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 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 445 – Economics and Computing (was Networks, Economics and Computing)
COS 461 – Computer Networks
COS 551/MOL 551/QCB 551 – Introduction to Genomics and Computational Molecular Biology (was COS/MOL/QCB 455)
ECE 201 – Information Signals
ECE 206/COS 306 – Contemporary Logic Design
ECE 364 – Machine Learning for Predictive Data Analytics
ECE 368 – Introduction to Wireless Communication Systems
ECE 435 – Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition
ECE 464 – Embedded Computing
ECE 470/COS 470 – Principals of Blockchain
ECE 472 – Architectures for Security Computers and Smartphones (previously ECE 470 – Smartphone Security and Architecture)
ECE 473/COS 473 – Elements of Decentralized Finance
ECE 535 – Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition
ECE 574 – Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications
EGR 371/ENT371 – Designing the Future of Work: Public Interest Technology Development
MAE 345 – Robotics and Intelligent Systems
ORF 350 – Analysis of Big Data
ORF 387 – Networks
ORF 401 – Electronic Commerce
ORF 467 – Transportation Systems Analysis
ORF 473 – Special Topics in ORFE – Financial Technology and Data-Driven Innovation
POL 346 – Applied Quantitative Analysis
QCB 455/MOL 455/COS 455 – Introduction to Genomics and Computational Molecular Biology
SML 201 – Introduction to Data Science
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
AMS 343/ENG 238 – Privacy, Publicity, and the Text Message
ANT 211 – Surveillance, Technoscience, and Society
ANT 238 – Human, Machine, and In-Between: The Anthropology of AI
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
COS IW – Seminar Policy Clinic or Technology Policy Clinic (There is a different number every semester, and only the seminars taught by Mihir Kshirsagar or Katrina Ligett count toward the T&S certificate. 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 586/SPI 586F* – Topics in STEP: Information Technology and Public Policy
COS 597C – Advanced Topics in Computer Science: Computer Science for Public Policy and Law
ECO 326 – Economics of the Internet: The Digital Revolution
EGR 395 – Venture Capital and Finance of Innovation
ENV 377 – Sustainable Cities in the US and India: Technology Policy & Entrepreneurship Pathways
FRS 122 – Connection and Communication in the Digital Bazaar
FRS 128 – Tech/Ethics
FRS 159 (was FRS 163 for fall 2016 and fall 2017) – Science, Technology and Public Policy
FRS 179 – Princeton and the Dawn of the Information Age
HIS 278 – Digital, Spatial, Visual, and Oral Histories
HUM 331/HIS 336 – A History of Words: Technologies of Communications from Cuneiform to Coding
HUM 346/ENG 256 – Introduction to Digital Humanities
PHI 350/CHV 356 – Ethics of Emerging Technologies
PHI 371 – Philosophical Foundations of Probability and Decision Theory
PHI 411 – Free Speech in the Internet Age
POL 341 – Experimental Methods in Politics
SOC 204 – Social Networks
SOC 215 – The Sociology of the Internet
SOC 306/SML 306 – Machine Learning with Social Data: Opportunities and Challenges
SOC 409*/COS 409 – Critical Approaches to Human Computer Interaction
SOC 414/COS 415 – Can We Build Anti-Racist Technologies?
SPI 334/SOC 319 – Media and Public Policy
SPI 338 – When Old Debates Were New Again: Exploring the Theoretical Origins of Internet Policy
SPI 365 – Tech/Ethics
SPI 586F – Topics in STEP: Technology Policy and Law, RSC
(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
CHM 440 – Drug Discovery in the Genomics Era
ECO 416 – Fintech
ENE 202/ARC 208/EGR 208/ENV 206 –Four 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
Designing Sustainable Systems – Responding to the Pandemic in the Information Age
ENV 367/GEO 367 – Modeling the Earth System: Assessing Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change
FRS 141 – The Mathematics of Secrecy, Search, and Society! (fall 2019 only)
FRS 174 – The Science and Art of Mapping the World (spring 2021 only)
MAE 228/EGR 228/CBE 228/ENE 228 – Energy Technologies for the 21st Century
MAE 328/EGR 328/ENV 328/ENE 328 – Energy for a Greenhouse-Constrained World
NEU 537/MOL 537/PSY 517 – Computational Neuroscience and Computing Networks
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
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
CEE 392/HUM 392 – Engineering Justice and the City: Technologies, Environments, and Power
CEE 401/ENV 401 – Zero Carbon, Resilient, Equitable Cities: Infrastructure Innovations and System Analysis
CHV 333/PHI 344 – Bioethics: Clinical and Population-Level
ECO 332 – Economics of Health and Health Care
EGR 383/ENT 393 – Design Research and Humanistic Innovation
EGR 488 – Designing Ventures to Change the World
EGR 491/ECE 491 – High-Tech Entrepreneurship
EGR 494 – Leadership Development for Business
EGR 497 – Entrepreneurial Leadership
EGR 498/GHP 498 – Special Topics in Social Entrepreneurship – Ventures to Address Global Challenges (Fall 2015)
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 114 – Technology and the Environment
FRS 118 – Life on Mars – or Maybe Not
FRS 139 – The Coming of Driverless Cars
FRS 162 – Bioethics: Public Policy, Ethics and the Law
FRS 172 – Origins of Modern Communications and Principles of Innovation
GER 211 – Introduction to Media Theory
GHP 350/SPI 380/ANT 380 – Critical Perspectives in Global Health
HIS 292 – Science in the Modern World
HIS 295 – Making America: Technology and History in the United States
HIS 390 – History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Ideas and Methods
HIS 398 – Technologies and Their Societies: Historical Perspectives
ITA 320/COM 378 – Cybernetics, Literary Ghosts and the Italian Way
NES 366/ENV 366 – Oil, Energy and The Middle East
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)
SPI 354 – Modern Genetics and Public Policy
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
VIS 206 – Feminist Technoscience: Art, Technology, & Gender
Registrar Course Offerings Homepage
*Indicates the course may not always be offered.
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