[KwartzLab] Computer Science from the Top and Bottom

[Michael Hiemstra]

Count me in as well... I could likely spare a night a week in the new year.

I've got a background that includes computer electronics engineering
(college level), sysadmin work, and programming. Much like Cedric, a fair
amount of what I know is self-taught. I have much to learn and hopefully
some to contribute.

It sounds like an incredibly interesting project.

-- Michael

--
Michael Hiemstra
http://mghiemstra.com/
http://twitter.com/mghiemstra


On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 11:31 PM, Bob Jonkman <bjonkman at sobac.com> wrote:

> 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.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at kwartzlab.ca
> > http://kwartzlab.ca/mailman/listinfo/discuss_kwartzlab.ca
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at kwartzlab.ca
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>
>
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