prompt : You should have read the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 of Brotopia before writing this essay. In this material our author Emily Chang suggests various reasons why women are underrepresented in Computer Science (either as students or professionals). What are three of the reasons she suggests, and what is your view on how significant (or not) those factors may be? Make sure to describe her reasons in enough detail so that someone who has not read Brotopia could understand, and support your views with your own personal experiences as a CS student. If CS is not your major you can rely on classes that you think are relevant. If you have worked in some technical position that seems relevant to this discussion you can also include those experiences. Make sure to mention the Chapter and section where each of Emily Chang's reasons are discussed, and please be specific in describing your own experiences. 

Week 12

• Mon Nov 11 : Midterm 2 post mortem.

• Tue Nov 12 :  [CLASS CANCELLED] Read Chapter 3 of Brotopia (Google: When Good Intentions Aren't Enough, 38 pages). Discuss on Monday.

• Thur Nov 14 :  Read Chapter 4 of Brotopia (The Tipping Point: Women Engineers Speak Out, 30 pages). Discuss.

• Sun Nov 17 : Podcast due by 11:59 pm

Week 13

• Mon Nov 18 : Discuss Chapter 3 of Brotopia.

• Tue Nov 19 : Read Chapter 5 of Brotopia (Superheroes And Superjerks: The Role Of The Venture Capitalists, 42 pages). Discuss.

• Thur Nov 21 : Read Chapter 6 of Brotopia (Sex And The Valley: Men Play, Women Pay, 30 pages),  Discuss.

Week 14

• Mon Nov 25 : Read Chapter 7 of Brotopia (One Hack Doesn't Fit All: How Tech Disrupts Family, 19 pages). Discuss.

• Tue Nov 26 : [no class] Catch up day.

• Wed Nov 27 : Personal Essay #6 due by 5:00 pm. 

  • • Here is your prompt : You should have read Chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Brotopia before writing this essay. In these chapters our author Emily Chang presents many stories of how women have been mistreated in the computing profession. In this essay I'd like you to discuss three stories (each from a different chapter) of three different women. Please do not discuss Susan Fowler (in Chapter 4) since we have already discussed her in class. Please refer to these women by name and briefly describe their experience, the companies involved, and the names of anyone else involved (in particular the perpetrator). Make sure that enough details are provided upon which to base your discussion since some women are mentioned very briefly and while still important these experiences probably will not work well for this essay. Make sure to indicate the chapter where each story is discussed. In addition to the points above, what consequences did those carrying out the mistreatment face? If this is not mentioned in the book please do a little investigating on your own in order to find out. In each case, do you think this situation was just inevitable or could the companies involved or anyone else have done more to avoid or prevent this situation? If so, what could have been done?

• Thu Nov 28 : [no class] Thanksgiving Holiday

Week 15

• Mon Dec 2 : Read Chapter 8 of Brotopia (Escape From Trolltopia: Women's Fight To Save The Internet, 25 pages). Discuss.

• Tue Dec 3 : Read Chapter 9 of Brotopia (Silicon Valley's Second Chance, 22 pages) and Afterword (12 pages). Discuss.

• Thur Dec 5 : Last Day of Class. 

Final Exam : Take home exam, due Thur Dec 12 by 11:59 pm. This is the deadline because this is the day that our Final Exam is scheduled by the university. Questions will be posted sometime during Week 15.