This is the syllabus for the Tue/Thu section with Bryce Wiedenbeck, and may differ from that of the Mon/Wed/Fri section with Sindhu Kutty.
Computer scientists tend to study systems over which they, as the designer, have control. In contrast, economists often study multiple autonomous decision makers, the outcomes of their decisions, and the incentives they face. At the intersection of computer science and economics lie a number of exciting incentive problems in networks, secuirty, and search advertising that require economic reasoning. Further, many economics problems in mechanism design and information aggregation benefit from a computer scientist's engineering and algorithmic approaches.
This seminar will explore this rapidly-growing interdisciplinary field. Through readings, presentations, and discussions, you will learn about recent exciting research in ECON-CS. And in your semester project, you will reach and even push forward the research frontier by replicating and extending a research study of your choice.
For each paper on the schedule, one person will give a background presentation before the class reads it, and another will give a main presentation before the class discusses it. You are required required to give one background and one main presentation (for different papers) over the course of the semester; use this web form to sign up. For each presentation, you should schedule a meeting with Bryce during office hours at least one week in advance. Prior to this meeting, you are expected to read the paper and prepare a rough outline for your 20-minute presentation.
Background Presentation
The goal of the background presentation is to prepare your clasmates to get the most out of reading the paper.
This will generally require some discussion of related work that the paper builds on, and some introduction of concepts used in the paper that have not been covered in class.
For the background presentation, it is important to be familiar with the paper, but not necessarily to understand it in minute detail.
Bryce will generally have a list of references for you to use and concepts that should be covered, but you should look for related work and potentially unclear concepts too.
Main Presentation
The goal of the main presentation is to set the stage for the day's paper discussion.
This will generally involve summarizing key results from the paper, clarifying parts of the paper that were unclear, and posing questions to the class.
Important questions will often relate to how well the paper achieved its aims, and what next steps might be important to follow up on.
For the main presentation, you should be familiar with background material, but focus on being able to expain concepts and results introduced in the paper.
If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact Leslie Hempling in the Office of Student Disability Services (Parrish 113) or email lhempli1@swarthmore.edu to arrange an appointment to discuss your needs. As appropriate, she will issue students with documented disabilities a formal Accommodations Letter. Since accommodations require early planning and are not retroactive, please contact her as soon as possible. For details about the accommodations process, visit the Student Disability Service Website. You are also welcome to contact Bryce privately to discuss your academic needs. However, all disability-related accommodations must be arranged through the Office of Student Disability Services.
These additional papers may be of interest for further reading. Many contain background information for the papers we will read (and can be useful when preparing your background presentation). Others cover related topics that we won't discuss in detail, but could provide a good starting point for your replication project.