<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19120"></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV>Folks,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <UL> <LI>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.) <LI>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! <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>At the end of the semester, each student will have an IEEE publication they can link to, such as from their resumes. <LI>Some students plan also to write some software, such as simulations of historic computers. I told them about the SIMH and BitSavers websites. <LI>You can see the list of students, their topics, and links to the topics at <A title=http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/ href="http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/">http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/</A>. 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. <LI>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. <LI>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: <A title=http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/ href="http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/">http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/</A>. <LI>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.) <LI>Each talk is recorded and posted to the university website: <A title=http://www.sjsu.edu/atn/services/webcasting/archives/fall_2011/hist/computing.html href="http://www.sjsu.edu/atn/services/webcasting/archives/fall_2011/hist/computing.html">http://www.sjsu.edu/atn/services/webcasting/archives/fall_2011/hist/computing.html</A>. It's been taking much longer than I like for the recordings to be posted, but that's out of my control. <LI>I got IBM (my "day job") to be the corporate sponsor of the speaker series and donate funds to defray costs. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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. <LI>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? <LI>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. <LI>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.</LI></UL> <DIV>Thanks to all of you who kindly offered your help and suggestions. Once again, please visit <A title=http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/ href="http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/">http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/CS185C/</A>, link to my students' topics, and start discussion threads. Let me know if you wish be a project advisor.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>-- Ron</DIV> <DIV> <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:PersonName w:st="on">Ronald Mak</st1:PersonName> (408) 927-1905 (IBM office) (408) 533-2726 (cell)   Professor of Computer Science (adjunct) San Jos� State University <A title=mailto:ron.mak@sjsu.edu href="mailto:ron.mak@sjsu.edu">ron.mak@sjsu.edu</A> <A title=http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak href="http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak">http://cs.sjsu.edu/~mak</A> History of Computing Speaker Series: <A title=http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/ href="http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/">http://www.cs.sjsu.edu/~mak/SpeakerSeries/</A>   Lead, San Jose Center for Advanced Studies (CAS) Research Staff Member, SPLASH IBM Almaden Research Center <A title=mailto:rlmak@us.ibm.com href="mailto:rlmak@us.ibm.com">rlmak@us.ibm.com</A> <A title=http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/projects/splash/ href="http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/projects/splash/">http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/projects/splash/</A> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML>