Course Home Page for Networked Life: NETS 112, University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2016 (original) (raw)

How does your position in a social network (dis)advantage you?

Networked Lifelooks at how our world is connected -- socially, strategically and technologically -- and why it matters.

The answers to the questions above are related. They have been the subject of a fascinating intersection of disciplines, including computer science, physics, psychology, sociology, mathematics, economics and finance. Researchers from these areas all strive to quantify and explain the growing complexity and connectivity of the world around us, and they have begun to develop a rich new science along the way.

Networked Life will explore recent scientific efforts to explain social, economic and technological structures -- and the way these structures interact -- on many different scales, from the behavior of individuals or small groups to that of complex networks such as the Internet and the global economy.

This course covers computer science topics and other material that is mathematical, but all material will be presented in a way that is accessible to an educated audience with or without a strong technical background. The course is open to all majors and all levels, and is taught accordingly. There will be ample opportunities for those of a quantitative bent to dig deeper into the topics we examine. The majority of the course is grounded in scientific and mathematical findings of the past two decades or less (often much less).

Fall 2016 is the thirteenth offering of Networked Life. You can get a detailed sense for the course by visiting the extensive course web pages from past years:
[Fall 2015] [Fall 2014] [Fall 2013] [Fall 2012] [Fall 2011; hosted by now-defunct startup so lost forever] [Spring 2010] [Spring 2009] [Spring 2008] [Spring 2007] [Spring 2006] [Spring 2005] [Spring 2004]

There is also a greatly condensed version of this class offered to the general public as part of the online education platformCoursera.While the Coursera version is not being offered online this semester, we will make the corresponding videos available in the Penn offering.

Networked Life is the flagship course for Penn Engineering's recently launchedNetworked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS)program. Throughout the course we will foreshadow material that is covered in greater depth in later NETS program courses.

TEXTS AND READINGS

The following book is recommended but not required; it is easy and entertaining reading, and provides a high-level introduction to some course themes:

Micromotives and Macrobehavior, by Thomas C. Schelling. Paperback. W.W. Norton, 1978.

In addition to readings from these texts, there will be frequent articles from the recent scientific and popular literature that will be provided directly on this web page at the appropriate points in the syllabus.

COURSE PERSONNEL

Prof. Michael Kearns, Course Instructor
mkearns@cis.upenn.edu
Levine Hall 509
Office hours: Tuesdays 12-1 PM (right after lecture), or by appointment

Adel Boyarsky,Teaching Assistant
adelb@seas.upenn.edu
Office hours: Mondays 12-1 PM, bump space next to 502 Levine

Mary Peyton Sanford,Teaching Assistant
mpsanford17@gmail.com
Office hours: Sundays 3:30-4:30 PM, bump space next to 502 Levine

Brad Thompson,Teaching Assistant
wdbradthompson@gmail.com
Office hours: Wednesdays 11AM-12, bump space next to 502 Levine

LECTURE LOCATIONS AND TIMES

Attendance at the main lectures is considered mandatory for all enrolled students. They are held Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30-12 in Berger Auditorium of Skirkanich Hall. There are no recitations for the course.

COURSE PREREQUISITES

Networked Life has no formal prerequisites, and is meant to be accessible to a broad range of students across SEAS, the College, and Wharton. No computer programming background is required, but students should be comfortable using computers and the Web, and accessing resources on the Internet.

The course is open to all majors and all levels.

CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS FULFILLED BY NETS 112

Networked Life can be counted for credit in thePhilosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)andScience, Technology and Society (STSC)programs. Check with your academic advisor in these programs to confirm exactly how you can count the course.

COURSE FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS

The main lectures for Networked Life will be in fairly traditional format, including class participation, discussion, and communal in-class experiments. PDF slides for all lectures will be provided, usually at least slightly in advance of the lecture itself.

There will be two or three homework assignments. These will include simple quantitative exercises, as well as essay questions, computer and web exercises. Collaboration on the homeworks is not permitted.

There will be a midterm, and a final exam. We may have a quiz or two as well.

It is anticipated that the homeworks/quizzes, midterm and final will each count for approximately a third of the overall grade.

Students are encouraged to bring articles, demos, web pages, news events, etc. that are relevant to course topics to the attention of Prof. Kearns. Extra credit will be given if the suggested material is used in the course (see the "Fourth Column" below).

DETAILED COURSE SCHEDULE

Except for occasional hard-copy handouts distributed in lectures, all of the material for the course will be posted in the table below. Lecture slides, reading and homework assignments, in-class and out-of-class experiments, due dates, exam information, etc. will all be provided below. The materials posted are initially those from the last offering of the class, and will be gradually updated and possibly altered as we progress through the course. New materials and topics may be added as well. Reading and working ahead are encouraged, just be aware that things may change a bit as we proceed.It is every student's responsibility to monitor this schedule closely and regularly.

In the assigned readings below, "Watts" and "Schelling" refer to the two required texts cited above. Other readings will be directly provided as links to PDF documents. Unless specified otherwise, you should generally try to complete the assigned reading during roughly the period spanned by the dates given in the same row of the table.

The lecture slides are all in PDF format, but they may often contain links to documents in other formats, including Postscript, JPEG, video, etc. In order to view all of the linked content you may need to be using a computer with viewers installed for these formats.Note that since slides are revised shortly in advance of each lecture date, links to future decks may not yet be active.

In the "DATES" column of the table below, our current place in the schedule will be highlighted in red.

"THE FOURTH COLUMN" will be used to put links to class-related materials from the popular media, the web, etc. Extra credit will be provided to those who send me such material if it is used.