[SPG_Active_Members] History of Computing class: status report

[Ronald Mak]

Folks,
 
You may recall that this semester, I'm teaching History of Computing, a new
computer science seminar class at San Jose State University. Here's a
rambling status report of how it's been going.

*	I have 11 students ranging from freshmen to graduate students. I
wish I had a few more, but I can't complain. (I have 17 students in my
compiler design class that I'm also teaching this semester.)
*	I took my students to the Computer History Museum during the first
Saturday of the semester to get them inspired. They experienced the restored
IBM 1401 systems in operation and did self-guided tours of the museum's
Revolution exhibit. I got very positive feedback -- the museum was a big
hit!
*	Each student has chosen a historical topic to research during the
semester. I pretty much let the students pick whatever they wanted, with
some guidelines. I ended up with several projects on social networking and
on programming languages. If I teach the class again, I'll try harder to get
a more diverse set of topics.
*	I stressed that I do not want book reports, but that the students
are to examine original artifacts and talk to the computing pioneers who
either designed or used the subjects of their research. I try to match
students with pioneers, and I don't know if any students have yet tried to
access material from the archives of the Computer History Museum.
*	The end results will be a research reports that the students post as
topics at the IEEE Global History Network website. I require each student to
post early drafts, research notes, blogs, etc. throughout the semester in
order to attract experts worldwide to comment on the research and offer
guidance and suggestions. 
*	At the end of the semester, each student will have an IEEE
publication they can link to, such as from their resumes.
*	Some students plan also to write some software, such as simulations
of historic computers. I told them about the SIMH and BitSavers websites.
*	You can see the list of students, their topics, and links to the
topics at http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/. If you have any comments or
suggestions for any student's project, please link to the student's topic
and start a discussion thread. (Click on "Discussion" at the top of the
topic.) In the short time remaining in the semester, I'm afraid some
students' topics may not attract anyone, so I need to drive experts to their
topics.
*	Let me know if you're willing to be a project advisor. Advising can
range from answering questions by email to working one-on-one with a
student. It's up to you.
*	Before the semester started, I decided to try to invite some guest
lecturers. I thought I'd be lucky to get three or four. I ended up with such
an impressive roster of computing pioneers and industry luminaries that the
Computer Science and the Computer Engineering departments asked me to run a
History of Computing Speaker Series in a large auditorium that's open to the
general public: http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/. 
*	I require my students to attend the talks and then send me short
essay after each one: What did you think of the speaker? What insights did
you gain from the talk? What did you learn that you can apply today? I get
some interesting feedback! (Students from my compiler design class can also
attend the talks for extra credit.)
*	Each talk is recorded and posted to the university website:
http://www.sjsu.edu/atn/services/webcasting/archives/fall_2011/hist/computin
g.html. It's been taking much longer than I like for the recordings to be
posted, but that's out of my control.
*	I got IBM (my "day job") to be the corporate sponsor of the speaker
series and donate funds to defray costs.
*	Attendance in the auditorium has ranged from 25 to 250, depending on
how well known the speaker is to the students. Don Knuth required an
overflow room. I'm embarrassed if there are only a few people in the
audience scattered throughout the large auditorium. I know each speaker has
taken time to prepare a good talk. At least the talks are recorded for
posterity.
*	We hold a reception before each talk during which the speaker can
meet informally with students. That has gone extremely well. All the
speakers have had great rapport with the students, who ask very intelligent
questions.
*	A couple of the speakers are from out of town. We put them up at the
Saint Claire Hotel near the campus and reimburse their dinner and overnight
stay.
*	Most of the talks are on Wednesdays. On the preceding Monday, I try
to provide some historical context and otherwise prepare my students for the
speaker. I couldn't schedule the speakers in any semblance of chronological
order, so we end up jumping around a lot during the past few decades of
computing history.
*	Ed Feigenbaum gave a wonderful talk Sept. 12 on the History of AI.
He asked to do it in my classroom in order to interact better with the
students. Besides my history students, students from the graduate AI class
also sat in my classroom that evening, which went extremely well. Ed gave
one of my students a contact at SRI, and now that student is going to get a
personal tour.
	
*	Allan Alcorn was the speaker on Oct. 5 right after we heard that
Steve Jobs had died. Allan was Jobs's first boss at Atari, and he had
wonderful and poignant stories to tell about what Jobs was like when he was
19 -- personal stories you won't read in any biographies or textbooks.
*	Alan Kay will give a public Wednesday talk on Nov. 16. He offered to
also teach my Monday Nov. 14 class. Who better to prepare my students for
his talk?
*	Steve Wozniak offered to give a talk (he once took classes at SJSU)
but he's impossible to schedule! I've been negotiating with his wife Janet,
but with Steve Jobs's passing, Woz is in demand more than ever. Maybe I can
get him to come sometime during spring semester.
*	Will I teach this class again? Yes, but maybe not for a couple of
years. I think it will be hard to get speakers to come every year. Running a
speaker series is a lot of work! Next time, I'll have someone else do that
part.

Thanks to all of you who kindly offered your help and suggestions. Once
again, please visit http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/, link to my
students' topics, and start discussion threads. Let me know if you wish be a
project advisor.
 
-- Ron
Ronald Mak
(408) 927-1905 (IBM office) 
(408) 533-2726 (cell) 
 
Professor of Computer Science (adjunct)
San José State University 
ron.mak at sjsu.edu 
http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak 
History of Computing Speaker Series:
http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/
 
Lead, San Jose Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) 
Research Staff Member, SPLASH 
IBM Almaden Research Center 
rlmak at us.ibm.com 
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/projects/splash/ 


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