IT and Society Courses
This course requirement is intended to provide an understanding of the technology and societal aspects through a discipline based study of both sides.
Technology Courses:
Each student is required to take two technology courses from a list that includes the courses below. These courses are mostly drawn from a set that includes courses specifically designed for a wider campus audience (no prerequisites). An advanced/one-time only course may be used to replace one or both of these courses with the permission of the program adviser.
APC 524/MAE 506/AST 506 – Software Engineering for Scientific Computing
COS 109/EGR 109 – Computers in Our World (may be taken instead of COS 126, but not both)
COS 126 – General Computer Science (may be taken instead of COS 109, but not both)
COS 324 – Introduction to Machine Learning
COS 402 – Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
COS 424/SML 302 – Fundamentals of Machine Learning (previously entitled: Interacting with Data)
COS 429 – Computer Vision
COS 432/ECE 432 – Information Security
COS 433/MAT 473 – Cryptography
COS 435 – Information Retrieval, Discovery, and Delivery
COS 445 – Economics and Computing (was Networks, Economics and Computing)
COS 461 – Computer Networks
COS 495 – Special Topics in Computer Science: Neural Networks: Theory and Applications
COS 496 – Special Topics in Computer Science – Complex Networks – Analysis and Applications
COS 551/MOL 551/QCB 551 – Introduction to Genomics and Computational Molecular Biology (was COS/MOL/QCB 455)
COS 597E – Advanced Topics in Computer Science – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies (one time course – fall 2014)
COS 597G – Advanced Topics in Computer Science – Surveillance and Countermeasures
COS 598B – Advanced Topics in Computer Science – Privacy Technologies
COS 598D – Advanced Topics in Computer Science – Analytics and Systems of Big Data
ECE 201 – Information Signals (may be taken instead of ECE 222)
ECE 206/COS 306 – Contemporary Logic Design (may be taken instead of ECE 222)
ECE 222A/B and EGR 222A/B – The Computing Age
ECE 364 – Machine Learning for Predictive Data Analytics
ECE381/COS 381 – Networks: Friends, Money, and Bytes
ECE 386/EGR 386 – Cyber Security
ECE 391/EGR 391 – The Wireless Revolution: Telecommunications for the 21st Century
ECE 464 – Embedded Computing
ECE 472 – Architectures for Security Computers and Smartphones (previously ECE 470 – Smartphone Security and Architecture)
ECE 477 – Kernel-Based Machine Learning
ECE 535 – Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition
ECE 538 – Special Topics in Information Sciences and Systems – Information Theoretic Security
ECE 574 – Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications
ECE 580/COS 580 – Advanced Topics in Computer Engineering: Trustworthy Computing
FRS 170 – The Mathematics of Secrecy, Search, and Society!
MAE 345 – Robotics and Intelligent Systems
ORF 350 – Analysis of Big Data
ORF 387 – Networks
ORF 401 – Electronic Commerce
ORF 411 – Sequential Decision Analytics and Modeling
ORF 473 – Special Topics in ORFE – Financial Technology and Data-Driven Innovation
ORF 467 – Transportation Systems Analysis
POL 346 – Applied Quantitative Analysis
SML 101 – Reasoning with Data
SML 201 – Introduction to Data Science
SML 354 – Artificial Intelligence: A hands-on introduction from basics to ChatGPT
TRA 301/COS 401/LIN 304 – Introduction to Machine Translation
Societal Courses:
Each student is required to take two societal courses from a list that includes the courses below. An advanced/one-time only course may be used to replace one or both of these courses with the permission of the program advisor.
AAS 301/SOC 367 – Black to the Future: Science, Fiction, and Society
AAS 339/EGR 339 – Black Mirror: Race, Technology and Justice
AAS 363 – Blackness and Media
AMS 343/ENG 238 – Privacy, Publicity, and the Text Message
ANT 455 – Visible Evidence: Documentary Film and Data Visualization
ARC 312/URB 312 – Technology and the City: The Architectural Implications of the Networked Urban Landscape
CHV 411/PHI 411 – Free Speech in the Internet Age
COM 332/HUM 332/TRA 332 – Owns This Sentence? Copyright Culture from the Romantic Era to the Age of the Internet
COS IW 09 and 10 – Technology Policy Clinic (This seminar may count as a RSC or used as a student’s independent work for the certificate, but not both.)
