With so many EE and CS classes at Berkeley, it is important that students know which classes best match their personal and career interests. This DeCal is offered to provide students with a broad survey of topics within EECS and a general sense of the courses and subfields within the major. We aim to cover each topic in totality, so no EE or CS experience is required.
Professor Sahai notes in his unofficial advice page, “Set yourself a goal of understanding some system from top to bottom before you graduate. For example, you might want to know how the entire process of downloading and listening to an MP3 or OGG file works. This can be a good tool for integrating knowledge across different courses.” Since taking every EECS course may be infeasible and inefficient under the current system, we would like to provide a cocktail-party level of understanding so students can make educated decisions about which classes to explore. Even if you never take an EECS class after this one, this DeCal will be worthwhile if you enjoy learning about a variety of topics.
This course will take students on a journey through YouTube starting from the browser request to the underlying circuitry and physics in computers. Each week will move lower on the Software/Hardware stack, with a deconstructive approach to software and a constructive approach towards hardware. After taking this course, students will have a fair understanding of every level of the EECS stack.
Sessions will consist of 2 hours of virtual instruction, including a mix of interactive labs/demonstrations and lecture. In addition, staff will plan to host talks by current researchers in applicable fields to provide deeper insight into various areas of research. The syllabus itself covers 12 weeks of instruction.
To pass the course a total of 17 points must be obtained by each student. Attendance and weekly homework submissions are worth 1 point each (there are 11 classes and 10 weekly assignments). There will also be a final project, which is mandatory. Homework should be submitted every week before class begins. These short written assignments are intended to reinforce the ideas presented in class, while being open-ended and rewarding. These assignments should not take many hours to complete.
Students will need to submit an “overarching project” which will incorporate ideas spanning the entire semester. Additional details about this project will be released as the semester continues.
Classes are planned for Wednesday 6-8pm over Zoom.
Weekly topics and demos are subject to change.
No day(s) left until application deadline!
Section | Facilitator | Size | Location | Time | Starts | Status | CCN(LD) | CCN(UD) |
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Lecture/Lab | Rohin Tangirala, Alexander Kristoffersen, Augie Eriksson, Bryan Ngo, Brandon Schellhaass, George Hutchinson, Leyla Kabuli, Simon Guo | 50 | Internet/Online | [W] 6:00PM-8:00PM | 02/03/2021 | Open | -- | -- |
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