WHAT |
SCIENCE |
UNDERLIES |
THESE |
COMPANIES? |
MKSE 112 (formerly CIS 112)
NETWORKED LIFE
Fall 2011
Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30-12, Towne Hall 100 (Heilmeier Hall)
Prof. Michael Kearns
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This semester we are going to experiment with new course management software from the startup Coursekit. whose founder Joseph Cohen is a Networked Life alumnus. My hope is that Coursekit will make the course more interactive and social, as it strives to combine the features of traditional web site course management tools with social networking features.
The public version of the Networked Life Coursekit site can be found here, and you will see that creating an account and thus having full functionality requires having a code. This code will be distributed to registered student, and should not be distributed to any party not enrolled in the class. The general public can view all the content posted on the site, but cannot contribute posts. All registered students should create a Coursekit account for Networked Life after receiving the code. Please make sure that you create a profile for yourself that at least includes your email address (you can use the privacy settings to adjust who can see it, as well as other aspects of your profile), since that way my postings will automatically get pushed to your email for timely communication.
This website will no longer maintain the course calendar and temporal material such as lecture slides, assignments, material contributed by students, etc., which will all migrate to the Coursekit site. This site will only contain the static material such as course description, prerequisites, etc. Note that all material from previous years can be reached via links below.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Networked Life
looks at how our world is connected -- socially, strategically
and technologically -- and why it matters.
The answers to the questions above are related. They have been the subject of a fascinating intersection of disciplines, including computer science, physics, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics and finance. Researchers from these areas all strive to quantify and explain the growing complexity and connectivity of the world around us, and they have begun to develop a rich new science along the way.
Networked Life will explore recent scientific efforts to explain social, economic and technological structures -- and the way these structures interact -- on many different scales, from the behavior of individuals or small groups to that of complex networks such as the Internet and the global economy.
This course covers computer science topics and other material that is mathematical, but all material will be presented in a way that is accessible to an educated audience with or without a strong technical background. The course is open to all majors and all levels, and is taught accordingly. There will be ample opportunities for those of a quantitative bent to dig deeper into the topics we examine. The majority of the course is grounded in scientific and mathematical findings of the past two decades or less (often much less).
Fall 2011 is the eighth offering of
Networked Life.
You can get a detailed sense for the course by visiting the extensive course web pages from past years:
[Spring 2010]
[Spring 2009]
[Spring 2008]
[Spring 2007]
[Spring 2006]
[Spring 2005]
[Spring 2004]
Fall 2011 also marks the debut of Networked Life as the flagship course for Penn Engineering's new Market and Social Systems Engineering (MKSE) program. Throughout the course we will foreshadow material that is covered in greater depth in later MKSE courses.
REQUIRED TEXTS
The following three books, available at the Penn Book Store, are required texts for the course:
In addition to readings from these texts, there will be frequent articles from the recent scientific and popular literature that will be provided directly on this web page at the appropriate points in the syllabus.
INSTRUCTOR
Prof. Michael Kearns
mkearns@cis.upenn.edu
Levine Hall 509
Office hours: Tuesdays 12-1 PM (right after lecture), or by appointment
COURSE PERSONNEL
Emily Freeman,
teaching assistant
memily@sas.upenn.edu
Office hours: TBD
Bharath Sankaran,
teaching assistant
bharath@seas.upenn.edu
Office hours: Wednesday 2:30-4 PM, in the conference room outside the
GRASP lab on the fourth floor of Levine Hall (to the right as you exit the
elevators).
LECTURE LOCATIONS AND TIMES
Attendance at the main lectures is considered mandatory for all enrolled students. They are held Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30-12, Towne Hall 100 (Heilmeier Hall). There are no recitations for the course.
COURSE PREREQUISITES
Networked Life has no formal prerequisites, and is meant to be accessible to a broad range of students across SEAS, the College, and Wharton. No computer programming background is required, but students should be comfortable using computers and the Web, and accessing resources on the Internet.
The course is open to all majors and all levels.
COURSE FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS
The main lectures for Networked Life will be in fairly traditional format, including class participation and discussion. Powerpoint slides for all lectures will be provided, usually at least slightly in advance of the lecture itself.
There may also be participatory social experiments and exercises.
There will be a number of homework and research assignments. These will include simple quantitative analysis of data, as well as essay questions, computer and web exercises, and other quantitative exercises. Collaboration on the homeworks is not permitted.
There will be a midterm, and a final exam.
It is anticipated that the participatory experiments, homeworks, midterm and final will each count for approximately a quarter to a third of the overall grade.
Students are encouraged to bring articles, demos, web pages, news events, etc. that are relevant to course topics to the attention of Prof. Kearns. Extra credit will be given if the suggested material is used in the course (see the "Fourth Column" below).
Brief Notes on Curriculum Requirements Fulfilled by MKSE 112:
INFORMATION ON ACCESS TO SEAS COMPUTING FACILITIES
All students must have reliable access to web and Internet resources, as well as be reachable via email in a timely fashion. For these purposes, any student in the course may obtain an account on the server Eniac if they so desire, if they do not already have one. Sign up for an Eniac account here.
All students enrolled in CSE 112 have access to the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences computer labs. More information on the labs is online.