COS 448/EGR 448 – Innovating Across Technology, Business, & Marketplaces
COS 495/EGR 495/SPI 495 – Special Topics in Computer Science – Information Technology, Law and Policy, (one time course, spring 2014) (The title for this course number changes. Please see previous years for approved titles.)
COS 586/SPI 586F* – Topics in STEP: Information Technology and Public Policy
COS 598F – Advanced Topics in Computer Science – Internet Law and Policy (one time course, spring 2015)
ECO 326 – Economics of the Internet: The Digital Revolution
ECO 406 – Radical Markets
EGR 385/ANT 385 – Ethnography and Wicked Problems
EGR 395 – Venture Capital and Finance of Innovation
ENV 377 – Sustainable Cities in the US and India: Technology Policy & Entrepreneurship Pathways
FRS 102 – From Codex to Code: Technologies of Learning
FRS 122 – Connection and Communication in the Digital Bazaar
FRS 127 – Big Brothers are Watching You: Internet Privacy and Security
FRS 159 (was FRS 163 for fall 2016 and fall 2017) – Science, Technology and Public Policy
FRS 172 – Humans and Machines: Work and Technology in the 21st Century
GER 517/MOD 517 – Modernism and Modernity: Digital Cultures, title changed from Aesthetics of Surveillance, which included: ART 517/COM 519 (only these titles)
HIS 278 – Digital, Spatial, Visual, and Oral Histories
HIS 453 – Digital Histories of Crime in the Americas
HIS 490 – The Attention Economy: Historical Perspectives
HUM 346/ENG 349 – Introduction to Digital Humanities
JRN 400 – The Media in America – What to Read and Believe in the Digital Age
JRN 452 – Digital Journalism – Writing about Digital Culture
MSE 407 – Communicating Science and Technology in the Modern World
PHI 371 – Philosophical Foundations of Probability and Decision Theory
PHI 411 – Free Speech in the Internet Age
POL 332 – Topics in American Statesmanship – Science, Technology, and the American Way (only this title)
POL 341 – Experimental Methods in Politics
POL 478/COS 478* – Politics in the Age of Digital Media (spring 2016 one time course)
PSY 214 – Human Identity in the Age of Neuroscience and Information Technology
PSY 322/ORF 322 – Human Machine Interaction
SOC 204 – Social Networks
SOC 214 – Creativity, Innovation, and Society
SOC 215 – The Sociology of the Internet
SOC 344 – Communications, Culture, and Society
SOC 346 – Sociology of the Cubicle: Work, Technology, and Organization
SOC 409*/COS 409 – Critical Approaches to Human Computer Interaction
SOC 412 – Designing Social and Behavioral Field Experiments at Scale
SPI 351/SOC 353/COS 351 – Information Technology and Public Policy (formerly WWS 451)
SPI 352 – Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy
SPI 356 – Civil Liberties in a Digital Age (one time course, spring 2020)
WWS 357 – Cybersecurity Law, Technology and Policy (Last offered spring 2018. Will not be offered again.)
(1 course required):
In addition to the technology and society courses, each student is required to take one course that combines technology and society in an area outside of IT. For engineering/science students this should be based in the societal disciplines, and for humanities and social science students this should be based in the science/technology disciplines.
Breadth Technology Courses:
APC 199/MAT 199 – Math Alive
ARC 374 – Computational Design
AST 309/MAE 309/PHY 309/ENE 309 – Science and Technology of Nuclear Energy: Fission aond Fusion
CEE 102B/EGR 102B/MAE 102B – Engineering in the Modern World
CEE 475 – Cities in the 21st Century: The Nexus of the Climate, Water and Energy
CHM 440 – Drug Discovery in the Genomics Era
COS 436/ECE 469 – Human-Computer Interface Technology
ECO 416 – Fintech
ENE 202/ARC 208/EGR 208/ENV 206 –Three titles:
Designing Sustainable Systems – Understanding our environment with the Internet of Things;
Designing Sustainable Systems – Applying the Science of Sustainability to Address Global Change and
Designing Sustainable Systems – Demonstrating the Potential of Sustainable Design Thinking
ENE 259/EGR 259 – Energy Innovation and Entrepreneurship
ENE 273/ECE 273 – Renewable Energy and Smart Grids
ENE 308/MAE 308 – Engineering the Climate: Technical & Policy Challenges
ENE 414 – Renewable Energy Systems
ENV 360* – Biotech Plants and Animals: Frankenfood or Important Innovations?
