Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-080-great-ideas-in-theoretical-computer-science-spring-2008/

by tete • 14 years ago

84 7 14 years ago

ocw.mit.edu

yfr• 14 years ago

The name of this course is amusingly similar to one offered at CMU, "Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science", the content seems similar as well. Perhaps MIT was inspired by it?

[1] http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/15-251/

MaysonL• 14 years ago

Check the dates: the MIT course is "As taught in 2008".

peyton• 14 years ago

CMU's "Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science" (formerly known as "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist") dates back to at least 2003 and possibly earlier. It's fairly infamous. It would not be surprising if MIT's drew inspiration from it, nor would it be wrong if it did.

jchonphoenix2• 14 years ago

The course is copied from CMU's. I have a friend who TAed the first iteration of the MIT course and was a former 251 ta @ CMU. The goal of the mit course was to offer their students the same experience as CMU's class because it was highly successful and they relied heavily on my friend's experiences as a ta at cmu to build the course.

In general, I view this as a good thing. Universities should take the best material they can find and offer them to students even if it's not original.

jchonphoenix2• 14 years ago

In general, I view this as a good thing. Universities should take the best material they can find and offer them to students even if it's not original.

codehero• 14 years ago

This was one of the greatest courses I took at CMU, when Dr Stephen Rudich lectured. The course's fame derived not only from the challenging material, but all the stories and magic tricks Dr Rudich would perform. It's not clear from the MIT course description if the latter is included.

contingencies• 14 years ago

Thanks for posting. As a self-trained hacker, it's nice sometimes to get read up on broadly-applicable theories in computer science from a current university pedagogy perspective.

Great Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science

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