Workshop: Case Study Analysis

Background

As we are at the beginning of the course, you are probably still struggling to understand what exactly we mean by “urban AI” and similar concepts.

During the introductory lecture, you were presented with several examples of the kinds of systems we are concerned with.

In this exercise, you analyze one case to understand better what we mean by urban AI and some of the technical and ethical issues involved, which you, as a designer, will need to grapple with throughout the rest of the course.

Learning Objectives

After completing this activity, you can analyze examples of urban AI, specifically as they relate to the technical and ethical concerns central to the field.

Instructions

• As a case study, we will use the automated trash detection service proposed by Amsterdam.
  • As a starting point, you can refer to the following Medium post: https://medium.com/maarten-sukel/garbage-object-detection-using-pytorch-and-yolov3-d6c4e0424a10
• Open up your team’s board.
• Place the canvas attached to this module on your board.
• Fill out the canvas by discussing all the questions and capturing your answers on notes. Place the notes in the appropriate areas on the canvas.
• Take a moment to reflect on the exercise. What did you learn? What are you still left wondering about?

Product

This exercise’s outcome is a completed canvas that captures your analysis of an example of urban AI on ethical and technical dimensions.

Follow-up

We will discuss your canvases, in particular the questions and issues you generated in the final step, during the plenary that follows this workshop.

Downloads

• Data ethics canvas (PDF)