instructor: prof. johan l. bollen office hours: tuesdays, 14:00-15:30 info east rm. 304

I501 – Introduction to Informatics

[email protected]://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/I501

Informatics and computing

lecture 1 – Fall 2011

Instructor:

Prof. Johan L. Bollen Office hours:

Tuesdays, 14:00-15:30 INFO East Rm. 304

Class meets:

Wednesday, 16:00-19:00 I107 (Informatics West)

Resources:

http://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/I501 Oncourse.iu.edu

http://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/I501









Preliminaries

Overview of 1996-2009 timeframe: 1993-1994: Autonomous robots, VUB AI Lab - Luc Steels 1995-1999: Global brain, cybernetics, VUB - Francis Heylighen 1999-2001: Active recommender systems, LANL - Luis Rocha/Rick Luce 2001-2005: Digital libraries/usage data mining, ODU/LANL 2006-present: MESUR - Scientific program to track scientific activity,

LANL/Herbert Van de Sompel LOLA

Global Brain

SFX recommender

Funded byAndrew W. Mellon





And you?

Tell me about your- background- interests- what do you expect from this course?





OverviewThe course deals with the foundations of Informatics as an interdisciplinary field. It deals with concepts such as Information, Technology, Knowledge, Modeling, as well as their impact on science and society. The course will also attempt to define and understand what computational thinking can bring to science and society. In particular, we will focus on the National Science Foundation's definition of Computational Thinking as "a set of bold multidisciplinary activities that,[...] promise radical, paradigm-changing research findings. [...] Applied in challenging science and engineering research and education contexts, computational thinking promises a profound impact on the Nation’s ability to generate and apply new knowledge

AimsThe course is designed to present and discuss the history, methodology and impact of informatics; students are introduced to various approaches to informatics via interaction with faculty working on diverse problems, as well as the appropriate literature. Finally, students are expected to develop a understanding of what constitutes research in the field, via a familiarization with relevant funding opportunities.





How did we get here? From cybernetics to informatics The logical mechanisms of nature and society

The nature of information From semiotics to Shannon

Information and Technology The cyborg species?

Technology as Problem Solving Next-generation computer science? Various flavors of informatics

Computing Models of the World Next-generation science?

New computational paradigms The limits of computation Research in a nascent field

Computational thinking, what is it? Scientific method and the practice of science Publication practices

Syllabus Overview





Class structure

We meet every Wednesday 16:00 to 19:00 Class consists of 3 parts:

1. Lecture, or discussion of blackbox assignment

2. Guest lecture by prominent SOIC (or beyond) faculty member

3. Paper discussion: 2 groups: proponents of paper vs. adversaries each student chooses side (be prepared to switch!)

Lots of time for discussion and participation Use it Much of our material is subject to vigorous debate Opinions are good, speaking up is good, discussion is good





1) Participation (20%): based upon attendance and participation in class discussion. We expect that students will approach the course as they should a professional job – attend every class.

2) Assignments (40%): • 30%: one assignment during the semester related to the Blackbox Task,

due by end of semester (deadline TBA).• 10%: Every 2 weeks, teams present their findings to class.

3) Final: Research proposal (40%= 30% + 10%): 30%: A proposal as if it were prepared for submission to the NSF Graduate

Research Fellowship Program Program (CISE field of study). This research proposal should be developed in consultation with an appropriate faculty member, and should focus on a Computational Thinking approach to a research question (http://www.nsfgrfp.org/). We will cover the general requirements and details of this proposal throughout the semester.

10%: Your proposal presentation and materials at the end of the semester

Evaluation





Lecture notes and slides See course web page:

http://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/I501F11/ Resources tab in OnCourse

This week McCulloch, W. and W. Pitts [1943], "A Logical Calculus of Ideas

Immanent in Nervous Activity". Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5:115-133.

Coutinho, A. [2003]. "On doing science: a speech by Professor Antonio Coutinho". Economia, 4(1): 7-18, jan./jun. 2003.

Heims, S.G. [1991]. The Cybernetics Group. MIT Press. Chapters: 1,2, 11, and 12.

Course materials





Attendance We expect that students will approach the course as they should a

professional job – attend every class.

Academic Integrity As with other aspects of professionalism in this course, you are expected to

abide by the proper standards of professional ethics and personal conduct. This includes the usual standards on acknowledgment of joint work and other aspects of the Indiana University Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct. Cases of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office of Student Ethics, a branch of the Office of the Dean of Students.

