School of Computing - Research Sampler Series - 2003

A Computer Science Graduate Sampler course is being offered during Fall 2001.
This is a 1-credit class with one lecture per week (Fridays 1-2.30pm, in the Large
Conference Room - MEB 3151). Each lecture will cover one area of fundamental
importance to Computer Science. Members of the CS faculty will take turns delivering
the weekly lectures, and will deliver the lectures in a manner that hits all the highlights
of the area without painfully dragging the student through all the technical details that
they might not care about at the moment. Such a useful compromise to learning a topic
is becoming progressively more important as computer science advances - and yet, it is
becoming increasingly rare, especially in our department given the increased duration
(namely one semester) of our courses since our semester conversion, and our reduced
course requirements.

A CS Grad Sampler course such as this serves many additional purposes. It will give the
incoming graduate student a broad perspective about course- and area selection at the
earliest possible moment during their graduate studies. It will give them a head-start in
terms of self-study on topics of interest to them that are not covered in classes offered to
learn about other fundamental topics. Last but not least, it may help the graduate students
(as well as the faculty) avoid some of the painfully embarrassing situations in their own
careers when they are unable to understand an intelligent technical conversation or a
technical paper presentation in a conference, only because they didn't know "5 minutes worth"
of a certain topic.

We strongly recommend that all our new grads register for the Sampler course.
Attendance/registration from others (senior grads, profs, staff) are also welcome!
 

Selected (unsolicited ;-) testimonials from the Spring 2000 attendees:

     This course is a TERRIFIC idea.  I went to Al's architecture lecture this
     spring, and wished I had known about more of them before-hand.

     I took my son along too, since he's a bright high school senior and seriously
     thinking about a computer science major here, in the context of career/life
     plans.  We had lots to talk about afterward.

Fall 2000 Schedule:
 

8/25	Course Intro	Handouts
9/1	Prof. Ganesh Gopalakrishnan	A Modern Perspective on Computer Science Theory
9/8	Prof. Gary Lindstrom	Modern Programming Language Concepts
9/15	Prof. Christopher Johnson	Scientific Visualization
9/22	Prof. Lee Hollaar	Discussion of Microsoft's antritrust case and  Napster's copyright problem .
9/29	Prof. Erik Brunvand	Basics of Digital Electronics
10/13	Prof. John Hollerbach	Virtual Reality
10/20	Prof. Robert Kessler	Software Engineering (PDF is here and PPT is here)
10/27	Prof. Matthew Flatt	Compiling an Interpreter
11/03	Prof. Ross Whitaker	?
11/10	Prof. Cynthia Thompson	Machine Learning
11/17	Prof. Charles Hansen	?
12/1	Prof. Steven G. Parker	Parallel Programming
12/8	Prof. Al Davis	Modern Processor Architecture

Spring 2000 Schedule:
 

1/14	Ganesh Gopalakrishnan	* Course Introduction * Formal Aspects of Computing, or "Discreet Thinking thru Discrete Math"
1/21	Ganesh Gopalakrishnan	Formal Aspects of Computing
1/28	Tom Henderson	Simulation
2/4	Gary Lindstrom	Modern Programming Language Concepts
2/11	Bob Kessler	Software Engineering (PDF is here)
2/18		Terran Lane roundtable (2:30)
2/25	Jay Lepreau	Fundamentals of Computer Security
3/3	Chris Johnson	Topics in Scientific Computing
3/10	Matthew Flatt	Compiling an Interpreter
3/24	Erik Brunvand	Electronics and VLSI Circuits or Boolean Logic
3/31	Ellen Riloff	TBD
4/7	Frank Stenger	Sunc with Sinc Computing
4/14	Pete Shirley	Trends in Graphics
4/21	Kris Sikorski	Info based complexity
4/28	Al Davis (coming all the way from Intel Austin!)	Modern Processor Architecture
TBD	John Carter	TBD

For questions regarding specific lectures, please directly email the lecturer.