Sophomore Research Seminar “Technology, Identity, Security”
Fall 2012
CLASSROOMS:
Tuesdays Butterfield 106+
Thursdays Wold 010+
Library sessions (Sept 20 and 27) meet in the Library lab
Professors: Shane Cotter and Anastasia Pease
Research Librarians: Elizabeth Hoppe and Courtney Seymour
Office Hours & Contact Information
Prof. Cotter: TTH 11-12:30
Steinmetz 217
cotters@union.edu
Prof. Pease: MWF 10-11
Humanities 113A
peasea@union.edu
You are also welcome to stop by our offices at any time or send an email to arrange a meeting time.
Required readings (please see the syllabus below):
Our Biometric Future: Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance by Kelly A. Gates
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Full text online FREE at: http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/
Excerpts from Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society by Anil Jain, et al. Available through the library at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/unioncollege/docDetail.action?docID=10053018
Excerpts from America Identified by Lisa Nelson (on Library Reserve)
Excerpts from The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth, et al. (on Library Reserve)
Other texts (short stories and online articles) are listed on the syllabus below.
Grading and evaluation:
Quizzes – 30 points (6 quizzes at 5 points each)
Annotated bibliography – 5 points
Detailed outline of research paper – 5 points
Research Paper – 30 points
PowerPoint & Presentation – 10 points
Poster & Presentation – 10 points
Attendance and participation, including Library sessions – 10 points
NB: Poster Presentations will take place on Tuesday, Nov 6, at COMMON LUNCH
Grades are assigned based on your cumulative score in accordance with the following table:
Cumulative Score |
Grade |
≥ 92.50 |
A |
90.00-92.49 |
A- |
87.50-89.99 |
B+ |
82.50-87.49 |
B |
80.00-82.49 |
B- |
77.50-79.99 |
C+ |
72.50-77.49 |
C |
70.00-72.49 |
C- |
60.00-69.99 |
D |
< 60.00 |
F |
Rules of constructive participation:
For students with special needs:
If you have a physical or mental disability and require any kind of special accommodations, talk to us the first week of class. Your disability must be documented by the Dean of Students’ Office. Contact Shelly Shinebarger at ext. 6116
Honor Code statement:
Union College recognizes the need to create an environment of mutual trust as part of its educational mission. Responsible participation in an academic community requires respect for and acknowledgement of the thoughts and work of others, whether expressed in the present or in some distant time and place.
Matriculation at the College is taken to signify implicit agreement with the Academic Honor Code, available at honorcode.union.edu. It is each student's responsibility to ensure that submitted work is his or her own and does not involve any form of academic misconduct. Students are expected to ask their course instructors for clarification regarding, but not limited to, collaboration, citations, and plagiarism. Ignorance is not an excuse for breaching academic integrity.
Students are also required to affix the full Honor Code Affirmation, or the following shortened version, on each item of coursework submitted for grading: “I affirm that I have carried out my academic endeavors with full academic honesty.” [Signed, Jane Doe]
Tentative Syllabus
There may be some small changes to the syllabus as we go through the term. You will be made aware of these changes in class, and we will maintain an online copy of the syllabus where any changes will be noted.
Week 1 September 6
TH: In class: Introduction to the class.
Week 2 September 11, 13
For TUE Read pgs. 1-29 and 34-38 from Chapter 1 of Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society
Read D. Himberger et al.,“Civil Liberties and Security: 10 Years after 9/11”
http://www.apnorc.org/Common/pdfs/AP-NORC-Civil-Liberties-Security-9-11-Report.pdf
In-class:QUIZ 1 fundamentals of biometric systems
For TH Read Chapter 4, “Hand Geometry Based Verification”, pgs. 87-102, of Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society
Read pgs. 65-70 on “Face Recognition” from Chapter 3 Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society;
In-class: hand geometry and face recognition
Week 3 September 18, 20
For TUE Read Introduction, Chapters 1, 2, 3 in Our Biometric Future
In class: QUIZ 2 social implications of face recognition technology
For TH Read Chapters 3 and 4 from Craft of Research
In class: library hour I MEET IN THE LIBRARY LAB (2nd floor)
Week 4 September 25, 27
For TUE Read Chapter 4 in Our Biometric Future;
Read “Minority Report” by P.K. Dick (on Library Reserve)
Read “DARPA Wants to Predict Terrorism”
http://www.webpronews.com/darpa-wants-to-predict-terrorism-crime-by-analyzing-social-media-2012-07
Read “Pre-Crime Screening”
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/04/homeland-securitys-pre-crime-screening-will-never-work/255971/
In class: QUIZ 3 Security, Security Theater
For TH Research paper topics due in class
In class: library hour II MEET IN THE LIBRARY LAB (2nd floor)
Week 5 October 2, 4
For TUE: Read Chapter 5 and Conclusion in Our Biometric Future
Last day to change paper topic
In class: QUIZ 4 facial expression recognition
For TH: Research paper detailed outline and annotated bibliography due in class.
Attendance is mandatory!!
In-class: film
Week 6 October 9, 11
For TUE: Read Reynolds, Douglas A. , "An overview of automatic speaker recognition technology," IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2002, vol.4, no., available at
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5745552&isnumber=5745339
Also available here: http://www.ll.mit.edu/mission/communications/ist/publications/020513_Reynolds.pdf
Read Speaker Recognition Technology Overview: http://www.biometrics.gov/Documents/SpeakerRec.pdf
Attendance is mandatory!!
In-class: IBM guest lecture
For TH: QUIZ 5 Read pages 1-66 in Little Brother
and “Leave Your Cell-Phone at Home”, http://nplusonemag.com/leave-your-cellphone-at-home
In class: Grammar and structure review session;
Week 7 October 16, 18
For TUE:
Read excerpt from Handbook of Fingerprint Recognition (on library reserve)
In-class: QUIZ 6 fingerprint recognition
For TH: Read pages 67 – 132 in Little Brother
Attendance is mandatory!!
In class: Quinn Norton Guest Lecture
Week 8 October 23, 25
For TUE: First complete version of research paper due in class
Read pages 132 -- 158 from America Identified (on library reserve)
Read Biometrics Testing and Statistics: http://www.biometrics.gov/Documents/BioTestingAndStats.pdf
For TH: Read Maritza Johnson, Serge Egelman, and Steven M. Bellovin. “Facebook and privacy: It's complicated.”
In Symposium On Usable Privacy and Security (SOUPS), July 2012.
Available at: http://www.guanotronic.com/~serge/papers/soups12-facebook.pdf
Read Facebook Privacy Page: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/
In-class: Online Identity and Privacy; PowerPoint bootcamp; Poster Overview; and presentation schedule lottery
Week 9 October 30, November 1
TUE Individual appointments with professors I
Work on paper, PowerPoint, and Poster for next week
TH Individual appointments with professors II
Work on paper, PowerPoint, and Poster for next week
Week 10 November 6, 8
TUE
In-class: PowerPoint Presentations I
PLUS COMMON LUNCH HOUR: POSTER PRESENTATIONS in Wold Atrium
TH
In-class: PowerPoint Presentations II
Last day of classes: TUE, November 13
Final version of research paper – in hard copy – due in class