CS 100: Term Paper Specification
- Due: 11:59 pm Friday 12/11/2014
- Submit to Blackboard by deadline
- Approximately 10.00% of total grade
CHANGELOG:
Table of Contents
1 Overview
Goals
The goal of this term paper is for you, the author, to gain a deeper understanding of the key concepts in an area of computing of your choice. You will need to identify a computing technology that interests you, describe some technical details of that technology, survey its historical development, and discuss its social, economic, and cultural impact. You should choose a computer technology that has significantly affected human populations and is likely to continue to do so.
Requirements in Brief
- Explore a broad topic area of computing focusing on 2 or 3 specific topics (see the next section)
- Discuss technical details, historical development, and social impact of your choice computing technology
- Word or PDF file format
- 8.5in x 11in paper, max 1in margins
- 11-12pt Serif font such as Times New Roman
- 4 pages minimum length, single spaced, figures and picures not counted
- Minimum two high-quality references
- Preferred footnote style citations with bibliography
2 Choose Your Computing Technology and Topics
You may choose a computing technology that you find personally interesting subject to the constraints that it has an identifiable effect on human societies. You should choose a broad category of computing technology and then select two to three focus topics within that category. Focus topics are a specific area of impact or a quality of the technology that you would like to explore. Some example broad categories along with focus topics are given below. This list is not comprehensive and you are free to choose your own topic.
- Digital encryption and security
- use in online purchasing, digital certificates to guarantee legitimacy, influence by governments, use by criminal or terrorist organizations, strength of different encryption schemes, limitations of encryption, social engineering to circumvent secure systems
- Social Networking/Facebook
- commerce in social networks, backing technologies for social networks, effects on mental health and school performance, privacy concerns, impact on job hiring processes
- Wireless communication and mobile phones
- The app economy, privacy concerns on behavior/health/location, enabling technology such as mobile phone towers, availability of wireless communication in remote areas of the world
- Electronic commerce
- enabling technologies such as encryption, effects on small and alrge bricks and mortar stores, privacy concerns over buying and advertising, intellectual property, ownership of digital music and art, product recommendation systems
- Internet search
- algorithms for searching, personalization of results, goals of search providers, targetted advertisements, data collection based on search results
- Automation in manufacturing
- enabling technologies such as robotics and computer-aided design, effects on human manufacturing, intellectual property of digital designs, 3D printing
- Digital music and art
- digital photography technology, photo editing software and image transformation algorithms, digital music and recording technology, digital media file formats and compression, ownership and intellectual property rights of digital media
- Computer simulation
- simulation as a form of training, predictive simulation of the physical world, economic and social simulation and effects on government policy
- Drone-based Reconnaissance, Transit, and Delivery
- drone use in the miliatary, use of airborne drones for domestic reconnaissance, delivery drones, car and trains driven by AIs, effects of military drones on military personnel and civilians in war zones, ethical implications of domestic drones for reconnaissance and delivery
3 Structure of the Term Paper
No specific structure is required for the term paper but it will be helpful to organize the paper around your focus topics and use sections devoted to each.
For example, a paper on Electronic Commerce might organize into 3 sections on the following topics.
- Encryption technology that secures online transactions.
- Digital signing technology and file formats that prevent music files from being illegaly shared.
- The effect that large online music sellers such as have had the music industry and music revenue.
Another E-commerce paper may organize around a different set of topics.
- Product recommendation and datamining systems that sellers use to influence buying habits
- Privacy concerns about retailers collecting and sharing customer data
- The effect that large online sellers have had on smaller stores
A term paper on automation and robotics might focus on two topics like the following.
- Algorithms and technology that allow robots to perform repetitive tasks focusing on automobile manufacturing.
- Effect of automation on humans in manufacturing, job loss and transition
4 What to Write and How it will be Graded
Include the following in your paper.
- Some strong technical details and discussion about how the technology works;
- Some historical background of how the the technology developed and how it came to affect humans in a significant way;
- The current impact of the technology on human societies (and possibly its potential future impact).
- Make sure your writing is high quality and you abide by the style formatting, and citation requirements.
These 4 criteria, (technical, historical, social, writing quality) will be the basis of how your grade is determined. More details are below about how each component will be assessed.
