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Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

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Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#91

Post by sdevonoes »

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe:

- first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!)

- second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!)

- third year: software and programming only (very nice!)

So, about 80% of the students didn't pass the first year because of its heavy mathematics + physics content.

Extra:

- mathematics I = logic, Boolen algebra

- mathematics II = calculus

- matehmatics III = Multivariable calculus and something else I don't remember

- mathematics IV = Complex analysis/complex variable calculus

- physics I and II = electromagnetism and friends

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#92

Post by read_if_gay_ »

TchoBeer wrote: post #75
Supermancho wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's the effect on your thinking patterns as a result of studying I've heard this over and over again, but I don't believe there's a shred of evidence for it.

I see this type of like used to justify whatever it is the speaker enjoys being forced on everyone else. Something like "everyone should learn philosophy because it trains the mind" usually means "I like philosophy and wish it was taught more at schools".

The statements you provided are obviously the same thing though, no?

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#93

Post by ido »

sdevonoes wrote: post #91

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe: - first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!) - second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!) - third year: software and programming o…

It was similar for me (no physics but 2/3 of the courses were math) about 20 years ago. I suspect they do it because way more people sign up to study CS than the university can afford to have graduating every year, so they need a way to "filter out" a lot of students.

They already filter out a lot in terms of admissions (you need quite good grades in high school to be able to attend the first year) so I'd wager if the purpose was to train as many people that are capable of being trained in programming we'd see a lot more students graduating every year.

It's a fair point that CS is not the same as "programming vocational school" but seeing what companies use as criteria for hiring junior programmers you can't really blame the students.

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#94

Post by yumraj »

npunt wrote: post #39

Given the power tech has over the daily experiences of billions and how many questions of values and ethics it is now directly confronting in society, I'm a little surprised there's just one ethics course and one law course that cover these subjects, and they're electives [1]. We all know much of the learning in engineering is on the job anyways, so the role of formal education is less about particular job skills and…

Does Harvard CS have an ethics course?

If it does, did Mark take it?

If he didn't, that explains it. If he did, the class is useless.

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#95

Post by sdevonoes »

ido wrote: post #93
sdevonoes wrote: post #91

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe: - first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!) - second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!) - third year: software and programming o…

It was similar for me (no physics but 2/3 of the courses were math) about 20 years ago. I suspect they do it because way more people sign up to study CS than the university can afford to have graduating every year, so they need a way to "filter out" a lot of students. They already filter out a lot in terms of admissions (you need quite good grades in high school to be able to attend the first year) so I'd wager if th…

> It's a fair point that CS is not the same as "programming vocational school" but seeing what companies use as criteria for hiring junior programmers you can't really blame the students.

True. I don't regret attending (and passing!) all those math+physics lectures to be honest. All the stuff I missed in uni regarding software engineering and programming I learnt them quite fast and easy in my own time (e.g., at least for me after passing an exam full of Cauchy-Riemann Equations and friends, it was quite easy for me to learn Java or to go through books like TCP/IP Illustrated or The Art of Unix Programming in my own time).

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#96

Post by MrDresden »

sdevonoes wrote: post #91

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe: - first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!) - second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!) - third year: software and programming o…

Mirrors my own uni years, plenty of physics and mathematics (bool logic, analysis & calculus) on the first year, though I also had classes on digital circuit design and the internal hardware design of a standard Turing computer.

I remember really enjoying designing the circuits, then writing machine code for them and seeing it all work at such a low level.

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#98

Post by Cybotron5000 »

macromagnon wrote: post #27
jlos wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best parts of education is not primarily the material you remember. It's the effect on your thinking patterns as a result of studying and the familiarity with a school of thought. For example, I studied Greek before software engineering. I've forgotten quite a bit, but theres an entirely different set of thought processes I have access to while doing software engineering because of it.

Can you expand a bit on how Greek helps? Are you talking about Ancient Greek? I know a few latin derived languages but I never taught about the relation to computer languages.

I’ve recently been trying to translate a book my dad wrote from modern (‘demotic’) Greek into English. It’s a very slow process for me, as English is my first language and my Greek is very poor. I have to constantly look up a lot of words and puzzle over some sentences repeatedly. I did notice though that Greek (or my dad at least) seems able to communicate ideas in very few words that when translated into English, as directly as I can manage, I find require longer and more ‘flowery’ sentences to achieve the same effect, at least with any degree of elegance or conventional tone. I’m not sure how much of that is due to his writing style (or mine! :) and surely it is a very qualitative, subjective impression, but it does seem to me that Greek is quite an ‘efficient’ language. I’m a terrible, entirely self-taught programmer/copy’n’paste script kiddy, but I would imagine that learning any new language helps with programming on some level (and perhaps maths/logic even more so?): dealing with different symbolic representations, grammars, alphabets, logographs etc. Here’s an article I found on the subject of formal grammars/Chomsky and their influence on computing: https://exaud.com/noam-chomsky-computer-science/

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#99

Post by speters »

sdevonoes wrote: post #91

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe: - first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!) - second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!) - third year: software and programming o…

I don't get why it would include so much math but no discrete or proof based stuff. Was it a degree in computer engineering instead?

Re: Stanford CS Curriculum 2021

#100

Post by rostudentthrow »

sdevonoes wrote: post #91

Looks really good. I still remember the curriculum of my CS degree in Europe: - first year: Mathematics I, Mathematics II, Mathematics III, Electronics I, Electronics II, Digital Circuits, Statistics I, Physics I. The rest was about software and programming (at least!) - second year: Mathematics IV, Statistics II, Physics II. The rest was about software and programming (nice!) - third year: software and programming o…

Same in Romania. For a 4 year curriculum: first 3 semesters (1.5 years): a heavy blend of math, physics, electronics. general programming and numerical methods (matlab) on the side. 4th semester: a programming heavy semester with lots of coding: algorithms, functional programming, network programming, FPGAs. It is this semester that filters the most.
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