Syllabus

DM-GY 9103 K 

LOGISTICS 

WHEN: Tuesdays, 2pm – 4.50pm 
WHERE: Class meetings will primarily take place at 370 Jay Street on the 3rd floor in room 316C (Ability Project) or nearby campus at partners’ sites. 
WHO: Benedetta Piantella – benedetta.piantella@nyu.edu, Office hours Cal by appointment (just reach out and I can always find time!)

YouTube Playlist – Practical Guide To Resilience
Spotify Playlist – Jam to the Unexpected
Are.na Channel – https://www.are.na/practical-guide-to-resilience

RESTORATIVE PRACTICES

This course wants to create a safe and productive place for coming together and thinking, discussing, and practicing social and environmental justice, our roles and relationships within our communities, individual and communal well-being as well as collective action and transformation.  To do so, we will engage in: 

  • Checking in with each other
  • Critical self-reflection
  • Creative self-expression
  • Intercultural dialogue
  • Critical dialogue & circles
  • Group decision-making & agreements
  • Community-building & intentional participation
  • Moments of mindfulness 
  • Closing group reflections
  • and more

CORE THEMES

  1. Systems
  2. Food 
  3. Waste
  4. Environmental Sensing & Citizen Science
  5. Networks & Wireless Communication
  6. Energy 
  7. Research & Development 
  8. Experimental Publishing & Printing

CLASS COMPONENTS 

  • Readings & Discussions
  • Lectures & Guest speakers from local Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and projects
  • Hands-on in-class demos and workshops 
  • Short assignments 
  • One longer project (Week 9 – Week 14)
  • Group work and individual work 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Together we are going to:

  • Create our very own definition of Resilience and our very own collaborative toolkit in order to unpack what resilience actually means to us. 
  • Tap into our resourcefulness and map the resources available to us in order to empower us to tackle challenges and contribute more actively within our communities. 
  • Turn constraints into opportunities to grow, as creative thinkers, problem solvers, technologists and designers of future systems and innovative solutions.  
  • Learn to look at and play with new technologies. We will be experimenting, building prototypes, testing, using the tools and techniques introduced in class in order to gain better insights into our environments.
  • Research and gain a deeper understanding of the current landscape. We are going to look at and discuss what other communities are doing both in the technology space, as well as the social innovation world and we will hear from guest speakers and look at real case studies to better comprehend current efforts.

PARTICIPATION

  • This is an experimental and interactive class that will really benefit from your active participation and your willingness to share your thoughts, process and research findings. Please come to the meetings and/or contribute to shared class discussions as much as you can! 
  • Be on Time. In the interest of keeping our meetings to manageable amounts of time, please don’t be late. If you need to be late to a meeting, office hours or a class please contact your instructors beforehand to let them know and make arrangements. 
  • If you need to miss classes, classwork or presentations (for illness for example) please reach out to your instructors to arrange alternatives. I am here to work with you. If you want to request particular arrangements, and for advocacy in general, please feel free to reach out to the Student Affairs office at eng.studentadvocate@nyu.edu or Deanna Rayment at deanna.rayment@nyu.edu

ASSIGNMENTS & DOCUMENTATION

Assignments, experiments and responses to readings should be thoroughly documented on your own personal process website. Assignments are DUE by 8pm EST on Sunday nights so that the instructor has enough time to review and discuss in class and they will be shared in class during the Tuesday meetings. 

Assignments Grading Rubric

These are a few general criteria to keep in mind in regards to your assignments:

  • The depth of your research: represented by your inquiries, findings and conceptual explorations of the weekly topic and theme you chose to pursue.
  • The level of experimentation: how you experimented with interesting or novel ways to explore the assignment, pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone or pushed the tools beyond their more obvious applications.
  • The quality of reflection and documentation: how in-depth you were able to document the process and the depth of your reflection on your process, shared on your personal process site.

READINGS & DISCUSSIONS

Each class comes with a list of carefully curated readings and projects that you will be expected to go through before each class. The links to all readings and references are provided on this website. The list of additional resources, while not mandatory, is highly recommended for you to peruse to provide even more depth to your redefinition of resilience!

Reading Responses

Reading Responses should be posted weekly to the discussion channel on Slack/Discord, due before class. PLEASE WRITE THESE YOURSELF. Think of them as a personal journal, not some forced piece of academic writing. I am looking for a sentence or two (or more if you get into it) about things like:

  1. Something you learned or a takeaway. A valuable insight that you draw from the reading, and that you think will be useful to keep in mind in the near or distant future. Why did it resonate? 
  2. Connection to a real-world example. This could be something that you thought of while reading, it can be something else you have read or watched, it could be something that is similar but maybe comes from a different field, etc. The goal is to make interesting connections and bring outside examples to expand what the class is exposed to.
  3. A question. This question can cut across all the readings, or you might have a question for each reading. It could be something that is unclear, something that sparked an internal debate or raised a doubt or your curiosity. It’s up to you. Your questions will be used for our group discussion in class.

Again, I am looking for 2-3 sentences per point. But it’s OK to write more if you have more to say (which I know you do). 

