[KwartzLab] Computer Science from the Top and Bottom

[bernie rohde]

Very interesting - after Christmas I'm free any evening.  I'm coming from a dungeon, slightly below what you call the bottom.  

Bernie

Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:28:46 -0500
From: ben at kwartzlab.ca
To: discuss at kwartzlab.ca
Subject: Re: [KwartzLab] Computer Science from the Top and Bottom


  
    
  
  
    Sounds like an awesome idea, especially for people like me who
    wouldn't even get the time of day at the University.

    

    I'd be in, anytime other than Monday or Tuesday would be great.

    

    Cheers,

    Ben

    

    On 11/27/2012 10:52 AM, Stephen Paul Weber wrote:

    It is no secret that I'm fairly disgruntled
      in general with the state of 

      University education, especially in my field.

      

      Over past months I've been working on the construction of a
      curriculum that 

      provides base Computer Science concepts.  The core philosophy is
      to start 

      simultaneously at the "top" with the highest abstraction level
      (building 

      syntax and semantics) and the "bottom" with the lowest level (RAM
      layout and 

      machine instructions), and then move in step towards the middle.

      

      I am on track to have an edited second draft of the curriculum
      completed by 

      the end of December, and will then wish to run a course based on
      this 

      curriculum in the new year as a way to both test the philosophy
      and gain 

      feedback.

      

      The intended target for this first version of the course will be
      (1) 

      programmers with no formal Computer Science background, (2) people
      with a CS 

      degree who wish to get a refresher (or to heckle me), (3) mathish
      or 

      sysadmin persons who have an interest in getting some base in
      Computer 

      Science.  Based on conversations with people both in the greater
      KWartzLab 

      community and Waterloo in general, I am convinced that there are
      many such 

      persons in the region.

      

      The format for this first version of the course will be a fairly
      fast-paced 

      roughly 8-week (notionally, 1 night per week) presentation that
      involves 

      a bare minimum of lecture-style and a maximum of tinkering with
      concepts and 

      Q&A where students can get concrete answers to the bits of the
      material 

      they're playing with or struggling with.  It will of course be
      entirely 

      gratis for attendance and nothing will be mandatory.

      

      All that said, I'm sending this email to gauge interest in the
      community in 

      such a course, and also to get feedback from any interested
      parties on what 

      sort of timeline (assuming a course starting early January) in
      terms of days 

      of the week, number of hours per session people could put up with,
      etc.  

      Venue would be TBD, though I would love to do it at KWartzLab.

      

    
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