About ECON 3990 A
See Schedule of Courses for specific titles.
Notes
Prereqs: ECON 2400 AND ECON 2450; and STAT 1410. PACE students with permission and override. Special Topics courses cannot carry CC designations. System waitlisting enabled for this section.
Section Description
This one-credit course covers the practical use of AI tools when "doing" economics. Topics include what large language models actually do; prompting as problem specification; generating and verifying AI-generated claims, code, and data work; reproducible workflows using Markdown, Git, and GitHub. We will emphasize how to build and represent AI skills to prospective employers. The use of AI tools is required: you will use them regularly, document that use, and evaluate the results critically. No prior programming experience is required.
Course goals and objectives include:
1. To explain how large language models generate text in order to understand likely sources of problems or failures.
2. To use current chat-based and agentic AI tools for a range of tasks that economics requires.
3. To verify AI-generated claims, code, and data work against original sources, and to document what fails.
4. To produce and share reproducible work using Markdown, Git, and GitHub.
To build and demonstrate professional competence with AI tools, through activities such as career development workshops, a public portfolio, and documented projects.
Section Expectation
This course combines short lectures, live demonstrations, discussion, and hands-on work in-class. Participation in some out-of-class professional development opportunities may be required, and expectations will reflect students’ varied schedules
The use of generative AI tools is a required component of this course. Students are expected to use these tools for in-class exercises and assignments, to document how they used them, and to assess the output critically. Students who prefer not to use AI tools should not enroll.
Required materials for this course are: 1. A laptop, brought to every class meeting. 2. A free GitHub account. Recommended materials: a consumer subscription to Claude or ChatGPT for the duration of the semester ($20/month for four months). Microsoft Copilot Chat is available to all UVM students at no cost through the university's Microsoft 365 license, but a paid consumer subscription provides access to the agentic tools used in this course. There is no textbook, and all readings will be available at no cost and posted to Brightspace
Evaluation
Grades are based on attendance and participation, periodic assignments, and a final project.
Important Dates
Note: These dates may change before registration begins.
Courses may be cancelled due to low enrollment. Show your interest by enrolling.
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Resources
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