Instructor Information

Instructor: McKenna McCall
Email: first-name {dot} last-name {at} colostate.edu
Office: CSB 358
Office hours: Tuesdays 3:30-5:30PM

Communication Policy

Please communicate with me through email and include the course number in the subject line. This helps me keep track of our communications and respond to you in a timely manner. We may have a Teams space to discuss topics related to the course, but I still prefer email for course-related questions and concerns.

• I will respond to emails within 24 hours, but I do not check my email regularly on the weekends, so if you email me after Friday evening I might take longer than usual to respond.
• My office hours will be determined during the first week of classes. My office hours are informal, and everyone is encouraged to attend. 
• If you have missed class, you will be able to find lecture slides on Canvas. Please read through them and if you have questions about the material, please reach out as soon as you are able.

Course Materials

Textbook/Course Readings

There is no required textbook for this course, though I may recommend books for optional, additional reading. Required readings will be posted on Canvas or linked from the course schedule.

Materials & Equipment

For this course, you will write reviews and upload them to a website for managing conference reviews. You should not require materials or equipment beyond a computer with basic web browsing and text editing capabilities. We will also complete paper-and-pencil activities in-class, so please bring writing materials.

Course Description and Objectives

Formal methods offer a mathematically-rigorous way to reason about the security of software and software systems. However, formal methods research often ignores the human element of the systems they aim to protect. This course is designed to expose students to the human factors of formal methods for security. The main objectives of this course are to introduce students to some of the core principles of security and privacy, several topics in formal methods and usable security, and the peer-review process. Students will gain experience reading and discussing research papers and writing reviews. The final project gives students the opportunity to explore additional topics in formal methods and usable security or propose their own research projects in usable formal methods. Topics covered in the course include model checking; language-based security; user studies; qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

Upon the completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, and impact of security and privacy research
• Lead and engage in productive discussions about security and privacy research
• Identify key security and privacy threats, defenses, and properties
• Explain research methodologies, formulate research questions, and assess the tradeoffs of possible study designs in formal methods and usable security
• Assemble and summarize related security and privacy literature and propose research ideas in formal methods and usable security

Teaching Philosophy

• Learning is a collective effort, and learning will happen better when everyone participates. My goal is to ensure that all students feel safe, heard, and empowered to engage fully in their learning.
• I believe each of you belongs in my classroom. I will strive to foster a positive and collaborative learning environment to promote learning confidence.
• I’m always happy to discuss strategies to improve access and help you to locate other campus resources that can assist you. I hope you will share resources you find helpful with me so that I can better help other students.

Classroom Norms

We will discuss classroom norms and expectations on the first day. This section may be updated based on our discussion on the first day and throughout the semester. Here are some ideas to get us started:

• We will listen to each other with the intent to understand different perspectives
• We will ask questions when we have them
• We will make sure everyone’s voice is heard

CSU Principles of Community

In addition to the classroom norms and expectations listed above, we will also abide by the CSU principles of community.

Inclusion: We create and nurture inclusive environments and welcome, value and affirm all members of our community, including their various identities, skills, ideas, talents and contributions.
Integrity: We are accountable for our actions and will act ethically and honestly in all our interactions.
Respect: We honor the inherent dignity of all people within an environment where we are committed to freedom of expression, critical discourse, and the advancement of knowledge.
Service: We are responsible, individually and collectively, to give of our time, talents, and resources to promote the well-being of each other and the development of our local, regional, and global communities.
Social Justice: We have the right to be treated and the responsibility to treat others with fairness and equity, the duty to challenge prejudice, and to uphold the laws, policies and procedures that promote justice in all respects.

Course Policies

Attendance and Participation

• Participation grades are based on in-class activities and meaningful participation in discussions, thus you must attend class to get all of the participation points. However, I recognize that students need to miss class sometimes. Students are allowed to miss TWO in-class activities OR discussions without impacting their participation grades. You do not need to email me ahead of time or ask in any way for these to be applied.
• “Meaningful participation” is up to my discretion, but typically means answering a question, providing evidence in support of another students’ answer, or providing evidence to counter  another students’ answer. (Simply saying “I agree” or “I disagree” does not constitute “meaningful participation”.) Asking questions that lead to additional discussion also constitute “meaningful participation.”
• You do not need to inform me before you miss a lecture.