All assignments are considered individual work, unless explicitly noted otherwise.

Rules, rules, rules





An incomplete (`I`) final grade will be given only by prior arrangement in exceptional circumstances conforming to university and departmental policy which requires, among other things, that the student must have completed the bulk of the work required for the course with a passing grade, and that the remaining work can be made up within 30 days after the end of the semester.

Incomplete grade





Grading

A+AA-

98%94%90%

Excellent Work. Student performance demonstrates thorough knowledge of the course materials and exceeds course expectations by completing all requirements in a superior manner.

B+BB-

85%80%75%

Very Good Work. Student performance demonstrates above-average comprehension of the course materials and exceeds course expectations on all tasks as defined in the course syllabus.

C+CC-

70%65%60%

Good Work. Student performance meets designated course expectations and demonstrates understanding of the course materials at an acceptable level.

D+DD-

55%50%45%

Marginal Work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete understanding of course materials.

F <45% Fail





How did we get here?





Informatics:a possible parsing

X-Informatics or Computational X

Informatics

Computer Science

Complex Systems

Data & Search

Data Mining

HCID

Social Informatics

Security

Bio-

Chem-

Geo-

Music-

Health-

towards problem solving beyond computing for computing’s sake into the natural and social synthesis of information technology

By Erik Stolterman/Luis Rocha

“Informatics is the science of information, the practice of information processing, and the engineering of information systems.”

“the sciences concerned with gathering, manipulating, storing, retrieving, and classifying recorded information”

“the study of information processing; computer science.”

“Computer Science in Europe” ;-)





Post-war science Synthetic approach

Engineering-inspired: science of the artificial Supremacy of mechanism

Postwar culture of problem solving Interdisciplinary teams Cross-disciplinary methodology

All can be axiomatized and computed Mculloch & Pitts’ work was major influence

Significant advances in:EngineeringCommunication and Information theoryComputingCognitive science/AILogistics of large social systems

Inter-disciplinary, synthetic scienceEmergence of cybernetics and systems science

Macy Conferences (1943-1953)

William Ross Ashby (psychiatrist), Gregory Bateson (anthropologist), Julian Bigelow (electro technician), Heinz von Foerster (biophysicist),Lawrence K. Frank (social scientist), Ralph W. Gerard (neurophysiologist), Molly Harrower (psychologist), Lawrence Kubie (psychatrist), Paul Lazarsfeld (sociologist), Kurt Lewin (psychologist), Warren McCulloch (chair-psychatrist), Margaret Mead (anthropologist), John von Neumann (mathematician), Walter Pitts (mathematician), Arturo Rosenblueth (physiologist), Leonard J. Savage (mathematician),Norbert Wiener (mathematician), Max Delbrück (geneticist and biophysicist), Erik Erikson (psychologist), Claude Shannon (information theorist)Seated (L-R): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik Lorentz, Emil

Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Curie, and Henri Poincaré.Standing (L-R): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck, Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin.

Solvay Conferences (1911-2008)





Some examples

Engineering Radar-guided anti-aircraft/missiles Servo-control mechanisms Blurring of biology/machine boundary Science of the natural vs. science of the artificial

Computing Digital computers: Eckard & Mauchly, Neumann Science of computation/encryption: Turing, Neumann Tantalizing possibility of “substrate-independent intelligence”

Cognitive science Neural networks, neuroscience Psychology: behaviorism, theories of learning

Social Sciences Game theory Computational approaches to large-scale social problems, sociology





Created new fields analytical in methodology synthetic interdisciplinary concepts useful in constituent fields

Cybernetics

Cybernetics

Biological Sciences

Social and Psychological

Sciences

Mathematics &

Engineering

AI ORCS





McCulloch, W. and W. Pitts [1943], "A Logical Calculus of Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity". Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5:115-133.

Coutinho, A. [2003]. "On doing science: a speech by Professor Antonio Coutinho". Economia, 4(1): 7-18, jan./jun. 2003.

Heims, S.G. [1991]. The Cybernetics Group. MIT Press. Chapters: 1,2, 11, and 12.

(all discussions will be organized in terms of 2 teams: the “author” team and the “reviewer” team – idea is not “to teach the controversy”)

Next lecture

instructor: prof. johan l. bollen office hours: tuesdays, 14:00-15:30 info east rm. 304

Documents

edujbolle informatics

foundations of informatics

impact of informatics

mellon i501 introduction

challenging science

worldnextgeneration

engineering research

research findings