SYS 478: Fall 2026

SYS 478: Fall 2026

Syllabus Assignments

Course Schedule

1. Humans, Intelligence, and Judgment

Why Does AI Matter as a Public and Ethical Issue?Tue, Aug 18 How Do Humans Learn? Biological FoundationsThu, Aug 20 How Do Humans Learn? Psychological FoundationsTue, Aug 25

How Do Humans Learn? Sociocultural FoundationsThu, Aug 27

Judgment, Ethics, and Theory of MindTue, Sep 1

Imagining Futures: Who Gets to Define the Desirable?Thu, Sep 3

2. Machines, Data, and AI

How Do Computers Compute?Tue, Sep 8

Computing Is PhysicalThu, Sep 10

How Did AI Change Over Time?Tue, Sep 15

How Do Technological Change and Labor Markets Shape Life After College?Thu, Sep 17

What Changed With Machine Learning and Neural Networks?Tue, Sep 22

What Are Generative AI and LLMs Actually Doing?Thu, Sep 24

3. A Toolkit for Understanding AI in Society

How Does the World Become Data, and Why Is AI a Sociotechnical System?Tue, Sep 29

What Counts as Skill and Expertise?Thu, Oct 1

Fall BreakTue, Oct 6No class

How Do Predictions Become Decisions?Thu, Oct 8

Are Predictions Ever Neutral? Norms, Bias, and Technological SolutionismTue, Oct 13

4. AI Enters the World

Domain A: How Does This Institution Already Work?Thu, Oct 15

Domain A: What Changes When AI Enters?Tue, Oct 20

Domain B: How Does This Institution Already Work?Thu, Oct 22

Domain B: What Changes When AI Enters?Tue, Oct 27

Transfer Lab: How Does a Different Institution Work Before AI?Thu, Oct 29

How Are Opportunity and Professional Life Shaped by Networks and AI Tools?Tue, Nov 3

5. Patterns Across Domains: AI, Power, and Political Economy

What Patterns Recur Across Domains?Thu, Nov 5

Who Controls AI?Tue, Nov 10

What Responsibilities Do People Have Inside Organizations Adopting AI?Thu, Nov 12

6. Governing Futures That Do Not Yet Exist

University Senior SymposiumTue, Nov 17No class

What Is Technically Different About Neuromorphic Computing?Thu, Nov 19

How Can We Govern an Emerging Technology Before Its Uses Are Settled?Tue, Nov 24

7. Synthesis: Professional and Civic Responsibility

Thanksgiving BreakThu, Nov 26No class

What Responsibilities Do We Have as Professionals and Global Citizens?Tue, Dec 1

8. Final Public Explainers and ELSI Presentations

Module 7

Synthesis: Professional and Civic Responsibility

The course closes with your career readiness synthesis presentation and a reflection on professional and civic responsibility.

This final unit brings the semester together. You will use the full Field Guide stack, technical grounding, deployment pattern, STS explanation, and ethical or governance judgment, in your career readiness synthesis presentation.

We close with a reflection on what responsibilities we have as professionals and global citizens once we understand how AI systems work and who they affect.

Fall 2026 dates: Tue, Dec 1

Meeting sequence:

What Responsibilities Do We Have as Professionals and Global Citizens?

By the end of this unit, you should be able to present a synthesis of technical, ethical, and governance reasoning about an AI system, and articulate your own responsibilities as a professional and global citizen.

Topics

Thu, Nov 26Thanksgiving BreakNo class
Tue, Dec 1What Responsibilities Do We Have as Professionals and Global Citizens?

Module 7

Synthesis: Professional and Civic Responsibility

The course closes with your career readiness synthesis presentation and a reflection on professional and civic responsibility.

This final unit brings the semester together. You will use the full Field Guide stack, technical grounding, deployment pattern, STS explanation, and ethical or governance judgment, in your career readiness synthesis presentation.

We close with a reflection on what responsibilities we have as professionals and global citizens once we understand how AI systems work and who they affect.

Fall 2026 dates: Tue, Dec 1

Meeting sequence:

What Responsibilities Do We Have as Professionals and Global Citizens?

By the end of this unit, you should be able to present a synthesis of technical, ethical, and governance reasoning about an AI system, and articulate your own responsibilities as a professional and global citizen.

Topics

Thu, Nov 26Thanksgiving BreakNo class
Tue, Dec 1What Responsibilities Do We Have as Professionals and Global Citizens?