ENV 367/GEO 367 – Modeling the Earth System: Assessing Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change
ENV 407 – Africa’s Food and Conservation Challenge (changed title from “Feeding Africa”)
FRS 141 – The Mathematics of Secrecy, Search, and Society!
FRS 174 – The Science and Art of Mapping the World
MAE 228/EGR 228/CBE 228/ENE 228 – Energy Technologies for the 21st Century
MAE 244*/EGR 244 – Introduction to Biomedical Innovation and Global Health
MAE 328/EGR 328/ENV 328/ENE 328 – Energy for a Greenhouse-Constrained World
MAE 354 – Unmaking the Bomb: The Science & Technology of Nuclear Nonproliferation, Disarmament, and Verification
MAE 445/EGR 445 – Entrepreneurial Engineering
MOL 205 – Genes, Health, and Society
NEU 537/MOL 537/PSY 517 – Computational Neuroscience and Computing Networks
ORF 360 – Decision Modeling in Business Analytics
POL 345/SOC 305/SPI 211 – Introduction to Quantitative Social Science (also breadth societal course)
QCB 408 – Foundations of Applied Statistics and Data Science (with Applications in Biology)
SOC 301 – Statistical Methods in Sociology (also breadth societal course)
SPI 200 – Statistics for Social Science
SPI 353/MAE 353 – Science and Global Security: From Nuclear Weapons to Cyberwarfare
Breadth Societal Courses:
AMS 399/HIS 399 – In the Groove: Technology and Music in American History, From Edison to the iPod
ANT 344 – Science, Technology & Culture
ANT 356 – Technologies of Communication
ARC 492/URB 492/ENV 492 – Topics in the Formal Analysis of the Urban Structure: Environmental Challenges of Urban Sprawl
CBE 260/EGR 260 – Ethics and Technology: Engineering in the Real World (changed to a BSC beginning fall 2016)
CEE 102A/EGR 102A/MAE 102A – Engineering in the Modern World
CHV 331/SPI 372 – Ethics and Public Health
CHV 333/PHI 344 – Bioethics: Clinical and Population-Level
ECO 332 – Economics of Health and Health CareEGR 200 – Creativity, Innovation, and Design (was EGR 392)< (No longer counts toward certificate as of fall 2016)
EGR 390/CEE 390 – Innovation in Practice: Pathways and People
EGR 482 – Innovation through Empathic Design
EGR 488 – Designing Ventures to Change the World
EGR 489/ARC 487 – Design of the Imminent Future
EGR 491/ECE 491 – High-Tech Entrepreneurship
EGR 494 – Leadership Development for Business
EGR 497 – Entrepreneurial Leadership
ENE 475/PSY 475 – Human Factors 2.0 – Psychology for Engineering, Energy, and Environmental Decisions
ENV 303/EEB 303 – Agriculture, Human Diets and the Environment
ENV 304/ECO 328/EEB 304/SPI 455 – Disease Ecology, Economics, and Policy
ENV 316 – Climate Science and Communication
FRS 138 – Oracle Bones to Smartphones: Reading Media in East Asia
FRS 140 – Bioethics and Public Policy
FRS 162 – Bioethics: Public Policy, Ethics and the Law
FRS 178 – Statistics, Journalism, and the Public Interest
GER 211 – Introduction to Media Theory
GHP 350/SPI 380/ANT 380 – Critical Perspectives in Global Health
GHP 404 – Science, Society, and Health Policy
HIS 292 – Science in the Modern World
HIS 295 – Making America: Technology and History in the United States
HIS 391 – History of Contemporary Science
HIS 398 – Technologies and Their Societies: Historical Perspectives
ITA 320/COM 378 – Cybernetics, Literary Ghosts and the Italian Way
NES 366/ENE 364/ENV 366 – Oil, Energy and The Middle East (formerly NES 266*/ENV 266)
PHI 277/CHV 277 – Biomedical Ethics
POL 345/SOC 305/SPI 211 – Introduction to Quantitative Social Science (also breadth technology course)
SOC 301 – Statistical Methods in Sociology (also breadth technology course)
SOC 346* – Sociology of the Cubicle: Work, Technology, and Organization
SOC 356* – Sociology of Science (one time course, spring 2013)
SOC 401 – Advanced Social Statistics
STC 349 – Writing About Science (was called Science Journalism), (changed to be a BSC, April 2016)
THR 210A-B/STC 201A-B – Storytelling for Technology and Performance
SPI 354 – Modern Genetics and Public Policy
Registrar Course Offerings Homepage
*Indicates the course may not always be offered.