Winter 2023 New Course Descriptions

CMPLXSYS 325 - Memes, Measles and Misinformation

This course explores how contagious processes can help us understand a range of different phenomena observed in the real world—from infectious disease transmission, to the spread of information, misinformation, and disinformation. We also explore the feedbacks and interactions between many of these different transmission systems. We examine these questions through four main course modules: 1) infectious disease transmission, 2) networks, heterogeneity, and the spread of memes, 3) misinformation and disinformation, and 4) interactions and feedbacks between contagious systems. Example topics will include why misinformation and disinformation may sometimes spread more widely than true information, the development of the anti-vax movement, and an exploration of the dynamics of masking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meets distribution Requirement: MSA

Meets General Requirements: BS; QR/1

LSA Course Guide Listing

CMPLXSYS 351 - MINI COURSE - Introduction to Social Science Data

This course will provide an introduction to the programming language Python as a tool for loading, manipulating, and exploring social science datasets. We will begin with basic Python syntax and progress to more complicated tasks such as parsing, cleaning, imputing, and visualizing data, and we will pay particular attention to the skills needed and challenges faced when working with social science data. The bulk of the work in this course will be reading and coding a set of five lab assignments and a final project. Prior experience with Python is not required.

Course Aims:

• Develop familiarity with basic Python syntax, including lists, dictionaries, loops, and function definitions

• Perform basic data exploration tasks using the standard Python modules Pandas and Seaborn

• Distinguish common file formats for storing data, and merge related datasets

• Incorporate course content into an independent final project

• Hopefully have some fun too :)