EECS Graduate Student Professionalism Skills, Difference, Power and Descrimination (DPD), and Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
This is an introductory course that centers on three learning outcomes:
- Recognize difference, power and discrimination within social systems and their influence on people of diverse backgrounds both inside and outside their discipline.
- Identify how to conduct scholarly activities in an ethical manner.
- Learn professionalism skills useful to you as an EECS Graduate student (eg, time management, conflict resolution, etc.)
All three of these learning outcomes will be important to your success here at OSU and to your ability to win and succeed at a professional job/career in EECS after you graduate. The second learning outcome is also required for all OSU graduate students. A passing grade in this course can be used to indicate that you have met the latter learning outcome on your program of study.
Grading and Grades
A passing grade will be given to students who:
- attend and participate in the class discussions and complete the before-class readings or activities, and
- complete all assignments.
- Some of these assignments involve completing the online Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training
Deadlines are firm; if you need an extension, it must be approved before the assignment's deadline.
Grades to date, as of: 10/2/2016, 10/24/2016, 10/26/2016, 11/2/2016, 11/7/2016, 11/25/2016, 11/25/2016 updated, 11/27/2016, 11/29/2016, 12/1/2016 .
Schedule and Readings
Because about 1/3 of the class will be done online via the CITI Ethical Training modules, we'll average only 2 hours per week meeting in person. The meeting schedule below achieves this average.
- Week 0:
- W 9/21: Introduction to the class
- F 9/23: Writing a diversity statement (Part 1)
- Implicit/unconscious bias: what is it and why is it there? (Case study: racial bias)
- NCWIT Video: Unconscious Bias
- Homework #1 (due Friday 9/30): Take the Harvard unconscious bias test of your choice from here. Turn in your name and the Exact Title of the test you took. Email to Dr. Burnett by 11:59 pm Friday 9/30.
- Bias interrupters (for unconscious or conscious incidents of bias)
- Technique #1 (for probably unconscious bias): re-attribution and/or amplification
- Technique #2: (for explicit/overt bias-based harrassment): demonstrate support, ignore harrasser
- Technique #3: find a way to put the ignored person in the spotlight.
- Techniques #4 and #5: See "top 10 ways" a majority group member can help interrupt biases for members of an underrepresented group
- Ways to decrease gender bias in hiring:
- Ways to decrease bias in being hired? A controversial finding...
- Power posing, as per Amy Cuddy (A quick skim is: first 3 minutes, then 5:30-6:30, 7:15-8:15, then 10:00-11:00, 12:00-15:30)
- Power posing not really established, as per Dorsa Amir and Dana Carney
- M 10/3, W 10/5, F 10/7: No class. (Dr. Burnett is keynoting at an ACM-W Celebration of Women in Computing in India.)
- Homework #2 (due Wednesday 10/5): As announced in class, with your teammate, critique/compliment any one of the job ads using the NCWIT Tips for better job ads resource #1. Format can be annotated pdf or scanned-in printout that you manually annotated. I expect about 3 or 4 critiques/comments (about 1 sentence each) referring to some particular tip on the resource. Email one copy per team (with both your names on it) to Dr. Burnett by 11:59 pm Wednesday 10/5.
- Homework RCR-week2 (due Sunday 10/9): Complete the Week #2 module (Conflicts of interest) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 10/10: Mentoring and being mentored
- W 10/12: Mentoring, continued
- F 10/14: Stereotype threat: what it is, how to avoid triggering it, recognizing when it's been triggered
- Homework RCR-week3 (due Sunday 10/16): Complete the Week #3 module (Mentoring) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 10/17: No class
- W 10/19: Writing:
- (1) Using "Burnett boldifications" (Being true to yourself)
- (2) Topic sentences example (Being true to your reader)
- F 10/21: Writing emails (local copy). Examples.
- Homework RCR-week4 (due Sunday 10/23): Complete the Week #4 modules (Authorship, Collaborative research, and Plagiarism) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 10/24, W 10/26: Pair programming and pair writing
- F 10/28: No class
- Homework RCR-week5 (due Sunday 10/30): Complete the Week #5 modules (Peer review and Research misconduct) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 10/31: No class (Happy Halloween!)
- W 11/2: Gender bias in software, and using GenderMag to detect it. GenderMag site, GenderMag lecture (pptx), GenderMag lecture (ppt)
- F 11/4: Bias in software, continued
- Homework #3 (due Sunday 11/6): From this paper or from something you find with a web search, turn in one concrete example of when algorithmic bias has occurred (about 1-2 sentences), and give the complete paper citation or URL where your example came from.
- M 11/7: Special guest Dr. Suresh Venkatasubramanian, on algorithmic bias
- W 11/9: Post-election discussion
- F 11/11: University holiday
- Homework RCR-week7 (due Sunday 11/13): Complete the Week #7 module (Environment/social dimensions of engineering research) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 11/14: No class. (Dr. Burnett is keynoting at the ACM FSE conference in Seattle.)
- W 11/16: Class: Special time, special location, special speaker: Dr. Safiya Noble's presentation on Challenging Algorithms of Oppression: Black Annihilation and the Internet. Time/location: 3:30-5:00, Valley Library 2nd floor Rotunda. Attending this class will be counted as Homework #4, and attendance will be taken.
- F 11/18: No class. (Dr. Burnett is keynoting at the ACM FSE conference in Seattle.)
- Homework RCR-week8 (due Sunday 11/20): Complete the Week #8 modules (Research involving human subjects, Using animal subjects, Data management) of the RCR for Engineers online course
- M 11/21: Conflict resolution, active listening
- W 11/23: No class
- F 11/25: University holiday
- M 11/28: Time management
- W 11/30: Last moments with your diversity statements, wrap-up
- F 12/2: No class
RCR Online Assignments
Some of your assignments will add up to passing the online Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training.
- Q: When to do these? A: Schedule of RCR assignments
- Q: Where to do the assignments? A: here.
- Q: Which online RCR course? A: Select this one: Responsible Conduct of Research for Engineers.
- Q: What does "passing" mean? A: You have to get a score of 80% or higher.
- Q: How to turn it in: A: Email proof of passing the assigned module to Dr. Burnett by the due date (a screenshot from CITI showing that you passed that module is fine).
- Q: Further instructions? A: go here
Slides and Useful Materials
- Class requirements: Is CS/ECE 507-002 required for graduation?
- Bias and bias interrupters:
- Bias interrupter: Amplification technique as practiced by Obama staffers
- Bias interrupter for explicit bias-based harrassment
- Implicit bias examples in academic settings
- "Miss Triggs' idea" cartoon
- Top 10 ways to be a [majority] advocate for technical [underrepresented group]
- What it feels like to be on the receiving end of explicit bias: Michelle Obama's speech of Oct. 13, 2016
- A short paper on Algorithmic bias
- A bias buster by OSU Muslim students: new short film on being Muslim
- How to find (and remove) gender bias in user-facing software with GenderMag
- NCWIT Mentoring "kit".
- NCWIT "kit" for pair programming
- Skills for ECE/CS grad students, future faculty, and future professionals:
- Top 5 Mistakes dealing with disabled people (2+ minutes: you can start around 35 seconds in).
- Conflict resolution and active listening:
- Writing and writing diversity statements:
- Making sense of the diversity statement
- Sample diversity statements
- Example paper with mostly good topic sentences but a few examples of bad ones as well (look for red rectangles).
- Tips for writing effective emails: 5 steps (local copy), 10 strategies,