COMP3444 Notices

Week 4 Lecture and Recording

Posted by Rahat Masood Sunday 04 October 2026, 06:10:26 PM.

Hi Everyone,

As tomorrow (Monday) is a public holiday, I have uploaded the Week 4 lecture materials and lecture recording for you to access online.

Please let us know if you have any trouble accessing the materials. If there are any topics from the lecture that you find unclear or would like further explanation on, we can discuss them in our next class.

Enjoy the public holiday!

Regards,
Rahat

Capture the Narrative 2026 is now open

Posted by Rahat Masood Wednesday 30 September 2026, 08:50:30 AM.

Hi All,

Capture the Narrative 2026 is now open! - https://capturethenarrative.com

Ready to compete in an AI-powered battle for influence? 📣🤖

Capture the Narrative is a free online competition where teams build and program autonomous social-media accounts to compete for influence inside a simulated nation.

Instead of fighting on a game board, your bots operate in a fictional social network and news environment populated by thousands of AI-powered citizens. Create content, react to unfolding events, develop strategies and compete against other teams to shape the story.

About

Teams interact with the simulation through a web API, programming agents that can post, reply and engage with the simulated population. Throughout the competition, the world evolves through news stories and events, while a live scoreboard shows how effectively each team is influencing different groups.

No machine-learning experience is required — if you can write code and call an API, you can compete.

Why enter?

• 🤖 Build autonomous AI/social-media agents
• 🧠 Experiment with influence, misinformation and information integrity
• 🌐 Compete inside a large-scale simulated social network
• 👥 Enter with a team of friends
• 💰 Free to enter; win cash prizes - first place $5,000; second place $2,500; third place(s) $1,500.

Simulate & Spot Misinfo.

Registration, rules and starter resources are available now:

https://capturethenarrative.com

Competition runs 19 Oct - 2 Nov 2026.

Audio Recording Issue with Lecture 2 in Week 1

Posted by Salil Kanhere Wednesday 16 September 2026, 12:08:12 PM.

The Echo360 System did not record the lecture audio for the second lecture (Tuesday @ 11 am) in Week 1 in Ainsworth 102. I called IT Support, and it became apparent that the lectures before and after ours had the same issues. They said they would check and fix the issue today.

As a replacement, I have added a version of the slides with detailed speaking notes. I hope this suffices. Please reach out to us if you have specific questions about any of the content.

We are sorry about this.

Activity 1 and Group Project specification released

Posted by Nicholas DSilva Tuesday 15 September 2026, 01:01:55 PM.

Hi everyone,

Activity 1 and the Group Project specification have now been released. You can find them in the Course Work → Assessments tab here on WebCMS.

I look forward to meeting many of you in the tutorial on Wednesday!

Week 1 Lecture Slides are now available

Posted by Salil Kanhere Saturday 12 September 2026, 04:11:07 PM.

The first-week lecture slides are now available on the course WebCMS page under "Lectures".

See you all in the lecture on Monday!!

​Welcome to COMP3444 Privacy Engineering!

Posted by Rahat Masood Thursday 10 September 2026, 10:35:34 AM.

Hi Everyone,

We are Rahat Masood and Salil Kanhere, your lecturers for the course, and we are excited to have you with us this term.

Rahat Masood

Salil Kanhere

Privacy is everywhere. Every time you use an app, share a photo, wear a smartwatch, talk to an AI assistant, or simply browse the web, you leave behind data. Who collects it? What can they learn about you? What could go wrong? And how can we design technology that protects privacy from the start?

These are some of the questions we will explore together. Expect plenty of real-world examples, discussions, activities, and opportunities to think like a Privacy Engineer, rather than simply memorising concepts.

We encourage you to explore the course website on WebCMS, accessible through Moodle. It will be updated during the term with lecture materials, tutorials, assessments, announcements, and other resources.

Face-to-face attendance is highly encouraged. Our lectures and tutorials are designed to be interactive and discussion-focused, with plenty of opportunities to work through real privacy problems together. We look forward to meeting those in the in-person stream at our first lecture on Monday.

If you are unable to attend a lecture in person, recordings will be available through Echo360 on Moodle shortly afterwards.

If you have questions during the term, you are always welcome to contact us at cs3444@cse.unsw.edu.au, or speak with Nicholas D'Silva, your tutor, during tutorials.

Tutorials begin in Week 1.

We look forward to a great term together. Come curious, ask questions, challenge assumptions, and get ready to discover just how much your data can reveal about you!

See you soon!

Rahat, Salil & Nicholas
COMP3444 Teaching Team