[KwartzLab] Computer Science from the Top and Bottom

[Bob Jonkman]

I'm interested, if you're opening it up to non-members of Kwartzlab.

I have lots of sysadmin experience, and practical knowledge of computer
architecture.  But a bit of formal theory never hurt anyone.

And if you're opening this to non-members there are some other people I
know who might be interested too.

--Bob.

On 12-11-27 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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> 

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