Technical Details (25%)
Prove that you have gained a deeper understanding of the subject by providing technical detail of some aspect of your broad category. Examples:
- A paper dealing with computer security and encryption might describe how a symmetric or asymmetric cipher works, how a buffer overflow attack works, detail a specific instance of how social engineering circumvented an otherwise secure computing system, or describe how a denial of service attack works.
- A paper dealing with digital media might describe in detail how a digital camera works to take pictures and how picture file formats are used to store the visual information as bits, how those images can be expressed, or how algorithms can be used to create photo filters on images.
- A paper on wireless communication might describe the specific protocols of how mobile phones communicate with towers, how voice and data streams are encoded, or how phones and other devices can be strung together to form ad hoc networks in remote areas with towers.
Grading will be based on the following checklist.
| Weight | Technical Detail Grading Criteria |
|---|---|
| 5% | A high-level overview of the technical topic was given |
| 5% | One specific technical example of the technology was clearly identified |
| 5% | A fine level of detail was given for how the technology works in the example |
| 5% | Strengths and limitations of the technology are identified |
| 5% | Connections of how the technology works were made to what we discussed in class |
Historical Background (25%)
Prove that you understand that the technology you are investigating did not materialize out of thin air. Discuss preceding technologies and the general progression of the technology that has resulted in where it is today. Examples
- A paper on internet search might look at the general approaches to searching for information prior to the internet, how early types of search engines worked, and what the current state of the art looks like.
- A paper on computer simulation might look at the early types of simulation that were used, how physical devices gradually became incorporated with simluation, and how large-scale simulations came to use multiple cooperating computers to find answers faster.
- A paper on social networks might examine early social networks that competed with one another for dominance, what factors led to the current crop of social networks, and the economic factors that shaped the development of the current popular networks.
Grading will be based on the following checklist.
| Weight | Historical Background Grading Criteria |
|---|---|
| 5% | The early origins of the technology are discussed |
| 5% | Several landmark developments of the technology are mentioned |
| 5% | Signficant setbacks or accelerations of the technology are described |
| 5% | Key people responsible for the development of the technology described |
| 5% | Significant changes in society's perception of the technology over time are discussed |
Social Impact (25%)
The computing technology you choose to analyze should have a significant impact on human societies. You should examine how the quality of life of different groups has changed with adoption of the technology, whether there are downsides to its adoption, and explain significant economic impacts of the technology. Examples:
- A paper on drones in the military could examine the psychological effects of drones on drone pilots, on civilians in areas drones are used, and perceptions of drone use within the military.
- A paper on automation could examine the economic impact of robotics-based manufacturing and which groups of people have benefitted and suffered due to its adoption.
- A paper on digital music might explore the impact of downloadable music files and streaming audio on the artists, promoters, radio, and other companies comprise work music industry.
Grading will be based on the following checklist.
| Weight | Social Impact Grading Criteria |
|---|---|
| 5% | The broad impacts of the technology on human life and behavior are discussed |
| 5% | Specific groups that have greatly benefitted from the technology are identified and discussed |
| 5% | Specific groups that have been adversly affected are identified and discussed |
| 5% | The current societal impression of the technology is discussed with sources described for the societal impression |
| 5% | The author's personal experience and perception with the technology is described |
Writing Quality (25%)
Good writing is important to communicate your ideas and this paper is no exception. A portion of your grade will be devoted to how clearly you communicate your ideas and adhere to the paper style requirements.
Grading will be based on the following checklist.
| Weight | Writing Quality Grading Criteria |
|---|---|
| 5% | The paper is an appropriate length for the topic, single spaced, minimum of 5 pages, no more than rougly 8 pages, not counting figures |
| 2% | The paper is provided in the required Word or PDF format |
| 3% | There is a logical structure to the paper which divides it into sections which flow from beginning to end |
| 3% | The author has used their own voice and not relied too heavily on block quotations or excerpts |
| 2% | Timelines, figures, or other visual aids are used to illustrate points in the paper and are attributed to their original sources |
| 5% | The paper is free of glaring spelling and grammar mistakes (spellcheck and proof readers are helpful) |
| 5% | At least two high quality sources are cited using a formal citation style and a bibliography is inculded |
5 Reference Citation Style
There is no hard and fast requirement of how to cite sources for this paper. You may choose any format so long as it makes it easy to locate your source and confirm that it has the information you cite in it. For work that has pages (books, articles) citations should include the page numbers of the specific information which you cite.
