CSE 331 Video project choices
Spring 2021
Please check the table below before submitting your video project team composition to make sure your case study is not being used by another group. Case studies are assigned on a first come first serve basis.
| Group | Chosen Algorithm | Case Study | Links |
| Thomas Westpfal, Joyce He, Alex Wang (CodeMonke) | UK's A-Level Grading Algorithm | Ofqual student grading algorithm created to remove grading bias introduced grading bias. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Lila Tan, Justin Chan, Alex Yan (crewmates) | Boyer-Moore | How the Boyer-Moore algorithm is used to block ads on the internet but also affects businesses that depend on advertising. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Joshua Caskie, Katherine Stock, Hannah Wilcox (Al Gore Rhythms) | US News College Ranking Algorithm | The US News college ranking algorithm was created to rank colleges based on certain characteristics. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Doohan Ryan, Zimmermann Shawn, Neppalli Chandra (T-Series) | Youtube Algorithm's | Recommendation of content or videos to viewers based on what the user is consuming on Youtube. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Elston Lau, Edmund Wu, Kurt Su (The Triad) | Deepfake Algorithm | How Deepfakes can mimic a person's face, voice, and in turn, their identity without explicit consent. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Alex Lin, Tyler Chen, Richard Wu (Amazonians) | Amazon Recommendation Algorithm | Recommendation of products advertised to the consumers based on what was previously bought or viewed. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Dashen Huang, Shan Jiang, Ken Dingel (Math.Random("Team");) | Djikstra algorithm | Dijkstra algorithm is used by Google Maps to help find the shortest path between two locations. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Sebastian Cisneros, Emil Kovacev, Ali Fares (Rekognition) | Police Use of Facial Recognition Algorithms | Facial recognition algorithms are used by law enforcement in order to identify criminals. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Kirane Tanvie, Gujar Tanmayee, Juneja Samarth (Bumble-bizz) | Tinder algorithm | How the Tinder algorithm is biased towards certain demographic profiles over others (race, sex, age) | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Alan Diakov, Tyler Dakin, Micheal Geraci (null) | gale shapley | How dating app Hinge's use of the Gale Shapley Algorithm affects their user experience | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Brett Sitzman, Naqi Haider,Vrund Patel (One Direction) | Amazon A9 Algorithm | The ethical implications of Amazon’s product ranking algorithm and how it effects online vendors | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Rin Krivokrysenko, Nicholas Myers, Austin Hockenberry (¯\_(ツ)_/¯) | TikTok's Recommendation Algorithm | TikTok's recommendation algorithm perpetuates stereotypical beauty, creates ingroups, and disproportionately bans or suppresses content by minorities. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Zhiting Yi, Haohui Lin, Yanchao Wang (C--) | Algorithmic pricing | Dynamic pricing in Amazon Marketplace | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Yifan Wang, Jingjing Chi, Jingwei Li (Algorithm= Ω(n!)) | Collaborative filtering algorithm | an algorithm used by Netflix to recommend movies to users. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Jia Qi Feng, Jieyi Li, Richard Shi (Sleeping Duckies) | COMPAS Algorithm | A machine learning algorithm that assess the likelihood of a defendant committing another crime. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Prakshal Jain, Harjot Barn, Mausam Piyush Vora (AutoAlgo) | Measure Of Software Similarity (MOSS) | An automated system (MOSS) for determining the similarity of programs used by universities for plagiarism detection and its ethical issues. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Michael Focacci, Daniel Berhan, Maxwell Kravec (Orwell's Orphans) | RSA Encryption | The RSA Encryption algorithm allows for secure communication between two parties without any significant risk of a third party decrypting the messages. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Chun Qin Huang, Hui Yu, Qinran Wang (Out of Bound) | Uber Surge Pricing Algorithm | How uber uses surge pricing algorithm to calculate prices. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Takhim Haque, Max Eng, Mustafa Raja (Los Pollos Hermanos) | Spotify's music recommendation algorithm | Recommendation of music based on user's profile information | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Kevin Todd, Junqi Wu, Kevin Couch (#1) | Google Search Algorithm | The google search algorithm heavily dictates what content you see and that raises concerns. