CS 349 Contemporary Issues in Computer Science
Alan Cline

Elaine Rich
Spring, 2010

 

(Details are from Spring, 2009.  They’ll change.  The big picture won’t.)

Class Information:

 

     

Unique  

Time  

Room          

 

54190

T, Th 2:00-3:15

PAI 3.14

     

54195  

T,Th 3:30-5:00    

PAI 3.14

The two sections will both be team taught by Elaine Rich and Alan Cline.

Textbooks

·         Quinn, Michael, Ethics for the Information Age, 3rd Edition.  (It is important to get the 3rd Edition, which is available at the Coop.)

·         Weiner, Norbert, The Human Use of Human Beings.

Movies:  We will discuss some movies in class.  You should make sure you’ve seen each movie before we discuss it.  A list of possible movies includes:

·         Sneakers

·         Frankenstein

·         Bicentennial Man

·         Short Circuit

·         I Robot

·         Hackers

·         War Games

Staff

 

 

 

Office

Office Hours

 

Alan Cline

cline@cs.utexas.edu      

TAY 3.104A

W 1:00 – 2:00 and F 11:00 – 12:00 and by appointment

 

Elaine Rich          

ear@cs.utexas.edu

TAY 3.126                  

W 2:30 – 4:00

 

Sarah Abraham

 

 

 

 

Vishvas Vasuki

 

 

 

Grading

We all wish that we could have courses without grades. You hate worrying about grades.  We hate having to assign grades. But grades are essential to insuring that your degree has the value it deserves. So we have to have a grading system and that system has to have three essential properties:

  • It has to motivate everyone to learn as much as possible.
  • It has to be fair to everyone in the class.
  • It has to be a true measure of how much each student knows about the class material.

In this class, grades will be assigned as follows:

Project

55%

Homeworks

30%

News articles

8%

Class participation

7%

Project

Everyone will choose a topic for a term project.  The project will have two parts:

  • A written report.
  • A movie.

Students with Disabilities

Any student with a documented disability (physical or cognitive) who requires academic accommodations should contact the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 (voice) or 471-4641 (TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations.

Academic Integrity

You should read carefully the class policy on academic integrity.  Cheating of any form will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade in the class.

Additional Class Policies

You should read CS Department Code of Conduct. The policies described there will be followed in this class.