95 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
95 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
Lectures will be loosely organized around four **modules**: differential
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privacy, applied cryptography, language-based security, and adversarial machine
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learning. I will give most of the lectures for the first module (differential
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privacy). For the other modules, I will give an overview lecture surveying the
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topic and background material. Then, each student will lead one lecture,
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presenting a paper and guiding the discussion.
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This is a graduate seminar, so not all lectures are set in stone and there is
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considerable flexibility in the material. If you are interested in something not
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covered in the syllabus, please let me know!
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## Readings and Homework
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**Paper discussions** are a core component of this course. You are expected to
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read papers before lecture, attend lectures, and participate in discussions.
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Before every paper presentation, students are expected to read the paper closely
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and understand its significance, including (a) the main problem addressed by the
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paper, (b) the primary contributions of the paper, and (c) how the authors solve
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the problem in some technical detail.
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The topics we will be reading and thinking about are from the recent research
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literature---peer-reviewed and published, but not always completely refined.
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Most research papers focus on a very narrow topic and are written for a very
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specific technical audience. It also doesn't help that computer science
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researchers are generally not the clearest writers, though there are certainly
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exceptions. These
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[notes](https://web.stanford.edu/class/ee384m/Handouts/HowtoReadPaper.pdf) by
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Srinivasan Keshav may help you get more out of reading papers.
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To help you prepare for the class discussions, I will also send out a few
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questions at least 24 hours before every paper presentation. **Before** each
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lecture, you should send me brief answers---a short email is fine, no more than
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a few sentences per question. These questions will help you check that you have
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understood the papers---they are not meant to be very difficult or
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time-consuming and they will not be graded in detail.
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## Course Project
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The other main component is the **course project**. You will work individually
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or in pairs on a topic of your choice, producing a conference-style write-up and
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presenting the project at the end of the semester. Successful projects may have
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the potential to turn into an eventual research paper or survey. Details can be
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found [here](projects/details.md).
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## Grading and Evaluation
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Grades will be assigned as follows:
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- **Discussions: 15%** (Pre-lecture questions and class participation)
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- **Paper presentation: 25%**
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- **Final project: 60%** (First and second milestones, and final writeup)
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## Learning Outcomes
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By the end of this course, you should be able to...
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- Summarize the basic concepts in differential privacy, applied cryptography,
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language-based security, and adversarial machine learning.
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- Use standard techniques from differential privacy to design privacy-preserving
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data analyses.
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- Grasp the high-level concepts from research literature on the main course
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topics.
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- Present and lead a discussion on recent research results.
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- Carry out an in-depth exploration of one topic in the form of a self-directed
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research project.
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## Credit Information
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This is a **3-credit** graduate seminar. We will meet for two 75-minute class
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periods each week over the fall semester, and you should expect to work on
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course learning activities for about 3 hours out of classroom for every class
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period.
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## Academic Integrity
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The final project may be done individually or in groups of two students.
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Collaborative projects with people outside the class may be allowed, but please
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check with me first.
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## Access and Accommodation
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The University of Wisconsin-Madison supports the right of all enrolled students
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to a full and equal educational opportunity. The Americans with Disabilities Act
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(ADA), Wisconsin State Statute (36.12), and UW-Madison policy (Faculty Document
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1071) require that students with disabilities be reasonably accommodated in
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instruction and campus life. Reasonable accommodations for students with
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disabilities is a shared faculty and student responsibility. Students are
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expected to inform me of their need for instructional accommodations by the end
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of the third week of the semester, or as soon as possible after a disability has
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been incurred or recognized. I will work either directly with you or in
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coordination with the McBurney Center to identify and provide reasonable
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instructional accommodations. Disability information, including instructional
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accommodations as part of a student’s educational record, is confidential and
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protected under FERPA.
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