Algorithmic decision-making systems are increasingly built and deployed in practice, with many purporting to “do good”. In this course, we’ll investigate what “good” looks like, what the right problems are to work on, and discuss considerations for the effective design and deployment of algorithmic decision-making systems. We'll look at both avoiding unintended harms as well as moving towards desirable, socially benefiical outcomes. Along the way, we’ll study algorithms across machine learning, optimization, market design, and reinforcement learning applied to societal problems spanning sustainability, education, healthcare, and government operations.
There are no formal prerequisites, but this course expects mathematical maturity and ability to engage with state-of-the-art research from operations research, computer science, and other disciplines.
Please note that this schedule is subject to change.
| Week | Date | Topic & readings |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction | ||
| Week 1 | Wed Jan 21 |
What problems to work on? and course introduction
|
| Week 2 | Mon Jan 26 |
Whom to involve?
|
| Wed Jan 28 |
TBD
|
|
| Building the right model | ||
| Week 3 | Mon Feb 2 |
Modeling decisions
|
| Wed Feb 4 |
Modeling potential
|
|
| Week 4 | Mon Feb 9 |
Modeling pitfalls
|
| Wed Feb 11 |
Modeling with foundation models
|
|
| Considerations for decision making | ||
| Week 5 | Mon Feb 16 |
Allocative harm, representational harm, and procedural harm
|
| Wed Feb 18 |
OR for fairness
|
|
| Week 6 | Mon Feb 23 |
Deliberative processes
|
| Wed Feb 25 |
Designing for people
|
|
| Week 7 | Mon Mar 2 |
TBD
|
| Deployment | ||
| Wed Mar 4 |
Human-AI complementarity
|
|
| Week 8 | Mon Mar 9 |
Working with practitioners
|
| Wed Mar 11 |
Sustaining a deployment
|
|
| Mar 16–20 |
Spring break
No class
|
|
| Evaluation | ||
| Week 9 | Mon Mar 23 |
Claiming causality
|
| Wed Mar 25 |
Claiming generalizability
|
|
| Week 10 | Mon Mar 30 |
Types of evaluations
|
| Wed Apr 1 |
Measuring impact
|
|
| Application domains | ||
| Week 11 | Mon Apr 6 |
Sustainability I: Optimization
|
| Wed Apr 8 |
Sustainability II: Mechanism design
|
|
| Week 12 | Mon Apr 13 |
Healthcare I: Optimization
|
| Wed Apr 15 |
Healthcare II: Online learning and reinforcement learning
|
|
| Week 13 | Mon Apr 20 |
Education I: Optimization
|
| Wed Apr 22 |
Education II: Prediction and mechanism design
|
|
| Week 14 | Mon Apr 27 |
Nonprofit operations
|
| Wed Apr 29 |
Government operations
|
|
| Week 15 | Mon May 4 |
Synthesis & wrap up
|