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Huang Xaiobing, Ahmed Zayed , Farouq Deanna(DXZ) | Alibaba Cloud’s facial recognition algorithm | Alibaba applies facial algorithms to offer the clients the ability to identify certain minorities. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Michael Lanurias, Emily Usinski, Jordan Grant (J.E.M. Stones) | 2-Factor Authentication Algorithm | Phishing Scams with 2-Factor Authentication | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Collin Hampton, Muhtasim Maruf,Afee Daiyan(Omega) | Luhn Algorithm | How this algorithm is helping prevent people from stealing or using credit card info in society. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Imon Kallyan Tatar,Ben Siegel, Andy Chen (Light Theme) | Uber's Rider to Driver Matching Algorithm | How Uber's matching algorithm dehumanizes drivers by significantly monitoring and controlling their actions | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Maalolan Bharaniraj, Swastik Sunil Naik, Shubhankar Valimbe(Peaky Blinders) | OkCupid Matching Algorithm | Has OkCupid changed the landscape of dating? | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Chi Ho Tam, Zaki Ahmad, Tenzin Rigchok(SEG FAULT) | YouTube Content ID and Censorship Algorithms | How YouTube's Content ID and Censorship algorithms hurt content creators by demonetizing, restricting and censoring their videos. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Ken Zhou, Faizaan Arshad,Anita Chu(Certified Scholars) | yelp review filtering algorithm | Study on how Yelp classifies reviews as either recommended or non-recommended | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Wenhao He, ZhaoWei Zhou, Junzhuo Li (Three bronze players) | Elo rating system algorithm | How does the Elo rating system algorithm makes impact on the Moba game ranking matches. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Carlos Castano, Vinci Wu, Chineme Ononiwu(Team AlphaGo) | Monte Carlo Tree Algorithm | It is used in machine learning, but we will focus on how it was used for AlphaGo, the ai that beat the top player in the game Go. We will talk about what Monte Carlo tree Algorithm is, how it works, then introduce how it was used in AlphaGo. Then we will talk about how this may be a good or bad thing for competitive games such as chess, Go, DOTA, etc. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Fuming Zhao, Sammy Liu, Adrian Gjelaj (The Pythons) | Facebook’s Ad’s Algorithm | The potential violation of privacy by the Facebook ad algorithm. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Henry Lin, Yinyin Huang, JunWei Chen (PewDiePie) | Airbnb’s search rank algorithm | How Airbnb rank and list its housings | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Jordan DiLapo, Ethan Hall, Gavin Xie (totallynotgpt3) | GPT-3 | The limitations of GPT-3 and how it can be abused. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Daniil Khan, Nicholas Xie, Michael Piskozub (Two Directions) | Instagram Recommendation Algorithm | How instagram chooses what to recommend to users and what is used to do it. What information is being collected from user to recommend posts and what is the goal behind it. How ethical it is do keep the user "addicted" to the recommendation section of the app. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Neel Peter, Anthony Morales, Matt Hoermann (IDK#2) | Tesla Autopilot Algorithm | How Tesla's autopilot algorithm is changing the way people commute, but also raising ethical concerns about automated driving? | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Andrew Thein, Eric Velepucha, Lucas Simpson (Cryptotruck) | Proof of Work | It is a type of a consensus algorithm related to cryptocurrency that is involved with transactions. It is one of the best methods to maintain an unbroken chain of transactions since it is requires proof that work has been done, hence the name | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| David Schykerynec, Josh Donner, Armani Merlino (High Frequencey Trading ) | High-Frequency Trading | 2010 "flash crash" | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Matthew Long, Justin Tran, Mahmudul Khan (The Silly Geese) | Steam game reccomendation algorithm | How the Steam algorithm recommends games on the front page and games tailored to the users tastes. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Andy Wu, Tommy Chow, Paul Pedrozo (Alexa, Play Despacito) | Amazon Alexa's Natural Language Processing | How Natural Language Processing algorithms use voice technology to aid people in their daily lives but also exploit their data and privacy. