This is Xiaolan Zhang,\u00a0associate professor and chair of Computer and Information Science Department at Fordham University.<\/p>\n
CISC 4001 R01 Computers and Robots in Film (Spring 2015)
\nClass Time: Monday & Thursday 11:30 \u2013 12:45, KE 219
\nInstructors: Dr. Roger Tsai and Dr. Gary Weiss
\nContact Information:
\nDr. Roger Tsai Dr. Gary Weiss
\nrtsai2@fordham.edu gaweiss@fordham.edu
\nJMH 303 JMH 308A
\nOffice Hours: 1-2pm Office Hours: MR 10:45 \u2013 11:30, by appointment
\nCourse Description: Computers and robots have played a significant role in movie history, occupying pivotal
\nroles in both critically and commercially successful films. Very often the role of computers and robots in
\nthese films is influenced by what is occurring in society and in this course we will examine how
\nphilosophical, historical, socio-economic, and psychological factors impact the portrayal of these human
\nartifacts and what this says about us and society. We will also analyze the accuracy of these portrayals from
\na computer science perspective and discuss relevant computer science concepts. Readings will be assigned
\nto provide insight into the films and to introduce interdisciplinary perspectives. This course, and the
\nassociated readings, will especially focus on perspectives from computer science, philosophy, and film and
\nmedia studies.
\nThe course will focus on a number of key questions and will analyze these questions from multiple
\nperspectives. Some of the questions that will be addressed include:
\n\uf0b7 What does it mean to be human? What is the role of humans in our increasingly technological
\nworld? Are we becoming unnecessary? Can robots be "human?" What is the nature of reality?
\nWhat does philosophy say about these questions? How are our fears and insecurities (economic,
\nsocial, and psychological) reflected in the portrayal of computers and robots in film?
\n\uf0b7 Why computers and robots are so often portrayed as out of control and as trying to take over the
\nworld? What is the role of technology in society? What are the historical, economic, and
\npsychological factors that are responsible for this portrayal? Are such portrayals a realistic concern?
\nWhat are the philosophical implications of advances in technology? How has computer technology
\nand computer-based communication impacted the way we communicate, live our lives, and
\ninteract?
\n\uf0b7 How has the perception of the computer expert (geek, nerd, guru, etc.) changed over time? How
\ndoes this relate to sociological and economic changes in society?
\nDuring the course students will view (outside of class) approximately one film per week that involves
\ncomputers, computer technology, or robots. The content and discussion of these films will introduce the
\nstudents to key areas within computer science (e.g., artificial intelligence, robotics, networks, computer
\nvision, computer security, etc.), and help them understand how our perceptions of these areas are affected
\nby context (historical, economic, sociological, and psychological). Many of the films address deep<\/p>\n
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philosophical issues. The class meetings will be heavily discussion-oriented, with students expected to
\nactively participate in the discussion. The course will also involve the writing of a significant final paper,
\nwhich will address a key question (perhaps from the list above), and will require the students to consider
\nmultiple disciplines and perspectives. Each student will prepare and present a brief topic during class.
\nAttendance, Class Participation, and Watching the Films: It is important to attend every class and to be
\nprepared for every class. Being prepared means that you carefully and recently watched the assigned
\nmovie, have thought about it, and have completed any assigned readings. Please actively participate in
\nclass since this will make the course more interesting for everyone! Given the nature of this class, class
\nparticipation will impact your grade, although with a large class, individual participation will be, of
\nnecessity, somewhat limited. If you have an issue and cannot complete an assignment on time or watch a
\nmovie on time, whenever feasible let us know beforehand. Although the class participation grade only
\ncounts for a limited amount in the class, excessive absences will impact your grade beyond the class
\nparticipation component. There will be no penalty for absences that are excused according to Fordham\u2019s
\nattendance policy and the instructors will permit one unexcused absence; each additional unexcused
\nabsence will result in a 2% to 4% reduction in your final average. There will also be a quiz associated with
\neach movie and the quiz will usually be given at the start of the class period. Please do not be late since that
\nmay cause you to miss the quiz. Repeated lateness, as the discretion of the instructors, may count as an
\nabsence.
\nStudent Presentations: Each student will do one presentation during the course. Presentations will be done
\nindividually and the expected length of the presentation is about 10 minutes, plus 5 additional minutes for
\nquestions and discussion. The presentation topics may focus on specific aspects of the films and students
\nmay choose the topic from the list of presentation topics listed on the class schedule in Blackboard. A
\nstudent may come up with a topic, but should clear the topic with the faculty lead for that film. Once a
\nstudent selects a topic, they should email the faculty lead for that movie, who will then update blackboard
\nto reflect that the topic has been assigned to them and the date of the presentation (one of the two classes
\nassigned to the film). The faculty member will then email the student confirming the topic and date. Topics
\nwill be approved on a first-come-first-served basis and the number of topics to be covered for each movie
\nwill be limited (typically 2-4 per movie). It behooves each student to select a topic well in advance so they
\nare not stuck with a movie and\/or topic that they are not interested in.
\nReadings and Homework: Readings or other homework will be assigned for most classes. These can be
\nfound under the schedule under readings. You are required to complete these readings (or view the videos,
\netc.) prior to the class. You will be tested on these readings and other homework content during the in-class
\nquiz associated with each movie (the quiz will also cover the movie to ensure that you have watched it
\ncarefully). Several of the readings will be from "The Philosophy of Science Fiction Film" by Steven Sanders.
\nThis book is available online from Google Books, but Google may limit your access to the chapters, which is
\nwhy we list the book as a required book to purchase.
