Appendix 2: Coursework for Students in the CASOS Program

CASOS Coursework

The course requirements for a Ph.D. in EPP & CASOS are designed to provide students with a common core of knowledge and techniques useful in policy problems, as well as to give each student a mastery of a body of knowledge in organization science, computer science and social networks. Three categories of courses are included in the curriculum: Core Courses; Type A courses in engineering, science, mathematics, and statistics; and Type B courses in social sciences and policy analysis. The following chart outlines these courses:

CORE (Courses on policy research and problem-solving skills)

19-701 Intro to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis 12 units
19-702 Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis 12 units
19-704 Applied Data Analysis 6 units (mini)
19-705 Workshop in Applied Policy Analysis (Prep for Part B Qualifier) 6 units (optional)
EPP Teaching Practicum 12 units
(or substitute managing a team computational modeling project in CASOS)

TYPE A (Courses in engineering, science, applied math and statistics)

All students in CASOS must take the following courses:

1. 12-704 Probability & Estimation Methods for Engineering System 12 units
2. Approved math or statistics elective 9-12 units (Recommended options include graph theory and statistics for experimental design.)
3. 17-750 Computational Modeling of Complex Socio-Technical Systems
   a.k.a.*88-750 or  *39-750
4. 12 units of a course in Multi-agent Systems or Distributed Artificial Intelligence (number and title to be determined; various courses fulfill this requirement)
5. 12 units of technical course in computer science, software engineering or information science
6. 12 units of approved computer science or math elective*

TYPE B (Courses in social science and social analysis)

All students in CASOS must take the following courses.

1. 90-908 “Applied Microeconomics” or 90-709 "Intermediate Economic Analysis

2. 17-752 Dynamic Organizations and Networks 12 units
    a.k.a. 88-752, 39-752, 90-926

3. 90-904 Social Network Analysis and Methods – counts 50% for type A

4. Approved elective in social and organizational science,*
   such as 90-903 Social Network Theory or 19-703 Survey Design and Analysis

   
   * Students with strong prior experience in social and organizational science may omit the Type B elective in this area.

Overall, students are expected to take at least 135 units beyond the B.S. degree to fulfill the requirements for a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy and CASOS:

• A minimum of 48 units in core courses
• A minimum of 48 units in Type A courses
• A minimum of 36 units in Type B courses

In order to develop the skills needed to complete their Ph.D., most students take more than these minimum numbers of courses.

Candidates for the M.S. degree must complete a minimum of 93 units:

• A minimum of 42 units in core courses (includes teaching practicum)
• A minimum of 27 units in Type A courses (17-750, plus one computer science/software engineering course or multi-agent systems)
• A minimum of 24 units in Type B courses (17-752 and 90-904)
• A minimum of nine units in independent research on a CASOS project

In addition, the student must pass the Qualifying Exams, at least at the M.S. level. Joint M.S. programs may impose additional requirements.  The paper for the Part A qualifier needs to address two of the following topics:  organizations, social networks, and computational modeling.

An overall 3.0 grade-point average is expected for graduation. The department does not allow credit for more than two courses with a grade of "C" or lower.

Core Course Requirement

There are two principle components to the EPP-CASOS core curriculum.  The first is a sequence of courses on perspectives and tools for policy analysis: 19-701, -702, and -704. Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Applied Policy Analysis (19-701) is a lecture and discussion course that reviews and critically examines a set of problems, assumptions and analytical techniques that are common to research and policy analysis in technology and public policy. The objective is to look critically at the strengths, limitations and underlying assumptions of key policy research and analysis tools and problem framing and sensitize students to some of the critical issues of taste, professional responsibility, ethics and values that are associated with policy analysis and research. Quantitative Methods for Policy Analysis (19-702) is a course that provides a broad introduction to analytical and computational methods commonly used to address technical policy issues. Particular emphasis is placed on methods for decision analysis and optimization. Applied Data Analysis (19-704) is a Spring half-semester mini-course (given in the second half of the Spring semester) that covers several statistical procedures, including multiple regression with interactions, logistic regression, signal detection analysis, principal components analysis, factor analysis, and possibly other techniques, with an emphasis on hands-on data analysis.

The second component is the CASOS core including 17-750, 17-752, 90-904 and a course on multi-agent systems.  This core provides the grounding linking organizational and network issues to the computational, network, and statistical techniques used in analysis.  Particular emphasis is placed on complex systems and dynamic networks.  With this background students can engage in the development, use, analysis, and critique of complex adaptive system techniques for addressing policy issues.

All students will take either 19-701 or 19-702, and 17-750 or 17-752 in their first semester, depending on year of entry; and will take 19-704, 17-750 or 17-752 and 90-903 or 90-904 in their 2nd semester. As 90-903 and 90-904 are only offered every other year, it can be moved to the student's second year but only if it is not offered in the first year.  Then in their 3rd semester, they will take either 19-701 or 19-702, again depending on their year of entry, and 19-705 (though 19-705 remains optional, virtually all of our students take it to prepare for the qualifying exams). In their fourth semester they will take a course on multi-agent systems and, depending on their year of entry, 90-904.  In either the 2nd or 4th term students typically take 90-903 even though it is optional.  This will allow them to be finished with core courses by the end of their second year.  Due to the differences in course load EPP-CASOS students may take their qualifying exams in either their second or third year; however, the second year is preferred.  In particular, Part B, may be delayed by one year.