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Anam Hussain, Malika Kodial, Andrew Stoltman(X Æ A-XIII) | Regression - A Subset of ML Algorithms (Ex. Neural Network, Bayesian, Random Forest)) | Machine Learning Regression Algorithms used in Autonomous Vehicles, specifically Tesla Autopilot. Solves the problem for self driving cars to do effective decision making during the dynamic and dangerous process of driving. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Anthony DeMartino, Kyle Alberry, Alan Schaerer(the chosen ones) | X-ray reading AI | AI algorithms can read chest X-rays at resident radiologist levels | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Maeve Rositzke, Isabelle Ondracek, Hope Kara (Cyber Grape 2077) | FICO Credit Score Algorithm | FICO credit scores are used to determine financial trustworthiness, but they can harm a person's future prospects based on demographic factors such as race. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Ken Jiang, Baron Huang, Frank Yang (Bitcoin100k) | SHA-256 Algorithm | The algorithm used to mine bitcoin and create bitcoin addresses. We will discuss the ethical impacts of bitcoin on today's society. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Baicheng Huang, Yuan Meng, Shuoling Li (Team One) | Facebook suggested friends algorithm | how facebook uses the suggested friend algorithm to recommend the "so-called" friends to users | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Jing Jing Weng, HaoXiang Lin, XiangYi Liu (rtx3080) | facebook newsfeed algorithm | the news feed is a personalized newspaper that allows users to see things related to the content they have previously liked, shared, and commented on. Which impact people's values and ideas. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Rick Thompson, Brandon Gonzalez, Pantelis Kiamo (The musketeers) | A* Search | NPC Path-finding | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Ahsan Khan, Ibrahim Gilani, Tariq Kariapper (220/250 ) | Google Photos' Pattern Recognition | The ethical impact that Google Photos' Pattern Matching Algorithm has on users is potentially invasive from a privacy standpoint. On one hand, users greatly enjoy the features that are provided as a result of the algorithm, but on the other hand the algorithm goes too far in the eyes of some users with features such as impressive facial recognition | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Asif Iftekhar, Jean Vigroux, Samur Rahman (ScrubHouse MD) | Optum Healthcare Prediction Algorithm | The racial biases inherent in Optum's algorithm to predict and rank patients to determine which of them would benefit most from extra medical care | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Matthew Egan, Daniel Ho, Jacob Goldverg (BashSnap) | Snapchat Spotlight Algorithm | The use of advertising and content recommendations on the Snapchat Spotlight feed/stories section. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Ryan Strachan, Jason Liu,Mikhail Shishkin (sparta) | Twitter news content algorithm | The social impacts twitters news contents algorithms and nonrandomized and potentially bias news distribution has had on society. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Kaylah Harden, Adrian Coulibaly, Daequan Rankine (Imposters) | Google Assistant's Natural Language Processing Algorithm | This is an algorithm employed to provide the user with conversational interactions in order for a device to complete tasks. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Eric Bishop, Jonathan Choi, Johnathan Chough (The Boys) | Phrase-based Machine Translation | Google translate's machine algorithm for translation, it's improvement through the addition of neural machine translation, and it's impact on the world as well as it's bias' with certain neutral gender pronoun translations. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Victoria Roberts, Ashley Grant, AnthonyFeliciano (AAT) | Health Care Risk Algorithm | An algorithm that predicts whether or not you may benefit more from health risk management programs based on costs vs illness. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Li Wei Jiang, Shreya Upadhya, Vasudha Sarathy (Matcha) | Stanford Vaccine Algorithm | How Stanford's Vaccine Algorithm discriminates against frontline workers and is incredibly susceptible for information bias and human error. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| HyukJoo Kwon, Changho Sung, Timothy Na (pass) | Dialog-BERT Algorithm | Dialog-BERT algorithm (based on BERT, google's search algorithm) is used for open domain chatbot Lee Ruda. Its inability to filter out hate speech towards the minorities | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Mark Hamman, Dylan Westbrook, Ryan Yam (Apple Card Bias) | Apple Card Credit Score Algorithm | Exploring the gender bias in the apple card credit score algorithm between men and women of equal qualifications. