CPSC610: Topics in Computer Science and Law

Time: Wed, 3:30 to 5:20 p.m.
Location: Arthur K. Watson Hall, Room 307
Instructor: Joan Feigenbaum
ULA: Aidan Evans
Assistant: Judi Paige (AKW 507A, Judi.Paige@yale.edu, 203-436-1267)

Course Description
CPSC 610 is a graduate seminar that focuses on socio-technical problems in computing, i.e., problems that cannot be solved through technological progress alone but rather require legal, political, or cultural progress as well. Examples include but are not limited to computer security, intellectual property protection, cyber crime, cyber war, surveillance, and online privacy. The course is addressed to graduate students in Computer Science who are interested in socio-technical issues but whose undergraduate work may not have addressed them; it is designed to bring these students rapidly to the point at which they can do research on socio-technical problems. Students present and discuss papers from the literature in class, do term projects (either papers or software artifacts), and present their projects at the end of the term.

Enrollment limit
In order to ensure that there is enough time for both midterm feedback on project proposals and in-class presentation of the finished projects, enrollment is limited to fifteen. If fewer than fifteen Computer Science graduate students enroll, Yale College undergraduates will be allowed to enroll with permission of the instructor.

Prerequisites
The basics of cryptography and computer security (as covered in CPSC 467), networks (as covered in CPSC 433), and databases (as covered in CPSC 437), or permission of the instructor.


Reading list for the Fall 2021 offering of CPSC 610


Final papers
Nine of the students in CPSC 610 this semester agreed to have their final papers posted on this site.