Artificial Intelligence

Presentation and Associated Skills The idea behind this course is to treat a topic within the broad field of intelligent systems in-depth. The topic may vary over the years, but it will be a topic that is highly relevant and important and one that is an active area of research within the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning research group at the DTIC, including Automated planning, Interactive machine learning, Learning theory, Probabilistic graphical models, Autonomous robotics, and Constraint satisfaction problems. Content Topics covered in the course include: Stateful and stateless tracking (cookies, super-cookies, browser fingerprinting, ID-based tracking, cookie syncing); Same-Origin Policy and cookie attributes; Personal data exfiltration (email addresses, passwords, etc.); Tracking on mobile and IoT (apps, platforms, smart TVs and other connected devices); Behavioral advertising, microtargeting, and dark patterns; Countermeasures against online tracking; Tools and techniques for analyzing online tracking (DevTools, Tracker Radar Collector, OpenWPM, Selenium, Playwright, Puppeteer); Privacy-preserving analytics, telemetry, and advertising (RAPPOR, Prio, Local Differential Privacy); This internship is part of the training as a scientific researcher: in this Research Internship the student will participate in a research project in one of our scientific groups, or participate in research at another institute, in industry, in one of the associated partners of the Master programme, or even abroad. A goal of the research internship is to gain experience in your future work field, in academia or in industry. It also gives the student the opportunity to find out about a prospective work environment, and some experience in carrying out a larger individual project as preparation for the Master thesis. Depending on the students interests, the research internship can be done internally in one of the research groups of the DTIC department or externally at some company or organization in industry or the public sector. The research internship can also be done in an academic setting outside the DTIC, for instance in a research group in another faculty of UPF, or at another university altogether. Learning Outcomes at the end of the course students understand key online tracking mechanisms; can audit websites, mobile applications and IoT devices to identify tracking and data collection practices; understand the privacy and security implications of online tracking; understand how countermeasures against online tracking works; can explain how privacy-preserving telemetry and client-side data collection works. Upon completion of the internship, the student will be able to take part in scientific research in the specific area of the students’ master’s specialization: get acquainted with the subject and state of the art, apply appropriate methods, discuss, contribute to research results, relate the activities to current developments in the field; present their activities and research outcomes of the internship; reflect on the development of their research skills and the role of research in their future career. Content Unlike for the Master thesis, the internship need not be a completely independent and stand-alone research project. The aim of the internship is to get some practical experience in carrying out (practical or academic) research, so this can be as part of a team and in collaboration with others. The specific topic can take different forms, e.g. doing a case study, trying out tools & techniques, developing tools or prototypes, or a combination of this. This includes finding a suitable research group and/or project, so this is best done in advance. Normally, you will carry out your research within one of the ICIS groups involved in your master’s specialization. It is also possible, however, to arrange an In any case, your choice of location and research project needs to be approved by the (assistant/associate) professor or the lecturer who will be your supervisor. The primary point of contact for the research internship (besides whoever acts as supervisor of your research internship project) is the coordinator of your master’s specialization.