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Adam Russell, Patrick Stooks, Raymond Calascibetta(The Crop Tops) | Twitter Image Cropping Algorithm | Is the Twitter image cropping algorithm racially biased? | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Quan Aaron, Mendez Anthony, Dai Anson(AAA Batteries) | ECDSA Algorithm | The ECDSA Algorithm allows verification that data received is not modified. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Devin Padron, William Dougherty, Jake Vickerd(Super Cool Awesome Dudes) | Battleye Anti-Cheat Detection | How Battleye is used to detect cheating in the gaming industry and the impacts Battleye has on their communities. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Juliana Guerra, Melisha Shakya, Fakaradin Floyd(Prodigies) | YouTube ad targeting algorithm | YouTube's ad targeting allowed for advertisers to tailor ads to certain audiences including age groups, this caused children to be targeted for certain ads, this was amplified over YouTube kids being created and resulted in YouTube tweaking their algorithm to reduce ads on videos made for kids. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Bin Yang, Weida Jiang, Jieqin Zhang (lsp) | Perceptual hash algorithm | Explore perceptual hash algorithm and how to use it in our real life | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Andrew Cutlip, Rafi Mohammed, Kopayeh Shawn (Unexpected ; at line 12) | Resume Ranking Algorithms / Applicant Tracking Systems | Amazon's Past Failed Resume Ranking System | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Naglis Paunksnis, Nilkumar Dhamecha, Gorden Lau (Zestie's Pizza 🤮) | Zillow's Zestimate | Zestimate is Zillow's algorithm for predicting real estate values for homes listed on its website. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Alex Cen, Elijah Huang, Kevin Chen (Triple A Battery) | Interview Screening Algorithm | This algorithm scans through applications and checks the compatibility of an applicant, but using an algorithm to give a black/white answer based on a data set can create bias and flaws within the system, preventing potential applicants from being accepted | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Michelle Wong, Romika Sairam, Alec Willette (Compressors) | Lossy Compression Algorithm | Analysis of how Lossy Compression Algorithm is implemented in many areas such as website data compression and in multimedia | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Frederick DeVante, Rozensky Ian, Manzella Anthony (PunkCyber 7720) | Ebay's complementary items algorithm | How Ebay recommends and filters its products to its end users | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Omar Ben Khamsa, Matthew Cummings, Parth Ahuja (Creative Team Name Goes Here) | Amazon AI recruiting algorithm | Amazon AI recriting algorithm goes through the application and looks for specific information, such as GPA, major, work experience, projects, sex, ethnicity. We want to study the way that these algorithms make the pre-screening easier for these companies that receive thousands of applications but can however create bias during the selection process. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Radin Ahmed, Edward Holyat, Preston Mecca (Reddit Comment ranking Algorithm) | Reddit comment ranking algorithm | Reddit uses a sorting algorithm to sort comments on a certain link posted. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Anthony Hom, Gabriel Treitmeier-Mccarthy, Christopher Ho (Dead Inside) | Linkedin Newsfeed Algorithm | Our case study focuses on how Linkedin recommends posts to a user. What we're looking at specifically is how its news feed algorithm determines whether a post is high quality, low quality or spam. The issue here is if someone doesn't know how to work this algorithm, their posts might not reach whatever community they're in. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Steven Carter, Charlie Campanella, Josh Jankowski (Developers Developers Developers Developers) | Sony BMG Copy Protection / Extended Copy Protection (XCP) | In 2005, Sony BMG installed malware on consumer’s personal computers in an attempt to mitigate the spread of illegally shared music. The scandal led to several class-action lawsuits in which Sony was found guilty of violating section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act on the grounds of “engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices”. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Mohan Vellayan, Mohit Gokul Murali, Dekayla Dubose (Tacos) | LinkedIn Recommendation algorithm | How LinkedIn Recommendations can be biased based on factors like connections, gender, history, etc. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Iain Tierney, Kevin Brito, Nicholas Stokes (the dusty watermelons) | Insurance Underwriting Algorithm | How automated underwriting systems have inherent biases and cannot account for the full picture of a person when creating a risk profile, etc. