CSE 143

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Exploration Sessions

Thursdays, 4:30-5:20pm, in BAG 131

Each week we will offer a different opportunity to explore extra topics in computer science. They are not for credit, but are an excellent place to learn more about computer science and see what fields you may or may not be interested in.

Please come prepared to listen to and ask questions of the guest speaker. We have a strict no-laptop policy in these sessions. If you are using a laptop, you will be asked to put it away or leave.

This schedule is subject to change. We will send an announcement email the day before each session with information about the topic for that session.

Week 1: No session

Week 2: Binary, Hunter Schafer - Thursday, January 12th from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • You might be familiar with the fact that computers are filled with 1's and 0's. But when you interact with a computer, you see a whole lot more than binary code -- so where are all those 1's and 0's hiding? In this session, Hunter Schafer will explore what binary is, and how it makes your computer work.
  • Correction: Hunter accidentally referenced stenography as something to look up, but he intended to say steganography.
  • Recording
  • secretMessageActivity.zip

Week 3: Networks / The Internet - Thursday, January 19 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • As Senator Ted Stevens once famously said, the internet is not a big truck -- it's a series of tubes. What do those tubes look like? What can we put through them? Who owns them? Where are they located? In this session, we will learn the answer to these questions, and more.
  • Recording

Week 4: What is a computer? - Thursday, January 26 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • Computers have invaded every corner of our lives -- you probably have a personal computer, and you almost certainly have a smartphone in your pocket. But have you ever stopped to think about what a computer actually is? What differentiates a computer from other types of machines? We'll talk about the formal definition of a computer, and why computer scientists are interested in these questions.
  • Recording
  • Surprising Turing Completeness
  • JFLAP (turing machine simulator)

Week 5: A Brief History of Electronic Surveillance in the U.S. - Thursday, February 2 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • In recent years, there's been a lot of discourse in the tech community about mass surveillance and the Edward Snowden disclosures. But surveillance of private electronic communications in the United States is nothing new. In this session, we'll discuss its history, from the 19th century to today, and look at how legal, social, and technological attitudes towards it have changed over that time.
  • Recording

Week 6: No session (midterm week)

Week 7: History of Telecommunications, Sarah Autumn / Astrid Smith - Thursday, February 16 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • Many computational topics have a deep history in telecommunications, but we often can't see far past the ancient history of, say, 1960. Electrical engineers and systems designers were hard at work at the phone company decades before even that seemingly-ancient time, and their inventions are the underpinnings of everything that we do today.

    In this session, Sarah Autumn talks about the mechanical databases that were used for routing telephone calls in the 1920s. Astrid Smith covers the dangers of in-band signalling and how they led to a designed-in security flaw in many telephone networks.
  • Recording [Astrid's slides] [Sarah's slides]

Week 8: No BS CS Career Talk, Kim Nguyen / Kasey Champion - Thursday, February 23 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • What does it take to get an internship? What is it like when you're a full-time tech employee? How can you avoid the most common mistakes of recent college grads? UW alumni and former 14x TAs Kim Nguyen (a univeristy recruiter) and Kasey Champion (a software engineer) have 3 engineering degrees and plenty of advice for how to not only find your place in tech, but how to get ahead. This will be an informal discussion on how to apply and general CS career talk with plenty of Q & A.
  • Recording

Week 9: Computer Animation, Erin Caswell - Thursday, March 2 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • Find out how computer science is applied to making animated films! You'll also learn about the Animation Capstone, which brings students together from all backgrounds to produce a short 3D animated film in one year. After learning this process, students can use their experience to find jobs in game and film studios worldwide.
  • Recording
  • Animation Research Labs

Week 10: Python for CSE14x Programmers - Thursday, March 9 from 4:30-5:20 in BAG 131

  • In 14x, we learn Java. But Java is not the only programming language out there! We will look briefly at the history of the Python programming language, then go over the basics of the language. Learning a second natural language is hard, but learning a second programming language is easy and fun!