University of Pittsburgh Courses

Instructor: Zia Hydari

This course introduces the technology tools and economic principles used by managers of modern platforms such as Facebook, Google, Lyft, Yelp, and others.  In the technology module, the course first covers digitization.  Specifically, the course looks at how analog information in the physical world is digitized to be stored and processed in systems and how it enables platforms. This digitization is driving the current business trends in Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data.   The course introduces cloud computing on the Google platform and application programming interfaces (API) commonly used by platforms.  Cloud labs supplement lectures and provide hands-on experience.  In the economics module, the course introduces the concept of multi-sided platforms (MSP) and the important idea of network effects that power modern platforms.  The course builds on these MSP foundations to cover platform architecture, launch, monetization (and time permitting, metrics, and strategy).  The student will leave the course with a basic understanding of the economic decisions made by platform managers as well as the investment decisions of venture capital and technology investment firms that invest in platforms.

Instructor: Anthony Rodi 

This course provides an overview of ethics concepts and decision-making as they are related to Information Systems and Computing. Emphasis is placed on the study of ethical situations and responsibilities of IS professionals around current and emerging technologies in a global setting. Research papers, Case studies and discussion of current ethical events around technology will be used to facilitate discussions in areas including, but not limited to: Cloud Computing, Data protection, Cyber Security, The Digital Divide, Social Media, Intellectual Property, Whistleblowing, Professional Codes of Conduct, Professional liability, Internet freedom in computing and international laws and governance. Invited Subject Matter Experts will conduct informative sessions on key subject matter areas aligned with the course content.

Instructor: Prashant Krishnamurthy

Computing and information systems underlie nearly every facet of life in today's highly-networked societies. Accordingly, there are many paths through the degree programs offered by the School of Computing and Information, each focusing on different aspects of the theories, practices, and applications of computing and information. This course will introduce students to a variety of core principles and important themes that cross-cut this array of computing- and information-oriented disciplines, as well as explore the types of work that individuals educated in these disciplines engage in.

Instructor: Dmitriy Babichenko

How are computational artifacts currently designed, and how can they be designed differently? What stories can be told by collaborating with computers? What stories can't be told? This project-based course will enable students to engage with and create computational narratives and interactive projects with data, hardware and algorithms. Each collaboratively taught iteration of the course will include 3-4 of these units, such as: fabrication, interactive hardware, computational narrative, interactive data, and prototyping. Students will consider what it means to compose with computers for human audiences, and with humans for computer audiences. Designed for Digital Narrative and Interactive Design (DNID) majors to take midway through the major, it will help students consolidate the interdisciplinary knowledge they have obtained in their prerequisite courses, introduce them to examples of interdisciplinary work that will inform their later capstone projects, and give them practice in working on collaborative projects that span the humanities and information/computing fields.

Instructor: William Clark or Daniel Cole

This course will teach students how to build products and services using lean methods.  This will be done by solving real-world military and intelligence community problems.  The course uses the lean launchpad platform for entrepreneurship.  This is a highly customer-centered hypothesis-test approach to developing a mission modes, and is particularly well-suited for technology startups.  It incorporates customer needs and user testing to build a minimum viable prototype.  At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to understand the problems/needs of searching for product-market fit; understand all the stakeholders, deployment issues, costs, resources, and ultimate mission value; deliver minimum viable products that match customer needs in an extremely short time; produce a repeatable model that can be used to launch other potential technology solutions.

Instructor: Lisa Nelson

Information technology and the information that it generates has increasingly become part of our daily lives shaping our practices, discourses, and institutions in fundamental ways. Personal information is used by consumers, professionals, and organizations to a variety of ends and in a number of different settings. The growing reliance on personal information not only challenges long-standing demarcations between public and private institutions in terms of responsibilities, obligations, and limits, but also calls for a reconsideration of how to ensure the protection of long-standing civil liberties and civil rights. This course will consider the impact of emerging technologies within existing constitutional, statutory, and international guidelines and will then explore a range of policy solutions for managing the use of personal information in our public and private sectors.