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Sean Grzenda, Maxwell Farrington, Jon Romano (Not a Bot) | Google reCAPTCHA | The use of recaptcha in determining whether a user is a bot or not. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Devin Salemmo, Najee Borden, Joshua Aviles (ABC123) | Home Office Visa Algorithm | How the home office algorithm can be biased towards people of certain nationalities. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Aman Timalsina, Inesh Jupudy, Prasoon Naithani (Team Error 404) | Clearview AI | We seek to explore the ethical considerations of a facial recognition algorithm based on a massive database of three billion images that go beyond mugshots used by law enforcement agencies. Analysis includes privacy concerns, use of public images to harness data, and the employment of the algorithm by businesses and private individuals. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| James McGrath, Evan George, Matthew Silvestrone (1 fish 2 fish IBM Deep Blue fish) | Trivago Hotel Rankings and Recommendations | Trivago aggregates and ranks hotel listings based on a variety of factors. Though self-touted as "dependable" and "reliable", kickbacks from listed hotels play a role in determining which listings get promoted. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| William Hiltz, Karl Hiltz, Benjamin Brownstein (Break all the RSA) | Shor's Algorithm | Examining the implications of Shor's algorithm for RSA encryption/applications (TSL, SSL), and overall ethical considerations of quantum supremacy. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Shijie Liu, Oyal Fokshner, Alvin Leung (Surveillance) | Hanvon’s ‘Dual Sensor TM’ algorithm | China's facial recognition system targeting the Uighur minorities | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Kevin Wu, Patryk Kasza, ZeMing Zhang (Unicorns) | Shazam's Music Recognition Algorithm | How Shazam's recognition algorithm be used maliciously | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Aaron Russell, Se Jun Kim, Fares Mohamed (Survivors) | ERCOT's ORDC (Scarcity Price Adder) | Texas' power market (ERCOT) sets the price of electrical power in real time based on supply and demand. During the recent snow in Texas, prices spiked to the legal maximum ($9000/MWh). | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Paw Prakhar, Tiwari Manan, Laszlo Michael (Hackerman) | College Admissions | GRADE algorithm (previously) used by UT Austin to admit PhD applicants. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Woo, Brian, Chou, Henry, Walsh, James (ok) | Google's DeepMind (AKI) Acute Kidney Injury Detection | Rapid detection and diagnosis of Acute Kidney Injury from Royal Free patients' data. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Choinsky, Tyler, Kang, Yonjae, Kopayeh, Shawn (Squirtle Squad) | TrustRank | TrustRank is an algorithm that uses link analysis in order to determine if a webpage is considered spam or not. It is a part of a semi-automated process that allows search engines to filter out malicious results. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Swati Suresh, Priya Sonawane, Dheeraj Bhatia (Team SPD) | Airline Ticket Pricing Algorithm | How airlines price their tickets based on the dynamic pricing algorithm, and additional factors. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Alex Fernandez, Michael Donovan, Zhenyi Shen (Project Prodigies) | Random number generator algorithm in casinos | Examining how the random number generator is used in casinos and the ethical impacts it has on customers | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Michael Leishear, Matthew Garner, Houston Thurmond(no) | PerspectiveAPI toxicity detection algorithm | Perspective API is a popular natural language processing tool designed to combat offensive speech online. We examine the ethical implications and biases along lines of intersectionality and fairness. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Jiawei Sze, Linghui Zhao, David Livadhi (creative name) | Google ads | How google ads discriminate based on gender and ethnicity with all other things equal | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |
| Felix Wilking, Joe Conkling, Jacob Kubiak (Captains of Information) | Ring Signature | Monero is a cryptocurrency that is currently on the rise, pushing the boundaries of privacy and anonymity, thanks to its unique use of cutting edge cryptography algorithms, like ring signature. While on the surface, these advancements in the standard for privacy would sound enticing, such a level of anonymity has enabled the currency's use to skyrocket in areas like the dark web, raising several ethical concerns. | Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4 |