Technology

• Please silence all phones, alarms, and other technology. Failing to do so will affect participation scores for the day.
• I may ask students to use a phone, laptop, or tablet for an in-class activity. If you do not have access to this equipment, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can connect you with the appropriate resources or adjust the planned activities.
• Students do not learn effectively when their attention is divided. Limiting the use of technology will make the learning environment more productive for everyone, but I also recognize that sometimes students need to use technology during class. If you do use a laptop or other technology during class outside of scheduled activities and it becomes a distraction for other students, I will ask you to sit in the back to reduce the distraction to those around you.

Accommodations

• If you require an accommodation, they must be arranged through the Student Disability Center. I recommend arranging accommodations as early in the semester as possible so that I can ensure appropriate accommodations can be made.
• If you think you would benefit from accommodations, but are not yet registered with the Student Disability Center, you can find instructions here or contact them by emailing sdc_csu@colostate.edu.

Collaboration and Generative AI

• Students are encouraged to talk to each other, the instructor, and anyone else about homework and other course materials.
• Assistance on homework must be limited to discussing the technical content covered by the papers. Students must write their own reviews. Reading other students’ solutions or copying answers from any other source constitutes cheating and will be treated as an academic integrity violation.
• The use of any generative AI tools (e.g., Chat GPT) for writing reviews or any content for the final project (including code) is strictly prohibited. You will never be penalized in my courses for grammatical mistakes. You will only be graded on the accuracy of your answers and how you justify them, so you should not need to use generative AI to review your writing. 
• Allowed forms of discussion (including with generative AI) include:
  • Explaining general concepts that are orthogonal to the main learning objectives of the course, like finding alternative explanations for concepts or examples covered in class
  • Explaining a tool or technique that you will use
  • Sharing alternative explanations I have given you during office hours with other students
  • Sharing CSU resources with other students
• All this being said, if you are truly confused about something covered in lecture, we stronglyrecommend against asking Chat GPT (and other AI tools) for help as they tend to miss important nuance, which results in misleading or incorrect information. Instead, please come to office hours to ask for clarificiation. In class, I will share concrete examples of how generative AI can provide misleading or inaccurate information.
• Violations of this policy will result in a 0 for the assignment and a report to Academic Misconduct.
• When in doubt, please email me.

Grading Policy

Late Homework

•  To be eligible for full credit, homework must be turned in by midnight (MT) on the due date. Submitting reviews on time is especially important. This ensures that discussion leads have enough time to read your reviews and prepare for discussions.
• You will also have three “grace days” that you can use at any time during the semester, which extends the homework deadline by 24 hours.
• Grace days are calculated automatically. This means, if you turn in a homework 6 hours late, you are automatically deducted one grace day. You do not need to ask me to use a grace day.
•  A late submission that does not use a grace day will be penalized by 25% per day it is late. For example, if you do not have any grace days, an assignment turned in 1 day and 6 hours late will be penalized 50%.
• Homework that is more than 3 days late will not be graded, even if you use grace days.

Grading

• Homework assignments will be graded on three metrics: completeness, accuracy, and communication.
• Completeness refers to how many of the homework questions you attempted. For instance, if you do not have time to finish a review, but you write something about the sections you did read, you will still receive points for “completeness”.
• Accuracy refers to the correctness of your solution. Some parts of reviews are subjective, but if your summary and claims are accurate (e.g., you say “there is no survey instrument” is a weakness of the paper and there is, indeed, no survey instrument), you will receive these points. If you do not fill out the summary or if you do not make any claims about objective strengths and weaknesses of the paper (i.e., so that accuracy cannot be evaluated) you will not receive points for accuracy.
• Communication refers to how you justify your solution. This does not mean how grammatically correct your sentences are, but how easily the person reading your review can follow your line of reasoning. Even if you do not fully understand the technical details of the paper you are reviewing, if you justify your claims, you will receive points for communicating well.

Re-Grade Requests

• While some aspects of the course are up to my discretion, I also recognize that I make mistakes and assignments might need to be re-graded.
• Re-grade requests will be processed for 48 hours after grades are posted.
• You can request a re-grade one time during those 48 hours. No re-grade requests will be processed after those 48 hours have elapsed.

Final Grades & Grade Distribution

• I do not intend to curve the grades for this class, but should I decide to, curves will only make it easier to receive higher letter grades.

Assignment	Grade Percentage
Participation	40%
Reviews	30%
Final Project & Milestones	30%

Morgan Library Services Desk

The Morgan Library Services Desk provides both research (ph. 970-491-1841) and technical (ph. 970-491-7276) support. In addition, you can contact a librarian for assistance at Ask Us! or find a research guide at Research Help.

Additional Syllabus Information and Policies

CSU offers many other resources to help you succeed in class. Please scan the QR code below or follow this link to find additional resources. You are also welcome to visit me during office hours.