Summary of assignments and grading

All assignments are due by midnight on the date listed.

Due date	Assignment	Points
Feb 2	Final project: “Pie in the sky” ideas	3
Feb 9	Final project: Preliminary proposal	5
Feb 23	Final project: Final proposal	8
March 2	Mid-term problem set	25
March 30	Final project Midterm report	12
April 27	Final project: Presentation	10
May 4	Final project: Final paper	30
N/A	Participation	7

Readings

For each class, there are 1-2 required readings, as well as several “recommended” and “optional” readings. Students are expected to read the required readings in detail, except where noted otherwise (occasionally we will ask you to skim a reading, or to only read a specific section). Students are not required to read the “recommended” or “optional” readings, but you may find the material interesting.

Throughout the semester, the professor may “cold call” on students with questions about the required readings. These will not be “trick” questions, but are intended to ensure that students actively and critically read the assigned material.

Mid-term problem set

Students should select one of the following two assignments, to complete by March 2.

1. Predicting poverty from satellite imagery (details). Group size: 3-4 students
2. Mining mobile phone metadata (details). Group size: 2-3 students

Final project (details)

Students are expected to complete a semester-long group project that involves includes some amount of data analysis and some amount of social and ethical analysis. While the format and topic of the final project is flexible — so long as it’s focused on big data and development — we expect students will produce high quality work that could be submitted for publication. More details on expectations for the final project, along with project ideas and a compendium of publicly available data sets, is available in the section on final projects.

Late policy

For late assignments, 10% of the credit awarded will be subtracted from the grade for each day late.