Informatics
Instructor:
 Prof. Johan L. Bollen
 Office hours:
 Tuesdays, 2-3.30PM
 INFO East Rm. 304
 Class meets:
 Wednesday, 4-7PM
 I107 (Informatics West)
 Resources:
 http://informatics.indiana.edu/jbollen/I501
 Oncourse.iu.edu
Informatics
Preliminaries
Global Brain
 Overview of 1996-2009 timeframe:

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


SFX recommender
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,
LOLA
LANL/Herbert Van de Sompel
Funded by
Andrew W. Mellon
Informatics
And you?
Tell me about your
- background
- interests
- what do you expect from this course?
Informatics
Overview
The 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
Aims
The 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.
Informatics
Syllabus Overview
 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 computation paradigms
 The Limits of Computation
 Research in a nascent field
Computational thinking, what is it?
Informatics
Evaluation
1)
Participation (20%): based upon attendance and participation. We expect that students will
approach the course as they should a professional job – attend every class.
1)
Assignments (50%= 2 x 25%):Two assignments during the semester related to the Blackbox Task,
25% of your grade allotted to each report. Extensive documentation and discussion of these
assignments will be provided in class throughout the semester.
3) Final: Research proposal (30%= 20% + 10%):
20%: 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.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10604/nsf10604.htm#prep). We will cover the general
requirements and details of this proposal throughout the semester.
10%: Your proposal presentation at the end of the semester
Informatics
Course materials
 Lecture notes and slides
 See course web page and blog
 Resources tab OnCourse
 This week
 McCulloch, W. and W. Pitts [1943], "A Logical Calculus of Ideas
Immanent in Nervous Activity". Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 5:115133.
 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.
 Schwartz, M.A. [2008]. "The importance of stupidity in scientific
research". Journal of Cell Science, 121: 1771.
Informatics
Rules, rules, rules
 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.
Informatics
Incomplete grade
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.
Informatics
Grading
A+
A
A-
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+
B
B-
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+
C
C-
70%
65%
60%
Good Work. Student performance meets designated course
expectations and demonstrates understanding of the course materials
at an acceptable level.
D+
D
D-
55%
50%
45%
Marginal Work. Student performance demonstrates incomplete
understanding of course materials.
F
<45%
Fail
Informatics
How did we get here?
Informatics
Informatics:
a possible parsing
X-Informatics or
Computational X
“Informatics is the science of information, the practice of
information processing, and the engineering of
information systems.”
Health-
“the sciences concerned with gathering, manipulating,
storing, retrieving, and classifying recorded information”
Informatics
HCID
Security
“the study of information processing; computer science.”
“Computer Science in Europe” ;-)
Bio-
Data &
Search
 towards problem solving
 beyond computing for computing’s sake
 into the natural and social
 synthesis of information technology
Data
Mining
Computer
Science
Social
Informatics
Geo-
Complex
Systems
Music-
ChemBy Erik Stolterman/Luis Rocha
Informatics
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:
Engineering
Communication and Information theory
Computing
Cognitive science/AI
Logistics of large social systems
Inter-disciplinary, synthetic science
Emergence of cybernetics and systems
science
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 Nernst,
Shannon
(information
theorist)
Seated
(L-R): Walther
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.
Macy Conferences (1943-1953)
Solvay Conferences (1911-2008)
Informatics
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
Informatics
Cybernetics
 Created new fields
 analytical in methodology
 synthetic
 interdisciplinary
 concepts useful in constituent fields
Social and
Psychological
Sciences
Mathematics
&
Engineering
Biological
Sciences
Cybernetics
AI
CS
OR
Informatics
Next lecture
 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.
Schwartz, M.A. [2008]. "The importance of stupidity in scientific research".
Journal of Cell Science, 121: 1771.