Course Logistics #

Class Meetings #

See Canvas for our meeting times. Class meetings are in person unless otherwise specified. If class is on Zoom, the Zoom link will be made available on the course Canvas site. As an Olin student, you should have a Pro license for Zoom. If you are cross-registered and do not have an account, contact Olin IT (link to contact info).

Lecture portions of Zoom class meetings will be recorded and made available to students of the course. In accordance with Massachusetts state law, you will be asked for consent when recording starts or when you join a meeting that is being recorded. You are free to keep your audio and/or video off during these meetings.

Course Tools #

This course uses Canvas for announcements, quizzes, and grading. Sensitive information, such as the course Zoom link or access to recorded class meetings, are also made available on Canvas. Access to Canvas is limited to course students and staff and is invite-only.

We use GitHub to distribute most work (worksheets, assignments, and projects) and to give feedback. Students are eligible for the GitHub Student Developer Pack.

We use Discord for text and voice chats (including during class meetings). We recommend using Discord for Q&A and to connect with your classmates and the teaching team. The invitation link will be posted on Canvas.

We use this site to distribute much of the written course information, such as the syllabus, links to readings, and project description documents.

If you need help getting acquainted with any of these tools, or if you require special accommodations for any of these tools, please contact us or see our Accessibility Policy for potential solutions.

Instructors #

Victoria Dean Email: vdean@olin.edu

Background and interests: My background is in machine learning mostly applied to robotics. I am currently interested in applying similar techniques to other problems, such as tackling climate change. For example, it turns out that building systems (like our heating and cooling at Olin) are similar to robots, in that we receive data from sensors that influence our decisions about how to act in the world.

Erhardt Graeff Email: egraeff@olin.edu

Background and interests: I identify as both a social scientist and a public interest technologist. I work on the design and use of technology for civic engagement, civic learning, and social justice, and the ethical responsibility of technologists as stewards of democracy.

Steve Matsumoto Email: smatsumoto@olin.edu

Background and interests: I study how we can move towards a more secure and private technological society through research, building better software, and improving computing education. My current research projects include a system to securely deploy new ways of checking websites’ identities and an effort to better understand how the economic incentives in cryptocurrencies can be used and improved to tackle technical and social problems.

Amon Millner Email: amon.millner@olin.edu

Background and interests: My research and teaching is informed by my work in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) domain, drawing heavily from my specialization: developing tangible interactive systems for making and learning. I develop technology and community platforms to facilitate learners becoming empowered to make and make a difference in their neighborhoods.

Course Assistants #

Course assistants (CAs) serve a few roles, including attending class, helping facilitate in-class discussions, grading, and providing office hours to help with assignments. They are essential to the smooth operation of this course, and have generously signed on to help learners in this course.

See Canvas for an up-to-date-list of CAs.