CSE 331 Mini Project

Fall 2018

Details and motivations for the mini project.

Motivation

CSE 331 is primarily concerned with the technical aspects of algorithms: how to design them and then how to analyze their correctness and runtime. However, algorithms are pervasive in our world and is common place in many aspects of society. The main aim of the mini-project is to have you explore in some depth social implications of algorithms.

Just to give two examples for such implications:

See the resources section for more examples of this phenomenon.

Your task

Your goal is to produce a 3 minute video (shorter is OK) on YouTube that talks about impact of algorithms (good and/or potentially bad) on individuals, organizations and society. Your video should talk about one specific case study and has to be done in groups of size EXACTLY 3. In addition each member of the group will have to fill in a survey once the final version of the group video has been submitted.

What exactly constitutes a case study?

A case study consists of an algorithm (or a class of related algorithms) that solves a real-life problem. So when you choose a case study you have to pick both the algorithm(s) and the problem that they solve. There is some amount of leeway on what constitutes a class of algorithms but the class has to be fairly specific-- in particular, you should be able to write about the algorithms at the level of algorithm ideas you write in your homeworks. For example these two examples are OK:

  1. Pagerank is a specific algorithm used by Google to solve the specific problem of ranking its search results. This is OK as a case study since both the algorithm and the problem are very specific.
  2. Collaborative filtering is a class of algorithms that is used to recommend movies (e.g. on Netflix ). In this case we have a class of related algorithms that is used to solve a specific problem of recommending movies.

The following are examples that are not OK as case studies (since they are too general):

  1. Machine learning algorithms are used in recommending movies. Here machine learning algorithms is not specific enough.
  2. Collaborative filtering is a class of algorithms that is used in recommender systems. Here the problem of recommending systems is too broad.

What exactly counts as a society?

We will purposefully not define what exactly we mean by "society" to allow for you to make as broad an interpretation as possible. Here are some illustrative examples to set you on the right path. Society could mean part of our system of laws (e.g. the criminal justice system ) or it could mean an occupation (e.g. financial services ) or it could be a certain demographic (e.g. refugees ) or it could mean a part of culture (e.g. Hollywood ).

However, specific organizations and individuals is not OK.

What exactly would be an organization and an individual?

This part should be fairly obvious. When we say organization, we mean named organizations: e.g. Google or Netflix or Buffalo police department .

An individual could be you or some other human being (like Bertrand Might ). But say users of a service (e.g. Amazon.com) as a group are not considered individuals for the mini project.

Logistics

We begin with the logistics of deadlines and the various things that have to be submitted. Later we will expand on what each milestone entails.

Deadlines

For your convenience, below are all the relevant deadlines. The deliverables are due by 11:59pm of the due date.

DeliverableDue Date
Team Composition and Case StudySeptember 24
Video linkNovember 5
SurveyNovember 7

Submission Deadlines

You form groups of size exactly three (3) for the mini-project. Below are the various logistics:

Details on your submissions

Next we present what is expected from each of the video and survey as well as their grading guidelines.

The video

Some more remarks before we go into the details:

The full details on the video part are below.

  1. Brief description of the case study along with a reference for your case study.
    • This should include a brief description of the problem, and
    • A brief description of how the chosen algorithm(s) work: i.e. a brief algorithm idea.
  2. Brief description of the impact of algorithm(s) on individuals in the case study.

    Note

    To get full credit for this part the individual being impacted should be outside of CSE.

  3. Brief description of the impact of algorithm(s) on organizations in the case study.
  4. Brief description of the impact of algorithm(s) on society in the case study.

Citations are needed!

Your claimed impact on organizations and society must be backed up by verifiable references. In particular, the citations for your references must appear in the video itself.

Hint

If your video says something like "algorithm blah should be useful" or "algorithm blah could be useful" then you are probably not doing it right.

Common Mistakes

  • Many submissions speculate about impact of an algorithm instead of backing the claimed impact by a reference or are not specific about the impact saying something like "algorithm blah has positive impact" or the algorithmic impact is not on the chosen problem. All of these will result in loss of points.
  • The algorithm idea has nothing beyond a description of the inputs (and maybe the output). You also need to give some idea of how the algorithm converts the inputs to the output. Also if you are trying to "guess" what the algorithm does then you are in trouble.
  • Talking about a case study that was not chosen by the group in the first place. This will result in loss of all points.

FAQs

Based on our experience of mini-projects in the last few years, here are some of the FAQs (and our answers):

  • Can we have a group of size less than three?
    No. See above.
  • Can the impact be based on simulation studies?
    No. The impact has to be real life.
  • Do the citations have to be in a certain format?
    No: any format that is understandable is fine. Do put in a URL if possible!
  • Does every group member have to appear in the video?
    No. In fact, it is fine if your group uses a voice over and no one appears in the video.
  • Can we use external sources in our video such as pictures or another video?