\nThe Final Paper: The final paper will be due during the date indicated on the class schedule. The paper
\nmust address a significant question and must analyze multiple films (it may include relevant films that are
\nnot covered during the course). The paper should include at least two disciplines and perspectives, one of
\nwhich can be Computer Science and the films must play a central role in the paper (i.e., the main focus<\/p>\n
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cannot be on a technical topic with the films playing only a secondary role). The paper should also examine
\nthe question from an economic, philosophical, psychological, film theory and\/or historical perspective.
\nStudents may work alone or in groups of two. As a guideline, papers submitted by an individual should be
\napproximately 3,000 words and those submitted by teams of two should be approximately 4,500 – 5,000
\nwords. This final course project is meant to be a significant paper and should reflect considerable effort and
\nthought and should be well written and carefully proofread. The paper should include appropriate
\nreferences and material that is not the author's should be properly cited, as required by the academic
\nintegrity policy. A list of potential final paper essay questions will be provided. An abstract must be
\nsubmitted by the due date specified on the schedule. The abstract should specify the title of the paper, the
\nnames of the students (1 or 2), the topic\/questions to be addressed, a tentative list of the movies that will
\nbe analyzed, and a 300-600 word abstract that describes the key aspects of the paper. The final paper
\nshould also contain an abstract, although you can refine it and it need not match the one submitted
\ninitially. The early abstract allows the instructors to ensure that you choose an appropriate question and
\nwill help ensure that you are on the right track.
\nWatching the Films: Students are expected to watch the films in a timely manner, according to the class
\nschedule, and to have watched the movie before the start of the class for which it is assigned (unless
\notherwise stated). If a student has seen the movie before, perhaps years ago, the student is expected to re-
\nwatch the movie. The quizzes that we give during the semester will include some fairly detailed questions
\nthat only students that have viewed the movie recently may be able to answer correctly. You should expect
\nto be quizzed on every movie.
\nThere will be multiple methods for watching the films, but ultimately the student is responsible for finding a
\nway to watch the movie. We will discuss the various methods for watching the films during the first class.
\nHowever, note that all of the films required for this class are on reserve in the Walsh library. These films can
\nbe accessed in room 040 in Walsh\u2019s Electronic Information Center (EIC), which has 10 stations for DVD
\nviewing. Note that these films cannot be taken out of the library and in fact cannot be taken out of the EIC
\n(e.g., for group viewing). Some of the films may be available through the libraries own collection, in which
\ncase they can be checked out for 4 hours. Many of the films may be available for streaming from Netflix
\nand\/or Amazon Prime.
\nAcademic Honesty: All work produced in this course should be your own unless it is specifically stated that
\nyou may work with others. You may discuss the movies with other students generally when writing an
\nessay, but may not copy from another student (or from the Internet), and such plagiarism is a violation of
\nFordham's academic integrity policy and violations will be handled in accordance with university policy
\n(which can include automatic failure of the assignment and\/or failure of the course). See Fordham's
\nUndergraduate Policy on Academic Integrity for more information.
\nGrading: The following grading scheme will be used. The instructors reserve the right to make minor
\nchanges to the grading scheme, as necessary. Note that the final exam will cover all material covered during
\nthe class, including the film discussions, student presentations, and technical content.
\n\uf0b7 Quizzes: 20% \uf0b7 Midterm Exam: 20%
\n\uf0b7 Final Exam: 20% \uf0b7 Class Presentation: 8%
\n\uf0b7 Final Paper: 25% \uf0b7 Final Paper Early Abstract: 2%
\n\uf0b7 Class Participation: 5%<\/p>\n
4<\/p>\n
Tentative Film Schedule: Below is the tentative film schedule for the class. This schedule is provided as part
\nof the syllabus in order to give you an accurate idea of the films that the class will cover. This schedule does
\nnot include readings and other homework that will be assigned, or the technical material that will be
\ncovered in the course. The schedule below (i.e., as part of the syllabus) will not be updated to reflect any
\nchanges in the course. Students should always check the class schedule on Blackboard, which will serve as
\nthe official schedule for the class.<\/p>\n
1. Monday January 12 Introduction
\n2. Thursday January 15 Metropolis: Complete Version (Weiss)
\n3. Thursday January 22 * Has 25 minutes of \u201cfound footage\u201d & running time about 147 min
\n4. Monday January 26 Frankenstein (Weiss)
\n5. Thursday January 29
\n6. Monday February 2 The Social Network (Tsai)
\n7. Thursday February 5
\n8. Monday February 9 Disconnect (Tsai)
\n9. Thursday February 12
\n10. Tuesday February 17 2001: Space Odyssey (Tsai)
\n11. Thursday February 19
\n12. Monday February 23 In Class Viewing of \u201cWe Live in Public\u201d
\n13. Thursday February 26 Midterm
\n14. Monday March 2 Blade Runner: Final Cut Version (Weiss)
\n15. Thursday March 5
\n16. Monday March 9 AI: Artificial Intelligence (Weiss)
\n17. Thursday March 12
\n18. Monday March 23 I, Robot I (Tsai)
\n19. Thursday March 26
\n20. Monday March 30 Wargames (Weiss)
\n21. Thursday April 9
\n22. Monday April 13 Matrix (Weiss)
\n23. Thursday April 16
\n24. Monday April 20 Her (Tsai)
\n25. Thursday April 23
\n26. Monday April 27 Special Student Presentations
\n27. ?? Final Exam<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is Xiaolan Zhang,\u00a0associate professor and chair of Computer and Information Science Department at Fordham University. contact:\u00a0Xiaolan Zhang<xzhang@fordham.edu> We are again looking for someone to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}