Course syllabus

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Course-PM

DAT315 / DIT199 / DIT875 The computer scientist in society lp2 HT24 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Computer Science and Engineering

Contact details

Course purpose

Complete the computer science curriculum with knowledge and generic skills relevant in the student's future professional roles. Students will

  • develop their scientific writing skills by studying, critically analyzing, and summarizing selected well-written scientific articles,
  • train technical communication for different audiences,
  • discus ethical aspects  of subjects in computer science, 
  • learn about ethical principles of research and publishing.

Schedule

TimeEdit

Course literature

See separate literature list.

Course design

The course consists of three types of activities: lectures, assignments and group activities.

The lectures will be in person (see Canvas for rooms). Copies of the slides used will be provided on Canvas after the lectures. Note though that the slides are only a compliment to the lecture and are not meant to be self-contained.

The assignments are related to two major topics: 1) reading and summarizing an important Computer Science publication, and 2) creating and presenting a Masters' Thesis proposal. For both, you will write several drafts of your summary, with feedback from the TAs in between, until you write your final manuscript. You will also prepare and give a 15-minute presentation of your material.

All assignments related to the summary paper is meant to be done individually whereas the Masters' Thesis proposal will be done in pairs (or individually in exceptional circumstances).

There are strict deadlines for all the assignments since they all build on each other. As a result, missing a deadline with more than a week will result in you failing the course. Of course, if illness or other unforeseen event happens, you need to contact the examiner (secarl@chalmers.se) as soon as possible to find a solution to the problem. 

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

* extract and summarize the current knowledge about a specific topic in computer science from original articles, clearly describe the scientific or technical problems treated within a specific topic in computer science, identify the essential points of an article,
* write well organized and well formulated text with proper scientific argumentation,
* explain and communicate a topic to readers that are not necessarily experts in the domain,
* plan a research project (master's thesis), based on problem analysis and with a clearly shaped goal, and predict its feasibility,
* review scientific sources critically,
* analyze and evaluate the reasons for the choice of a solution method,
* identify possible ethical and societal consequences of a method, design or system, evaluate possible decisions, based on general ethical values,
* apply ethical principles in scientific writing, including proper citation and use of statistical statements.

Examination form

The course is examined by a written proposal, carried out normally in pairs, and individual written assignments. The grading scale comprises: Pass (G) and Fail (U). In order to get the grade Pass, the student needs to pass both the proposal and the individual written assignments.


The course examiner may assess individual students in other ways than what is stated above if there are special reasons for doing so, for example if a student has a decision from Chalmers on educational support due to disability.

Course summary:

Date Details Due