Syllabus

Affective Computing and Multimodal Interaction (Fall 2025)

Class Schedule (Subject to Change):

Wed Sep 3 Overview of Affective Computing & Multimodal Interaction; Course mechanics and expectations (Picard and Liang)

Tues Sep 9 1pm: HWK1 due
includes getting CITI certified to do human subjects experiments or work on datasets that require certification (or sending us your certificate if you are already certified)

Wed Sep 10 What makes a great class project? Examples of AC research projects in the past. Data sets. Human study design examples and tips. Brainstorming around student's top interests. Start forming project teams.

Tues Sep 16 1pm: HWK2 dueincludes your project team ideas and showing that you've met with three groups from the class, and supported others in the class with project idea development

Wed Sep 17 Students present half-baked project ideas; Class discussion & forming of project teams

Tues Sep 23 1pm: HWK3 due includes your team's final project proposal -- including a study or plan to test it, at least 3 related references per team member, and a sentence or two describing the relevant contribution of each of the references, as to how it relates to your proposed project.To do: book at least one meeting with Course faculty and TAs to discuss project ideas

Wed Sep 24 Overview of Multimodal AI + Interaction (Liang)

Book a meeting this week to discuss project w/Roz, Paul, and/or TA
Tues Sep 30 1pm: HWK4 due Include draft of your COUHES application due (on Canvas to Staff) FOCUS this application on the user experience- what will participants be asked to do in your project? Make a graphic of all assessments and interactions, how much of their time it will take, and be clear how you will incentivize them to participate (e.g. payment, how much and when?). Include slides to present in class Oct 2

Wed Oct 1 TEAMS PRESENT Final Project Plan, Related Work, and Initial Study Design for class discussion

Tues Oct 7 1pm: HWK5 due Submit your COUHES application to get department and PI sign off (allow 1 week for MAS office signoff before submitting to COUHES). COUHES wants proposals 6-8 weeks before their meeting Nov 20. GET IT IN THIS WEEK and request early approval. If you miss this deadline then you will have to change to do a project that does NOT require COUHES approval.

Wed Oct 8 Physiological Signal Processing for Affect Analysis (Picard)

Tues Oct 14 1pm: HWK6 due

Wed Oct 15 Speech Processing for Affect Understanding, Dealing with Ambiguity in Emotion Labels (Jingyao Wu, Picard)

Tues Oct 21 1pm: HWK7 due

Wed Oct 22 NO CLASS - Media Lab Members Meeting

Tues Oct 28 1pm: HWK8 due

Wed Oct 29 Real-world regulation, privacy, ethics, safety, alignment "Staying within the changing laws and staying out of jail" (BU Law Clinic's Chris Conley and BU Law students)

Tues Nov 4 1pm: HWK9 due

Wed Nov 5 TEAMS TEACH Insights from the literature related to their project & demo what is built/achieved so far (Teaching + Progress Presentation)

NO Hwk due, but do prep bibliography and background literature for your project and focus 10hrs/week on your project the rest of the semester

Wed Nov 12 Large Multimodal Foundation Models (Liang)

Wed Nov 19 Affective Computing and Mental Health (Picard)

COUHES approvals should arrive by EOD Fri Nov 21 if you submitted it on time and addressed all their concerns

Tues Nov 25: 1pm: DUE: Draft of final project report (background, study design, references, but preliminary or no results, if you would like early feedback to improve your final report)

Wed Nov 26 Additional topics (TBA)
Wed Dec 3 ** Final Project Presentations - Part 1. Attendance required by students, Open to Guests
Wed Dec 10 ** Final Project Presentations - Part 2. Attendance required by students, Open to Guests

*TBA topic possibilities: Sentiment analysis and social media, Empathic LLM's and interactions & affective neuroscience; multimodal virtual humans & agents; affect & autism; ethical case studies & solutions, can computers actually *have* emotion and will this enable AGI? Deception detection.

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