The midterm project offers an opportunity for you to engage with ML's impact in society. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to ML's interrelatedness with justice and equity, bias and fairness, deep fakes and the spread of false information, implications of deep learning systems being trained on copyrighted material, interpretability of deep learning systems, self-driving cars, automation of medical diagnoses, ML's use in college admissions decisions or company hiring, automating military actions, ML's impact on the environment, machines outperforming humans and high level machine intelligence (HLMI), human occupations becoming automated, and possible catastrophic consequences associated with ML development. For one of these domains (or some other), you could focus on a particular example or a broad overview or something in between. Your project may be expository or persuasive. You should support your claims with examples and evidence.
This is an opportunity for you to explore in greater depth a topic of interest to you. You are expected to take initiative in finding your own sources. You will craft a presentation in the form of a paper (minimum 800 words) or a video (minimum 7 minutes). In either case, you are required to have a minimum of three sources. There are two milestones for the midterm project, as described below, each with its own deadline. You may work on your own or with a partner.
Project outcomes will be evaluated on the amount of demonstrated effort, depth of research into the topic and into related work, appropriateness of identified sources, insight into the topic, effectiveness of supporting any claims with examples and evidence, and demonstrated understanding of machine learning's relationship to the topic.
While we appreciate the irony of using a large language model (LLM) to develop material on a topic related to deep learning, no LLM or similar AI tool should be used in any way for this project. Using such a system will be considered a violoation of our code of honor.
There are two milestones for the project:
| Milestone | Percent of Midterm Project Grade | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Proposal | 10% | See course schedule |
| Paper or Video | 90% | See course schedule |
Early in the midterm project process, it is worthwhile to consider different possible topics and to engage meaningfully with relevant sources. For the first milestone, you must submit a document that (1) provides an overview of your chosen topic (minimum 80 words), (2) indicates if you will be developing a paper or a video, and (3) lists at least 2 appropriate sources.
Your project will involve either a paper (minimum 800 words) or a video (minimum 7 minutes) that you create on your topic. It may be expository or persuasive. Your project is required to reference at least three sources. Your project should demonstrate meaningful engagement with the topic. Take ownership of it and have fun!