In the past few years, social media services as well as the users who subscribe to them, have grown at a phenomenal rate. This immense growth has been witnessed all over the world with millions of people of different backgrounds using these services on a daily basis. This widespread generation and consumption of content has created an extremely complex and competitive online environment where different types of content compete with each other for the attention of users. It is very interesting to study this environment as well as its Netizens. This course Introduces the basic concepts in social computing, combining several scientific perspectives for understanding social networks and human behavior. Students will learn how to identify key components, to detect and generate fundamental structures, and to model the growth and propagation in social networks. The course will supplement the texts with journal articles, conference articles, and other readings. Students are responsible for three programing projects, one group presentation, two individual presentations, three reports and 3 quizzes.
Louis Yu will be the classroom instructor. For information regarding his availability, please see his contact info.
All course materials will be available through the course webpage. The URL is http://homepages.gac.edu/~lyu/teaching/mcs394-s14/.
Our textbook is Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World by David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. I recommend for you order a copy in advance, either through the Book Mark or through another seller of your choice. the Book Mark cannot be counted on to have a copy on the shelf if you don't pre-order. You can also download a pre-published draft of the book here . However, I recommend for you to purchase a physical copy instead of using the online version.
You are expected to read the relevant Chapters specified in the schedule before each lecture, as the lectures are meant to supplement your reading (note that lectures are NOT substitutes for reading).
Attendance, both physical and mental, is required. I reserve the right to lower your
grade if I feel that you are missing classes or showing up late too often. This course replies heavily on participations.
Students are expected to lead classroom discussions and to participate when others are leading the discussions.
Should you miss a class for any reason, you are still responsible for
the material covered in there. If there is a project report due that day, you should be sure to submit it (electronically) on time
(thus, do not leave your project till the last minute). If you are to present that day, you should email me
ASAP (preferably at least 2 days before the presentation) so I can make arrangements accordingly.
If you have influenza-like symptoms (temperature over 100 with headaches, sore throat,
or cough), please call Health Service. If they say you should stay home, you should do so,
and I require that you email me.
In general, to avoid your participation points being deducted, you should talk to me (or email me) before you plan to miss a class.
For every lecture you miss without giving me notice, 0.5 points will be deducted from your final grade.
In class, you will be given exercises to work on in groups of two or three. You will practice solving problems by hand; this will also help you preparing for the quizzes. These exercises will be given at random times and collected for grading. At the end of the semester, 5 in-class exercises will be chosen at random to count towards your final grade (since in-class exercises will be worth 5% of the final grade, each exercise is worth 1%). There will not be any make-up for in-class exercises; thus class attendance is important.
At the end of this course, each student is responsible to produce a conference ready short paper (in the IEEE format).
Each student will also give a standard conference presentation (30 - 40 minutes). I will grade the quality of
the final papers and presentations using standards adapted by conference and journal reviewers.
To get students ready for the final product, the work for it is divided into three parts (each part is a report and a presentation).
Each student is also expected to evaluate other students' research proposals. The following is the breakdown:
There will be three in-class quizzes during the semester. Each quizz is scheduled for 30 minutes. The quizzes will be closed-book and closed-notes. The dates for the quizzes are: 2/26, 3/26 and 5/7. If you are too sick to write any of the quizzes, please contact me as soon as possible to make an alternative arrangement.
You will earn up to 100 total grade points for your work during the semester. The points are divided as follows.
| A: 94 - 100 | B+: 87 - 89 | C+: 77 - 79 | D+: 67 - 69 | F: 0-59 |
| A-: 90 - 93 | B: 83 - 86 | C: 73 - 76 | D: 63 - 66 | |
| B-: 80 - 82 | C-: 70 - 72 | D-: 60 - 62 |
Please point out any arithmetic or clerical error I have made in grading, and I will gladly fix it. You may also request
reconsideration if you feel I have been especially unjust.
As noted above, I reserve the right to lower your grade if I feel you are missing classes or showing up late too often.
This semester we are using Moodle to keep track of your scores. The pro of doing so is that you know your score for a component as soon as it is graded.
Any substantive contribution to your projects by another person or taken from a web site or publication should be
properly acknowledged in writing (by citing the source). Failure to do so is plagiarism and will necessitate disciplinary action.
The same standards regarding plagiarism apply to team projects as to the work of individuals, except that the author
is now the entire team rather than an individual. Anything taken from a source outside the team should be be properly
cited.
One additional issue that arises from the team authorship of projects is that all team members must stand behind
all reports bearing their names. All team members have quality assurance responsibility for the entire project. If
there is irreconcilable disagreement within the team it is necessary to indicate as much in the report.
As a student at Gustavus you are expected to uphold the Honor Code and abide by the Academic Honesty Policy. A copy of the
honor code can be found in the Academic
Bulletin and a copy of the academic honesty policy can be found in the
Academic Polices section of the
Gustavus Guide.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Art of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) work together to ensure "reasonable accommodation" and non-discrimination for students with disabilities in higher education. A student who has a physical, psychiatric/emotional, medical, learning, or attentional disability that may have an effect on the student's ability to complete assigned course work should contact the Disability Services Coordinator in the Advising Center, who will review the concerns and decide with the student what accommodations are necessary. Disability Services Coordinator Laurie Bickett (6286) can provide further information.
The Writing Center has on staff a part-time tutor with professional training in ESL/ELL instruction. Students can schedule work with this tutor by contacting the Writing Center. Students may bring their instructor's documentation concerning their ELL status. Where it is appropriate, faculty may choose to allow such students more time to complete either in- or out-of-class writing assignments. For further information, contact the Academic Advising Office.