NOTE: these are NOT supposed to be summaries but instead interesting ideas, questions, or contexts to discuss surrounding the main themes in the readings.

Reading Discussion Leaders

Once during the semester you will lead a reading discussion by signing up >> here << (LINK TO COME SOON). Each week the discussion leaders will share from their own perspectives what they found interesting in the readings and present a set of discussion questions for the group to help us clarify concepts and dig deeper into concepts. You will submit this assignment the day that you lead the discussion uploading the notes and questions you are presenting from the readings. The upload can be in whatever form is best for you (ex. Slides, text, google doc, etc.) and should be sent to your instructor. 

Caution on AI Usage

While AI tools offer powerful capabilities, it is crucial to be aware of their limitations and implications. These tools can exhibit biases, produce inconsistent responses, and raise concerns regarding intellectual property and copyright infringement. Furthermore, the environmental impact of AI, due to the substantial energy required for training and maintaining these models, cannot be overlooked. These factors collectively highlight the importance of using AI responsibly and critically, ensuring that reliance on these tools does not compromise the integrity of your work or contribute to broader ethical and environmental issues.

In the context of this course the following guidelines should be used when considering generative AI tools use:

  1. Original Content: You may not use AI tools to generate content for creative as well as written response assignments, except for occasional assistance with language translation. Presenting AI-generated content as your own without disclosure will be considered a violation of New York University’s academic integrity policies and will result in a failing grade for the assignment without the possibility of appeal.
  2. Acceptable Uses: AI tools may be sparingly used in the initial stages of research, idea generation, drafting, and language translation. An acceptable use is contained experiments to familiarize oneself with the inner workings of AI tools as a medium, however, you may not rely on AI output for significant portions of your assignments unless it is a necessary component of your project concept. If you use AI at any stage (including initial stages, drafting, language translation, or final form), you must properly cite and disclose this use. Include details on the specific tool and version used, as well as the nature of your usage (e.g., programming code, image generation, text/writing). Citation should reference both the platform and any creator names or references.
  3. Learning and Development: While AI could aid in various stages of your project, your primary focus should be on developing original designs, critical thought, and learn to articulate your own visions and perspectives. Relying too heavily on AI tools will absolutely hinder your growth in these essential skills and your overall educational experience. The aim of this course is to foster practice, confidence and deeper expertise in engaging in real world learning contexts with real people and therefore learn far beyond what AI can provide.

FINAL GRADING

  • Class contributions 30%
  • Individual Assignments 30%
  • Group Exploration & Final Share 20%
  • Documentation 20%

STATEMENT OF INCLUSION

The NYU Tandon School values an inclusive and equitable environment for all of our students. Personally, with this course, I really strive to foster a sense of community in and outside of the classroom and hope to offer a safe and welcoming space where individuals of all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious and political affiliations, and abilities will be treated with care and respect. It is my main motivation that all students’ learning needs be addressed and that the diversity that students bring to this class be regarded and used as a resource, inspiration, strength, and benefit. I created this class as part of my own personal mission to foster a community-focused practice, communal envisioning, and collective action and if at any point this standard is not being upheld, please feel free to reach out to me. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Please review NYU’s School of Engineering’s academic dishonesty policy in its entirety. 

All work for this class must be your own and specific to this semester. Any work recycled from other classes or from another, non-original source will be rejected with serious implications for the student. Plagiarism, knowingly representing the words, media, or ideas of another as one’s own work in any academic exercise, is absolutely unacceptable. Any student who commits plagiarism must re-do the assignment for a grade no higher than a D. In fact, a D is the highest possible course grade for any student who commits plagiarism. Please use the MLA or Chicago Manual of Style for citing and documenting source material.
You MUST have complete rights of use to any and all materials which appear in your thesis project. This includes images, illustrations, video, audio etc. The source of any materials NOT created by you MUST be documented. 

Please remember that you can collaborate with other students to create your own media or contact the authors of your media content for rights. I strongly encourage you to use original media for your thesis project however, should you absolutely require to use stock images, video, etc., you will need to provide a PDF of all source files and the usage rights you have purchased/negotiated or whether it is creative commons or copyright free.

ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS

If you are a student with a disability who is requesting accommodations, please contact New York University’s Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at 212-998-4980 or mosescsd@nyu.edu. You must be registered with CSD to receive accommodations. Information about the Moses Center can be found at www.nyu.edu/csd. The Moses Center is located at 726 Broadway on the 2nd floor.

ILLNESS

If you are experiencing an illness or any other situation that might affect your academic performance in a class (including excused absences, religious accommodation, medical leaves, academic misconduct, and general health and wellness), please contact advocacy.tandonstudentlife@nyu.edu. A coordinator will reach out to your instructors on your behalf when warranted.

DISCRIMINATION AND HARASSMENT

Discrimination and harassment are behaviors that are incompatible with the standard of conduct required of a member of the NYU community in the workplace or in any college-related setting, including but not limited to off-campus, college-related events and activities.

⩕ This course was originally taught in collaboration with Elizabeth Hénaff ⩕