💸 CS498HS4: Computational Advertising in Fall 2018, UIUC

This class will survey the emerging landscape of computational advertising. It will provide students with a thorough understanding of the technologies including web-search, auctions, behavioral targeting, mechanisms for viral marketing, that underpin the display of advertisements on a variety of locations. These locations include web pages (banner ads), on prominent search engines (text ads), on social media platforms, as well as cell phones. The students shall also learn about emerging areas in computational advertising including electronic billboards, moving objects (banners atop taxi cabs) and algorithmic synthesis of personalized advertisements. Discussion around privacy will be a significant focus of the class.

CS 225 (data structures), CS 173. Knowledge of linear algebra and probability highly recommended.

There are no required textbooks. The instructor will assign research papers for students to read for different topics, to develop a deeper appreciation of the course content.

Supplementary text:

David Easley and Jon Kleinberg. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning About a Highly Connected World. Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2010.