    Using external media is fine as long as you put in proper citations. However, all external videos must be short and should be avoided if possible.

  • Can we use a screen recorder and voice over?

    Yes. See above.

  • How do we put in citations in the video?
    Ideally, you should put in the relevant URL whenever you need to cite it. However, do not expect me to click the link to read up on the details. Your video should be self-contained. In particular, if you are quoting a part of your reference, do it explicitly in the video.

Submission

You need to submit one PDF file to Autolab. The only thing the PDF needs to have is the link to your video.

One submission per group

Only one submission per group please. Form your group on Autolab first before you submit your video.

PDF only please

Autolab might not be able to display files in formats other than PDF (e.g. Word cannot be displayed). If Autolab cannot display your file, then you will get a zero (0) on the entire question.

Grading Guidelines

We will follow the usual grading guidelines for non-programming questions. Here is a high level grading rubric specific to the video:

  1. Overall video quality: 15 points. The video does not need to be of production quality but it needs to be engaging. Make sure that your video is audible!
  2. Case study description: 15 points. Out of this description of the problem being solved is worth 5 points while the algorithm idea is worth 10 points.
  3. Impact on an individual: 20 points. To get the full points the "impacted individual" must be outside of CSE. You can interview someone at UB who is not in CSE or you can find a reference that specifically talks about impact on an individual. You can talk about the impact on someone in your group but in this case you will not get beyond 10 points.
  4. Impact on organization(s): 25 points. To get full credit your claimed impact must be backed up by a reference.
  5. Impact on society: 25 points. To get full credit your claimed impact must be backed up a reference.

Survey

Each group member will fill in a survey rating their own and their other group member's contribution to the mini project under the categories of team role, leadership, participation, professionalism and quality of work (on scale of $0-3$ on each). These scores will then be used to divide the team’s points so that individual students’ survey grades reflect how well they contributed to the overall result. The table below explains what the different numerical values for various categories mean.

Category0 points
(Unsatisfactory)		1 points
(Developing)		2 points
(Satisfactory)		3 points
(Exemplary)
Role Does not willingly assume team roles;
Rarely completes assigned work		 Usually accepts assigned team roles;
Occasionally completes assigned work		 Accepts assigned team roles;
Mostly completes assigned work		 Accepts all assigned team roles;
Always completes assigned work
Leadership Rarely takes leadership role;
Does not collaborate;
Sometime willing to assist teammates		 Occasionally shows leadership;
Mostly collaborates;
Generally willing to assist teammates		 Shows an ability to lead when necessary;
Willing to collaborate;
Willing to assist teammates		 Takes leadership role;
Is a good collaborator;
Always willing to assist teammates
Participation Often misses meetings;
Routinely unprepared for meetings;
Rarely participates in meetings and does not share ideas		 Occasionally misses or does not participate in meetings;
Somewhat prepared for meetings;
Offers unclear or unhelpful ideas in meetings		 Attends and participates in most meetings;
Comes prepared to meetings;
Offers useful ideas in meetings		 Attends and participates in all meetings;
Comes prepared to meetings;
Clearly expresses well-developed ideas in meetings
Professionalism Often discourteous and/or openly critical of teammates;
Does not want to listen to any alternate perspectives		 Not always considerate or courteous towards teammates;
Usually appreciates teammates' perspectives, but often unwilling to consider them		 Mostly courteous to teammates;
Values teammates' perspectives and often willing to consider them		 Always courteous to teammates;
Values teammates' perspectives, knowledge, and experiences, and always willing to consider them
Quality Rarely contributes to preparing and making of the video;
Others often required to revise, debug, or fix their work		 Occasionally contributes to preparing and making of the video;
Others sometimes needed to revise, debug, or fix their work		 Often contributes to preparing and making of the video;
Others occasionally needed to revise, debug, or fix their work		 Frequently contributes to preparing and making of the video;
Others rarely needed to revise, debug, or fix their work

Submitting the survey

The peer evaluation survey will have to be filled on Autolab. You should first evaluate yourself in all the five categories. Then you should evaluate the other members of your group on the five categories. You will also need to enter the UBIT ID of your group makes.

Feedback and Grades on Autolab

Once you submit your scores, your input will be printed back (as well as the information about your group that we have in our records). If you mis-typed something, please fill in the survey again and re-submit. (As usual you can submit as many times as you want.)

After your submission, the gradebook will be populated with your scores but your total score will be empty. An offline post-processing will be done by Atri before the total scores will be manually re-uploaded. So do not freak out if you see -- for your total score. Be on the lookout for a post from Atri on piazza that will alert your when your total individual score has been uploaded to Autolab.

Other Comments

Resources

Reading material

This reading list on societal impacts of algorithms has a lot of pointers. Happy reading!

Videos

Under Construction

The plan is to put up videos here as we go along. If you find a relevant video, please email me a link!