One of the Teaching Practicum options, EPP Project Management (19-752), involves serving as a manager for a student group project course in Engineering and Public Policy. The students taking the project course include undergraduate double major engineering students in EPP, undergraduate policy majors in Social and Decision Sciences, and Master's-level students in the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. This course allows the development of research and project management skills, and involves considerable interaction with both students and outside experts who serve as consultants and reviewers for the project.  Students are advised to keep informed about projects being designed for the following semester by attending the project selection meeting held mid-semester.  Managers are expected to assist faculty in preparation for the course prior to the beginning of the semester.

The other teaching practicum option (19-753) involves conducting recitations for the department's 19-101 Introduction to Engineering and Public Policy freshman course.  This opportunity is somewhat limited; typically there are two positions available in spring semesters when the course is taught. Duties include assisting the course instructor in preparing content prior to the start of the semester, administering the course website, preparing and grading homework and test questions, attending lectures, meeting weekly with the course instructor to plan recitation sessions, conducting recitation sessions, assisting in assigning grades, and being available outside of class to assist students and answer questions.  This is a fairly large course with typical lecture sizes in the range of 60 students.  As a result some activities, especially grading, will mandate significant periodic time commitments.  Since this option involves lecture, international students must take and pass at the appropriate level the International Teaching Assistant test administered by the Intercultural Communication Center.  See section 3.3 for more information on ITA testing.

Type A Requirement

For EPP-CASOS students the focus of this requirement is to train students in computational modeling and validation.  Hence students take a combination of computational and statistics courses.  All students need to know how to program in at least one language.  Hence if the students do not know how to program, they must take C, C++ or Java.  Such a programming course can count for 6 of the units in this area.  Mini’s in these exist in multiple colleges.  All students are required to complete 17-750 Computational Modeling of Complex Socio-Technical Systems.  An additional approved course in either distributed artificial intelligence or multi-agent systems is required.  All students are required to complete a first-year graduate course in applied probability and statistics. Currently, the recommended course to meet this requirement is Probability and Estimation Materials for Engineering Systems (12-704). An additional approved course in mathematics or probability and statistics is also required. The list of approved math elective courses is available from the department. Note that this list includes the statistics course on experimental design, and a graph theory course.

To meet the remaining 12 units in the requirement, students choose from a large group of graduate technical courses in computer science, information science, or software engineering. There are two basic motivations for this requirement. First, before one can extend the perspectives and tools of computational science, one must develop a firm notion of what these perspectives and tools really are. Second, the technical dimensions of the policy problems that are addressed by students pursuing graduate studies in EPP-CASOS cannot be treated as a "black box." EPP-CASOS graduate students must develop the skills to deal with the technical aspects of these problems. It is intended that students develop a level of mastery in their technical area of focus similar to that obtained in a traditional program of graduate study in that area – in this case, computer science, software engineering, or information science.

Type B Requirement

All students must take a graduate-level course in organizations (currently 17-752) and in network methods (90-904). A minimum of one additional social science electives is required. At least 6 units must be in the area of political science, regulation or law. Note that units for certain courses, such as 90-904 may be split and counted partially for Type A and B course requirements, and that the Type B units for such a course can be applied to the organizations and technology policy requirement. Similar flexibility may apply to other courses as well.

Qualifier and Paper Requirement

All EPP-CASOS students need to exhibit research competence in network analysis and in computational modeling.  This can be achieved by doing a qualifier paper utilizing one of these techniques and a thesis chapter or publishable paper using the other.  There is a two paper requirement.  In general, students working on a CASOS project can use that work for one of these papers.  Further, the research core of one of these papers should be developed as a proposal with the advisor and then submitted to the CASOS proposal competition and to a funding agency.

Institute and Conference

All EPP-CASOS students are to attend the CASOS institute, and in latter years serve as TAs and then instructors.  All EPP-CASOS students are to submit papers to the CASOS conference, and take part as helpers for this conference for at least 2 years.

Seminars

All EPP-CASOS students are to attend the CASOS seminars when they do not conflict with courses.

Co-advising

All EPP-CASOS students are to have two CASOS advisors.

Other

Students may delay their EPP qualifying exams by a year.  Students must have two advisors, one from the computational side and one from the organizational/network side of the research.  Students in this program need to show evidence of the ability to do both network analysis and computational modeling in a research paper.  The qualifier paper, if it contains networks or computational modeling meets the CASOS paper requirement.  Alternatively, a chapter in the student's thesis can be used to meet this requirement.  Students are expected to receive some training in professional ethics.  This can be achieved through a combination of courses, special seminars, and attending special guest lectures.  Students are encouraged to take a course in ethics and to take Cliff Davidson’s seminar on the practical side of research.

Students are required to attend the CASOS summer institute and conference.  Also, after year 1, they are expected to submit papers to the conference, to serve as TA’s and/or teach in the institute, and to help with the conference.  Students may submit proposals to the CASOS proposal competition and are encouraged to submit their thesis proposals to appropriate funding agencies.  While funded under IGERT students are expected to also engage in CASOS-related research and to not take on additional teaching duties, hold down other jobs, etc.

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