Scribd
Upload
13 views3 pages

Mse334 Syllabus2017

MS&E334 is a Fall 2017 course focused on analyzing large-scale social and behavioral data, emphasizing discrete choice theory and preference learning. It includes lectures, problem sets, a reaction paper, and a project, with prerequisites in mathematics and programming. The course aims to develop students' understanding of empirical social networks and the ability to critically evaluate research in the field.

Uploaded by

moisesmarrary2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
13 views3 pages

Mse334 Syllabus2017

MS&E334 is a Fall 2017 course focused on analyzing large-scale social and behavioral data, emphasizing discrete choice theory and preference learning. It includes lectures, problem sets, a reaction paper, and a project, with prerequisites in mathematics and programming. The course aims to develop students' understanding of empirical social networks and the ability to critically evaluate research in the field.

Uploaded by

moisesmarrary2
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

MS&E334: Topics in Social Data Fall 2017

Units: 3
Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit
Lectures: 380-381U (Building 380, Room 381U, 1st floor)
Lecture hours: Tuesday/Thursday: 3:00pm-4:20pm

Instructor:
Johan Ugander
Assistant Professor
Management Science & Engineering
Email: jugander @ stanford.edu
Office: Huang 357
Office hours: By appointment

Short description:
This course provides a in-depth survey of methods research for the analysis of large-
scale social and behavioral data. There will be a particular focus on recent
developments in discrete choice theory and preference learning. Connections will be
made to graph-theoretic investigations common in the study of social networks. Topics
will include random utility models, item-response theory, ranking and learning to rank,
centrality and ranking on graphs, and random graphs. The course is intended for Ph.D.
students, but masters students with an interested in research topics are welcome.
Recommended: 221, 226, CS161, or equivalents.

Evaluation:
• 2 problem sets (20% each)
• reaction paper (20%)
• project proposal + project (40%)

Prerequisites:
This course is intended for doctoral students and an adequate mathematical and
programming background is mandatory. The course will assume a solid background in
probability, statistics, algorithms, graphs, and linear algebra, as well as basic
programming experience (the ability to manipulate network datasets).

Basic overview:
Week 1: Introduction and Overview
Week 2: Random graph models
Week 3: Graph centrality and ranking
Week 4: Choice models and ranking from comparisons
Week 5: Models of ranking data
Week 6: Social processes, influence maximization
Week 7: Causal inference on networks
Week 8: Friendship paradox, small-worlds
Week 9: Dissecting complex papers
Week 10: Project presentations

Some topics may receive a longer or shorter treatments depending on audience interest
at the onset of the course. A detailed list of references will be posted on the course
homepage as the course progresses.

Problem Sets:
The first part of the course will feature two problem sets, where the goal is to practice
skills that will be employed during the project component. The goal is to familiarize you
with (a) computational aspects of working with real data and (b) with analyzing
mathematical tools involved in modeling such data.

You may discuss the problem sets with other students in the class, but since the goal is
to practice skills, the actual writing up of the solutions must be done separately. In
particular, this means that your solution should not word-for-word resemble another
student's. In short, students are expected to abide by Stanford’s honor code.

Problem Set 1 will be handed out on October 3 and due on October 12.
Problem Set 2 will be handed out on October 12 and due on October 24.

Reaction Paper and Project Proposal:


The course includes a lot of material from the past 5-10 years; this means that much of it
exists mainly in the form of papers on the web, and the existing literature raises a lot of
interesting issues that have yet to be explored.

As a way to get everyone thinking about the research issues underlying the course, and
to prepare for the project, there will be a short reaction paper of roughly 5-7 pages in
length. You can work in groups of up to 3 people on the paper. The reaction paper is
intended to help you formulate a topic for the course project, and your group for the
reaction paper can become your group for the project (which also can be done in groups
of up to 3).

You should read at least two closely related papers, at least one of which is not linked
from the course home page. What is main technical content of the papers? Why is it
interesting in relation to the corresponding section of the course? What are the
weaknesses of the papers, and how could they be improved? What are some promising
further research questions in the direction of the papers, and how could they be
pursued? The last two questions should receive the most attention in your paper.

The reaction paper will be due on October 31st.

After the reaction papers have been submitted, each group will schedule a 30-minute
meeting with me between October 31 and November 7 to discuss what they’ve read
and their project ideas. If some group members are more excited about certain
questions or ideas than others, or find other students to partner with, it is possible to
form new groups (including individual groups) for the project.

A project proposal will be due one week after your scheduled meeting. This is
meant to be a brief description of what you're intending for the project -- about 2 pages in
length, with a discussion of relevant background work and tentative plans for how you'll
proceed. If your project is based on your reaction paper, then you don't need to repeat
things you've said in the reaction paper -- it's enough to describe how you're planning to
turn the ideas from the reaction paper into a larger project.

Project:
The basic genres of project are the following:
• An empirical evaluation of an algorithm, model, or measure on an interesting
dataset. The papers linked from the course home page suggest some possible
domains; you can also assemble your own data.
• A theoretical project that considers an algorithm, model, or measure in the area
of some course topic, and derives rigorous results about it.
• An extended, critical survey of one the course topics, going into significant depth
and offering a novel perspective on the area.
As with the reaction paper, the project should contain at least some amount of
mathematical analysis, and some experimentation on real or synthetic data. The result of
the project will typically be a 10-15 page paper, describing the approach, the results, and
the related work. The references on the course home page will serve as examples of
what such papers tend to look like; of course, the overall form of the paper will depend
on the nature of the project.

The project paper will be due December 12th, but before that there will be
presentations of the projects in class during the last week (Dec 5 and 7). The exact
schedule for the project presentations will be worked out later in the semester.

Learning outcomes:
1. Students should develop a familiarity with relevant structural properties of
empirical social networks, and how different graph models capture or don’t
capture these properties.
2. Students should be able to weigh advantages and disadvantages of different
observational and experimental study designs that examine/test mechanisms in
social systems.
3. Students should be able to employ choice models and ranking models under
different assumptions about human behavior.
4. Students should be able to critically read research papers in the field to identify
strengths and potential weaknesses, and to be able to design tests of potential
weaknesses.

Students with Documented Disabilities:


Students who may need an academic accommodation based on the impact of a
disability must initiate the request with the Office of Accessible Education (OAE).
Professional staff will evaluate the request with required documentation, recommend
reasonable accommodations, and prepare an Accommodation Letter for faculty dated in
the current quarter in which the request is made. Students should contact the OAE as
soon as possible since timely notice is needed to coordinate accommodations. For more
information: http://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/oae

You might also like