I (Prof. Kauffman) will be reading and grading term papers and I have a slight preference for footnoted references as per the Chicago/Turabian style of article. You will not lose credit for using a different citation style so long as you included citations that make it easy to find your sources.
An example article that uses the Chicago style of citations is here: Chicago style citation sample document from Montana State University at Billings.
Regardless of how you cite your references, make sure to include a full bibliography at the end of the paper which makes it relatively easy to look up the sources you used. The above sample paper has a bibliography at the end of it on which you can model your own bibliography style.
6 Quality References
For your Term Paper you are required to utilize at least 2 High-Quality Sources. It is also likely that you will draw from numerous Lower-Quality Sources especially as you get started and oriented in your topic. Remember to list all of your references in a bibliography at the end of the paper.
Below are rough overviews of what constitutes a High-Quality versus a Lower-Quality source. The lines are somewhat blurry and will require you to exercise judgement. The problem of evaluating the quality of an information source will never go away so start working on it now. This overview from the Harvard writing center discusses evaluating the quality of sources and will get you thinking about how to make this a lifelong habit.
High-Quality Sources
- Published Books/Textbook
- The library is chock full of books on all manner of subjects. Use the library's online catalog system to locate the section of books that deals with your subject and visit it. Grab a pile and start skimming until you find somethign that looks interesting, then start reading in interest and taking notes. Make sure to keep track of where in the books you find various statements. Textbooks are a great place to find both deep technical discussion of a technology and its impact on human societies. In-depth textbooks can also give you a perspective of the historical development of a domain.
- Academic Journals
- New technology and new scientific discoveries are often reported in academic journals. For example one of the first asymmetric encryption schemes publicy discussed was published in 1978 in the journal Communications of the ACM. The article A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems by Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman paved the way for much of our current secure online communcations. While on the University network, you can read this classic article as the University has a subscription to the journal. This is as technical as it gets: the original source material. While sometimes daunting academic articles are a tremendous source of deep information and, depending on the article, also the impact of the technology.
- Personal Interviews with experts, professors, and professionals
- We are on a a college campus which abounds with academic experts on lots of topics. Find an expert interested in your area and ask for a 30 minute interview. Come prepared to the interview: read background material from sources above and formulate lots of questions for the expert, their opinion on what others have stated, their perspective on the past and the future. Record the interview or take careful notes. You may not interview any CS 100 course staff nor any family member for this paper.
- Newspaper Articles and Online News Organizations
- Newspapers make it a business to provide information that is more carefully controlled through editors and fact-checkers than your standard blog post. Some online news organizations have similar processes which guarantee quality. News articles are a good way to find out how technology affects human societies but will likely not contain the technical component required for your paper. They can give great historical information however, especially if the article is focused on a historical trend or if it as old article to which you can contrast the present state of the art.
- Government and Expert Group Reports
- Technology trends are watched by many groups and analyzing their impact on human societies is a big part of what governments and political entities do. Many reports are generated and publicly disseminated which are available online with some searching and may contain useful information.
- Prominent Magazine Articles
- There are lots of articles in magazines on technology. These tend to be shorter than textbooks or Academic Journal Articles and often focus on the impact of technologies rather than technical details. However, such articles can still be good sources of information and good starting points to orient yourself and know where to dig deeper.
Lower-Quality Sources
- Wikipedia or Encylopedia Articles
- These are good starting points but will not contain enough depth into any area to count as a high-quality source. The main purpose of encyclopedia articles is getting oriented with a topic so you know what to search for to go deeper. Wikipedia often contains citations and references to source material which can help you start your search. This blurb from the Harvard Writing Center discusses some pitfalls associated with Wikipedia.
- Blog Posts, Online Opinion Pieces Personal Home pages
- Most material that appears on personal or professional blogs has limited or no editorial review so it cannot be trusted as readily as high quality sources. Opinion pieces like this also tend to be short and contain little backing empirical data so they will not help you build a thorough picture of your topic. That said, there are many smart people out there putting interesting and informative things on the web. Search blogs can help you to get oriented and give you new and ineresting perspectives on technology.
- "How It Works" Sites / Q&A Forums
- There are many places that dish out short tidbits of information based on one take or based on crowds answering an open question. These are often informative but you should verify information you find there by searching high quality sources.