Before you register for Winter term, don’t forget to double check our pre-approved courses, featuring this new one from the SOJC!

J410/J510 Algorithms and Automation
Time: Tues-Thurs, 10-11:50 a.m.

Welcome to an era of algorithms. What we read and watch, our social connections and relationships, even decisions about jobs, bank loans, and insurance—these and other facets of our world are increasingly influenced by mathematical models and the big data and automated systems behind them. There is a long history to technology, automation, and computerization. But never before has the algorithm, as a sociotechnical system, been so front and-center in conversations ranging from media and politics to friendships and dating. This course helps students explore the social, cultural and ethical dimensions of algorithms, automation (bots), and emerging forms of artificial intelligence so as to scrutinize their uses (and abuses) in everyday life. While the math underlying algorithms is the purview of computer science, this course focuses especially on “public relevance algorithms” like those used in social media, with the goal of understanding how they are designed, deployed, and implicated in questions of media and society. Ultimately, this class seeks to equip students to think about and act toward algorithms in more critical and productive ways.