College of Information Sciences and Technology

Schedule Number: 14114
Section: 001
Meeting Days/Times: MW 2:30PM - 3:45PM
Instructor: Suhang Wang
Location: E165 Westgate
Prerequisites: IST 210 & IST 220

Course description: Social media has become a mainstream communication means. It is used by people in all walks of life, employed in different disciplines and industries from trend prediction to business intelligence, from cybersecurity to behavior modeling. People share content, opinions, comment, like, tag, as well as connect old friends, meet new ones, and organize special interest groups. These user-generated activities help create various types of social media networks, generating various, heterogeneous sources of information otherwise not available through conventional media and communication channels.

In this course, we will introduce basic concepts and fundamental principles, learn the state-of-the-art research findings, study challenges indigenous to big social media data, and explore interdisciplinary solutions to social media analysis. We will cover topics such as network measures, network models, data mining essentials, deep learning essentials, community analysis, information diffusion, "recommender" systems in social media, fake news detection, and privacy preserving and attacks.

Schedule Number: 14115
Section: 002
Meeting Days/Times: TR 3:05PM - 4:20PM
Instructor: David Hozza
Location: E202 Westgate
Prerequisites: IST 210 & IST 220

Course description: The creators of Bitcoin not only introduced the world to a new cryptocurrency but they created a revolutionary system known as the Blockchain. Numerous industry and academic experts view the Blockchain as the next disruptive technology. At its core the Blockchain is a shared ledger for recording the history of transactions that theoretically cannot be altered. The chain relies on a decentralized ledger of computing nodes to deliver this trusted immutable platform.

This technology is a departure from the traditional record keeping of centralized databases and could potentially have a large impact on how many industries perform record keeping. Several use cases are currently being explored such as identity management in Cyber Security to tracking order details in the Supply Chain.

In this course we will introduce students to this emerging technology. We will explore uses cases for this technology across industries such as financial services, healthcare and Information Security.

Schedule Number: 14515
Section: 004
Meeting Days/Times: MW 4:00PM - 5:15PM
Instructor: Daniel Susser
Location: E206 Westgate
Prerequisites: IST 210 & IST 220

Course description: In this course, we will explore social and ethical dimensions of data science. "Datafication" can be a powerful force for good, but it can also do tremendous harm¿to individuals and society. Drawing primarily from case studies, we will investigate when, why, and how data is collected, stored, analyzed, and used. And looking to philosophical ethics for guidance, we will evaluate the ethical stakes of data-driven systems. In addition to diagnosing ethical problems¿e.g., invasions of privacy, discrimination, and lack of accountability¿students will be asked to think creatively and constructively about how the tools of data science can be used to realize our shared ethical and social commitments.