Every two years, I teach a discussion-oriented class covering the great papers, ideas, and inventions of computing. The topics span hardware and software, theory and practice. We read original materials, and the class is conducted in a discussion-oriented style. In addition to per-class readings and related written assignments, there is also a final paper or project.
Spring 2015 Materials
Syllabus
Blackboard Site with Course Readings as pdf's (Log in as a guest if you are not enrolled in the course.)
Spring 2015 Course Artifacts
Syllabus Paper/Author Visualizations (Each student submitted some visualization related to the course syllabus. Some included their name, but some did not. If you want to use any of these, please contact me for attributions first.)
Project Lightning Round Slides (Each student was allowed 2.5 minutes to present summary status of their project, about halfway through the project period. Most students have a title slide with their name. A few do not.)
Selected Project Links:
- Theerachai Chanyaswad built an emulator of the Enigma code-breaking machine. Source code here.
- Jonathan Frankle turned a Sketchpad-inspired drawing tool into a ready-for-action COS 126 assignment
- David Fridovich-Keil's Sketchpad Emulator
- Daniel Kang made an iPhone app version of Spacewar! Here's the code on github.
- Erica Portnoy's demo videos using the VAX and TOAD machines at the Living Computer Museum in Seattle.