Spring 2020
6.S978 – Privacy Legislation in Practice: Law and Technology
This course will be taught jointly by faculty from MIT and Georgetown University Law School and classes will meet via videoconference. The aim of the course is to have law students and engineering students jointly explore in-depth current issues in privacy policy and to propose policy solutions in the form of legislation that could be adopted by state governments. The course will pair law students at Georgetown Law with engineering students at MIT to form interdisciplinary teams, each consisting of two law students and two MIT students. Each team will be assigned a specific question of public policy, and over the course of the semester the team will be responsible for preparing a detailed legal assessment of the policy question, the technological frameworks and challenges associated with the policy question, and formulating policy and technological recommendations to address the question in the form of draft state legislation.
Winter 2020
STS.S91 and 16.S498 – AI Technology, Policy and Society: Priorities, Opportunities and Trade-Offs
This seminar explores the current alignment of AI Technology, Public Policy, and Society with an eye toward identifying a wide range of governance approaches that can guide the ongoing integration of AI-driven systems in our economy and society. Course participants assess the relative maturity of the technologies essential to AI’s positive contribution to society, consider governance tools available to support positive developments of AI, and explore how to protect citizens around the world from harmful effects of these new systems.
Fall 2019
6.805/STS085 – Foundations of Information Policy
Consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. Our goal is for participants to develop the technical, legal and rhetorical skills to analyze and participate in the evolution of the global public policy environments that govern human behavior on the Internet.
Spring 2019
6.S978 – Privacy Legislation in Practice: Law and Technology
This course brings together engineering students from MIT with law students from Georgetown Law School to explore current issues in privacy policy and technology. Students will learn about the fundamentals of privacy law and foundations of relevant technologies. With this knowledge, students will work together to develop solutions to privacy policy challenges.
Fall 2018
6.805/STS085 – Foundations of Information Policy
Consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. Our goal is for participants to develop the technical, legal and rhetorical skills to analyze and participate in the evolution of the global public policy environments that govern human behavior on the Internet.
Summer 2017
Foundations of Internet Policy: a comparative perspective (one week course in China)
This course was jointly taught with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China – including students from both the School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering and KoGuan School of Law. The course covered legal approaches in U.S./China, privacy policy compliance, IoT security policy, intellectual property, Economic development, innovation and inclusion, and a Moot court on data leakage case in China.
Spring 2017
6.S978 – Privacy Legislation in Practice: Law and Technology
This course will be taught jointly by faculty from MIT and Georgetown University Law School and classes will meet via videoconference. The aim of the course is to have law students and engineering students jointly explore in-depth current issues in privacy policy and to propose policy solutions in the form of legislation that could be adopted by state governments. The course will pair law students at Georgetown Law with engineering students at MIT to form interdisciplinary teams, each consisting of two law students and two MIT students. Each team will be assigned a specific question of public policy, and over the course of the semester the team will be responsible for preparing a detailed legal assessment of the policy question, the technological frameworks and challenges associated with the policy question, and formulating policy and technological recommendations to address the question in the form of draft state legislation.
Fall 2016
6.805/STS085 – Foundations of Information Policy
Consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. Our goal is for participants to develop the technical, legal and rhetorical skills to analyze and participate in the evolution of the global public policy environments that govern human behavior on the Internet.
17.310/17.309/ESD103/STS82 – Science Technology & Public Policy
This unit provides a survey of justifications for and critiques of public policies. The justifications include classic microeconomic defenses of the role of government in mitigating economic market failure (listed below) and philosophical arguments on equity, justice and individual rights. These justifications are contrasted with critiques of government, including work on representational bias, influence costs and regulatory capture, organizational and bureaucratic politics, and regulatory rigidity.
Spring 2016
Introduces concepts and issues in cybersecurity policy and how to design and analyze potential solutions. Covers factors affecting cybersecurity policy, including but not limited to technology design, government policy and regulation, global Internet governance, private sector actors, and non-governmental organizations, and their interaction. Topics include cybersecurity in national security, risk management, intellectual property theft, crime, Internet governance, and censorship and control from US and international perspectives.
6.S978 – Privacy Legislation in Practice: Law and Technology
This course will be taught jointly by faculty from MIT and Georgetown University Law School and classes will meet via videoconference. The aim of the course is to have law students and engineering students jointly explore in-depth current issues in privacy policy and to propose policy solutions in the form of legislation that could be adopted by state governments. The course will pair law students at Georgetown Law with engineering students at MIT to form interdisciplinary teams, each consisting of two law students and two MIT students. Each team will be assigned a specific question of public policy, and over the course of the semester the team will be responsible for preparing a detailed legal assessment of the policy question, the technological frameworks and challenges associated with the policy question, and formulating policy and technological recommendations to address the question in the form of draft state legislation.
Fall 2015
6.805/STS085 – Foundations of Information Policy
Consider the interaction between law, policy, and technology as they relate to the evolving controversies over control of the Internet. Our goal is for participants to develop the technical, legal and rhetorical skills to analyze and participate in the evolution of the global public policy environments that govern human behavior on the Internet.
17.310/17.309/ESD103/STS82 – Science Technology & Public Policy
This unit provides a survey of justifications for and critiques of public policies. The justifications include classic microeconomic defenses of the role of government in mitigating economic market failure (listed below) and philosophical arguments on equity, justice and individual rights. These justifications are contrasted with critiques of government, including work on representational bias, influence costs and regulatory capture, organizational and bureaucratic politics, and regulatory rigidity.
17.446/17.445 – International Relations Theory in the Cyber Age
Examines cyber dynamics and processes in international relations from different theoretical perspectives. Considers alternative theoretical and empirical frameworks consistent with characteristic features of cyberspace and emergent transformations at all levels of international interaction. Theories examined include realism and neorealism, institutionalism and liberalism, constructivism, and systems theory and lateral pressure. Highlights relevant features and proposes customized international relations theory for the cyber age. Students taking the graduate version are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.
Spring 2015
6.S978 – Privacy Legislation in Practice: Law and Technology
2013
Privacy: Modern and post-modern privacy models for the Information Age: This seminar will explore the sociological, technical and legal background of modern information privacy. Through leading primary sources in modern privacy theory, we will examine how those privacy models have worked to date. With this understanding of modern privacy, we will ask whether current ideas about privacy provide the necessary guidance to address privacy questions posed by rapidly expanding information age technologies. The seminar will read roughly one book-length work per week (or equivalent) and students will write several seminar papers.