Courses

EGR 371 / ENT 371: Designing the Future of Work: Public Interest Technology Development

Students will design and develop novel public internet technologies that reimagine the future of gig work. They will work with cooperatives of workers and drivers that envision a world where community-owned and open-source alternatives are part of the gig work ecosystem. These new platforms aim to be more equitable for couriers, local merchants, and the communities around them by opening up the algorithmic decision-making processes to be defined by all stakeholders. Students will engage in hands-on design and implementation of components of an open-source ecosystem to enable co-ops to take local control of the digital infrastructure.

COS 597I: Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Social Computing

We use computational systems to interact with our friends and foes, our team partners and romantic partners, and our organizations and societies. How do we design these social computing systems to be effective and responsible? How does technology shape social interaction? This seminar covers the design patterns for social computing, and the foundational social scientific and technical concepts that underpin them. We read and discuss foundational and recent papers exploring different methods in social computing. Students conduct a research project on building, evaluating, or theorizing about a new social computing design.

COS IW 03: Build and Evaluate Augmented Reality Applications for In-Person Social Interactions

Students will work on the product design and development cycle through a human-centered approach. Starting with identifying a problem or need that people have in a particular domain (e.g., education, fitness, play, and utility), designing low-fidelity prototypes, building an AR mobile application, evaluating it through an IRB-approved user study, and preparing a final demo and a report. Students will engage and reflect on the ethical implications of their designs throughout the process and articulate the value of AR for the specific scenario.