DIHB043 Социалният живот на алгоритмите в 21. век (21st Century Social Life of Algorithms)
Анотация:
COURSE OUTLINE AND OBJECTIVES
The course has both general educational and applied objectives. It will acquaint students with the constantly changing social algorithms and internet technologies through the prism of multidisciplinary tendencies, as well as with the “invisible trends” and changes in currently evolving programming languages.
The aim of the course is to show how codes, social algorithms and mobile applications manage to turn technology into an inhabited personal space; and how global communications have benefited from this change, especially since 2010, due to the fact that they are reviving old social practices in the online space.
During the course will be discussed practical case solutions, as well as the applied theoretical basis being selected by the lecturers based on their research activities and project-based work with computer science students at the Western Sydney University. From a methodological point of view, the course will proceed as associatively led practical discussions of multimedia presentations, which will direct students' attention to key concepts and ICT tools and will make them intuitively feel which fine skills and good ICT practices lead to success and the solution of problematic situations in their professional lives. The awareness of social roles and communication techniques, as well as the selective operation of data sets on "predictable scenarios" will play a key role in the competitive positioning of students within the global markets.
During the semester lecturers will communicate with students using the following social channels:
• Zoom, WhatsApp, Viber, WeChat (on-screen lectures, discussions and consultations),
• Moodle (lecture materials, case studies and student assessments),
• Facebook groups (discussing supplementary ideas with students),
• Google Docs (collaborative processing on joint projects).
• Dropbox, WeTransfer, Telegram (sharing and synchronizing files up to 2 GB).
Преподавател(и):
Людмил Дуриданов д-р
гл. ас. Христина Костадинова д-р
Описание на курса:
Компетенции:
COMPETENCIES
Successfully graduated students:
1) will know:
• How to recognize semantic differences between different programming languages
• The difference between code, pseudo-algorithm and algorithm
• How to apply strategic choices of web applications
• About collaborative filtering – risks and challenges in specific collaborative cases
• About AI ethic requirements in specific market cases after 2010
2) will be able to:
• To create a simple code in an hour
• Recognize main issues in web apps
Предварителни изисквания:
PRELIMINARY REQUIREMENTS
Students should have knowledge and / or skills:
o Working English
o Basic computer skills
Форми на провеждане:
Редовен
Учебни форми:
Лекция
Език, на който се води курса:
Английски
Теми, които се разглеждат в курса:
- What are algorithms and where do they play an “invisible role” in our life?
- How are algorithms connected with the flow of Big Data and how they can influence our behavior? How “sorting” datasets by 5000 features (as in Cambridge Analytica's Alamo project) can affect decision-making of any user? (e.g., Brexit, presidential elections in USA and France since 2010)
- The difference between writing an algorithm, pseudo-code, and a code – “the hour of coding”
- Principles of writing a ‘good code’ (S.O.L.I.D., e.g., error correction codes in CD audio systems)
- Software applications – types, technologies (web apps, mobile apps). How are they created and structured? How do they influence our everyday life?
- Design patterns in creating reusable and flexible software applications
- Programming languages classification (categories). Why are there so many? Which are the most popular and why?
- Comparing programming languages - semantic differences
- Using technologies good or bad? Are social algorithms and the surveillance economy (after Snowden) inherent faces of the internet technologies?
- Open-source code (e.g., the Linux movement - market risks and challenges)
- Paradigms in software development. Object-oriented programming, Functional Programming.
- Cloud Computing - data design, storage and maintenance; data design center “opening” in the Open Compute Project initiated 2011 by Facebook; Apple‘s iLeadership in mobile formats; how Amazon has won vs IBM ‘in the cloud project’ 2013)
- Artificial Intelligence. Collaborative filtering and how tracking patterns of behavior and filtering the data flow can enrich our life with suggestions and we can see more in our ‘filter bubble’ (e.g., Netflix and Amazon suggestive algorithms)
- AI ethics - actual risks and market challenges. How autonomous algorithms can cause a flash crash (e.g., the 2010 Wall Street Flash Crash). The AI xenobots - autonomously living programmable organisms (since 2020)
- Is the blockchain technology (following the 2017 Don and Alex Tapscott project) just an introduction of a new protocol for a peer-to-peer electronic cash system using cryptocurrencies? Are cryptocurrencies building a new world “in the background”?
Литература по темите:
RECOMMENDED READINGS
BEER, DAVID, The social power of algorithms. In: Information, Communication & Society Volume 20, 2017, Issue 1, 1-13.
DOURISH, PAUL: The Social Life of Algorithms, Melbourne University: Pursuit 2016.
GALLOWAY, SCOTT: The Four – the Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, London: Penguin, Transworld Publishers 2017.
KAISER, BRITTANY: Targeted: The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower’s Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again, 2019.
KEARNS, MICHAEL & ROTH; AARON, The Ethical Algorithm, The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, Oxford University Press 2020.
KUCKLICK, CHRISTOPH: Die granulare Gesellschaft. Wie das Digitale unsere Wirklichkeit auflöst. Berlin: Ullstein 2016².
SHVETS, ALEXANDER: Dive into Design Patterns, 2019.
SNOWDEN, EDWARD: Permanent Record, New York: MacMillan 2019.
STRONG, COLIN: Humanizing Big Data. Marketing at the Meeting of Data, Social Science and Consumer Insight, London: Kogan Page 2015.
TAPSCOTT, DON & ALEX: Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business and The World, Portfolio Penguin 2016.