CSE P 590A: History of Computing  Autumn 2006

Welcome to History of Computing, Autumn 2006
  University of Washington CSE P 590A
  UC Berkeley PP 190-003 / PP 290-003
  UCSD CSE 291 (D00)

Instructors
  Ed Lazowska, UW Computer Science & Engineering
  Steve Maurer, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy
  Geoff Voelker, UCSD Computer Science & Engineering

Lazowska office hours: any time, CSE 570 / 206-543-4755, by appointment, or by email
Maurer office hours: any time, 307 GSPP / 510-848-3593, by appointment, or smaurer at berkeley.edu
Voelker office hours: any time, EBU3B 3108 / 858-822-3323, by appointment, or voelker at cs.ucsd.edu

Thanks to our outstanding tech staff: Rod Prieto and Fred Videon (UW); Marvin Motley (marvinm at eecs.berkeley.edu) and Arthur Yeap (arty at eecs.berkeley.edu) (UC Berkeley); Steve Hopper (hopper at cse.ucsd.edu), Jing Zhu (j1zhu at cs.ucsd.edu) and Roshni Malani (rmalani at cs.ucsd.edu) (UCSD); Tim Chou (timchou at microsoft.com) and Matt McGinley (a-mattmc at microsoft.com) (MSR)

BEFORE THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS, SEPTEMBER 27: Read the book A History of Modern Computing, Paul E. Ceruzzi, 2003. An electronic version of the text is available through the UW library. Do a title search for "A History of Modern Computing" here. If you are off-campus and a UW student, you might want to use the library's proxy system. The number of simultaneous users is limited -- please don't squat!

This course will provide an overview of the history of computing, from Pascal (the person, not the language!) through today. We will rely on a number of guests who will generously give us the benefit of their particular expertise. For example:

Gordon Bell (10/11) on minicomputers and DEC
Butler Lampson (10/18) on personal workstations, distributed computing, and Xerox PARC
Armando Fox (10/25) on the history of software
Steve Wozniak (11/1) on Apple and the personal computer
Burton Smith (11/8) on supercomputing
Ray Ozzie (11/15) on collaboration software
John Markoff (11/29) on 1960's cultural influences in computing
Bud Tribble (11/29) on Mac OS and leveraging open source
Christos Papadimitriou (12/6) on the mathematical origins of computing
Mike Koss (12/6) on World War II codebreaking (Mike will bring an Enigma cypher machine to class)

The course is a 4-site distance-learning experiment involving the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and Microsoft. Lead instructors will be Ed Lazowska (UW Computer Science & Engineering), Steve Maurer (UCB Goldman School of Public Policy), and Geoff Voelker (UCSD Computer Science & Engineering).

The course will meet Wednesday evenings from 6:30-9:20 (the UW classroom is CSE 305; the Berkeley classroom is Hearst Mining Building 290; the Microsoft classroom is 113/1159; the UCSD classroom is EBU3B 1202), with one or two 15-minute breaks.

The first class session will be Wednesday September 27. The final class session will be Wednesday December 6.

Course requirements will include substantial reading, active class participation (via a course Wiki, and during class sessions to the extent possible given the crufty electronic format), and a team "term paper" project due conclusion of the course.

Syllabus / Lecture Schedule / Readings here -- still in flux, expect frequent changes!

[ Announcements | Administrivia | Readings/Schedule | Lecture archive | Wiki | Projects/Papers ]

Announcements

• 11/19/2005: Yes, Virginia, there will be class on Wednesday November 22!

• 10/24/2005: Information on final project added.

• 9/24/2006: "You Be The Expert" assignment posted here. Wiki for signup located here. Please get started immediately following the first class (we will make a Wiki page available that night to facilitate self-organization).

• 9/23/2006: Note that the course Wiki has a userid and password associated with it. These exist only to thwart robots; they are provided on the login screen.

• 9/15/2006: Be sure to register for the class email list. (Do not sign up in "digest" mode! You will not receive mail!)

• 9/10/2006: Before the first day of class, read the book A History of Modern Computing, Paul E. Ceruzzi, 2003. An electronic version of the text is available through the UW library. Do a title search for "A History of Modern Computing" here. If you are off-campus and a UW student, you might want to use the library's proxy system. The number of simultaneous users is limited -- please don't squat!

• 9/10/2006: Skeletal course web created. The first class session is Wednesday September 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Administrivia

• Class schedule: Wednesdays, 6:30pm - 9:20pm, September 27 through December 6.

• Class locations: UW: CSE 305 // UCB: 290 Hearst Mining Building // Microsoft: 113/1159 // UCSD: CSE 1202.

• Office hours: See above.

• Instructions for joining the class mailing list. (Do not sign up in "digest" mode! You will not receive mail!)

• Archived class mailing list.

Readings/Schedule

• Syllabus / Lecture Schedule / Readings here -- still in flux, expect frequent changes!

• Background readings and references

Lecture archive

• Transparencies, video, etc., available here. (Also, instructions for accessing the live webcast of the class.)

• Course technology overview (principally for presenters).

Wiki

• The Wiki is our course discussion area. Directions for how to set up accounts and use the Wiki are here.

Projects/Papers

Further information on the "You Be The Expert" exercise here.

Information on the "white paper" term project here.

Final project papers can be found here.

Computer Science & Engineering University of Washington Box 352350 Seattle, WA  98195-2350 (206) 543-1695 voice, (206) 543-2969 FAX [comments to lazowska at cs.washington.edu]