CSE 291 (D00): History of Computing

Fall 2006

Instructors
Geoff Voelker (voelker@cs.ucsd.edu)
CSE 3108
(858) 822-3323

Lectures
Wed 6:30pm - 9:20pm   (First lecture is 9/27 and last lecture is 12/6)
CSE 1202

Office Hours
Voelker: Mon 3-4pm, Wed 4-5pm (or by appointment)

   Course Overview
 

This Fall we will be holding another graduate special topics course interlinked with UW and Berkeley. The topic this year is history of computing, from Pascal (the person, not the language!) through today (although Pascal the language might show up, too). We will rely on a number of guests who will generously give us the benefit of their particular expertise.

As with the previous two years (Fall 2004, Fall 2005), the course is a 4-site distance-learning experiment involving the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Microsoft. This year the instructors will be Ed Lazowska (UW Computer Science & Engineering), Steve Maurer (UCB Goldman School of Public Policy), and Geoff Voelker (UCSD Computer Science & Engineering). All sites are simultaneously video conferenced together, which sounds like a recipe for disaster but winds up working surprisingly well.

The primary web site for the course is at UW:

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/csep590/06au/

The purpose of this page is to outline the UCSD-specific administrative aspects of the course (which should be minimal).

   UCSD Enrollment
  You can enroll in the course in a number of ways:
  1. Both MS and PhD students can enroll for either 2 units (S/U) or 4 units (but not, say, 1 or 8). If you enroll for 2 units, then it will be like taking a seminar (e.g., CSE 294) and you will be required to just do the readings and attend the lectures. If you enroll for 4 units, you will also be required to do the final project.

  2. MS students can enroll for 4 units either S/U or graded and still have the course count towards graduation requirements (only core courses have to be taken for a grade).

  3. PhD students have to enroll for 4 units graded for the course to count towards graduation requirements. PhD students can enroll for 4 units S/U, but the course will be an "extra" course in terms of requirements.

voelker@cs.ucsd.edu