CANVAS IS LIVE
All new information will be posted on our Canvas space (https://canvas.eee.uci.edu/courses/24134). You might have to log in to see it, only the syllabus is public.
While we get everything setup in Canvas, this website will contain all the latest news for Spring 2020’s offering of CS190: Programming for Edge Computing.
We are really excited about this course, it is the product of a joint effort between Professor Alexandru Nicolau and PhD candidate Neftali Watkinson.
Please check back here for more information, we will update frequently, if you have any questions feel free to email me at watkinso@uci.edu
FAQ
- What is Edge computing? It is a paradigm of distributed computing which bring business intelligence (and computational power) closer to where the data is generated.
- What makes Edge computing different and why do I need to learn it? First of all it is a growing industry. Secondly, Edge brings unique challenges to algorithm design, architectural design, network layout, security, and many other well established sub domains of Computer Science. The purpose of this course is to learn what those challenges are and get familiarized with computation at the Edge.
- Is the course upper division or project? While the class will focus on hand-on experience, this counts as an upper division course.
- What is the previous knowledge I need? We only assume you have taken ICS 33. While material from other courses will be helpful, we’ll introduce any new concept you need to learn
- Do I need to buy a Raspberry Pi? While there’s a workaround that we will explore (setting up a virtual machine), it is for your benefit to acquire the Raspberry Pi as it will allow you to apply the concepts seen in class. You will not lose points for not having one, but the projects will be more difficult without it.
- How many projects are there? There’s one simple introductory project and two a little more challenging but they will be done in teams.
- Do I need to buy an accelerator? No, we will provide a Coral TPU accelerator for your projects
- What is an accelerator? A neat specialized processor packaged into a USB stick that allows you to offload computation from the CPU. In this case the TPU is designed for deep learning algorithms
- Will this course be too hard? Hopefully not. While there’s a challenge attached to it, you will have fun, and if you have fun it cannot be hard.
- I am a senior with broad experience in computer architecture, will the course be too easy? Also no. Two of the projects will allow you to explore what you have learned in class and through other projects. This is a great opportunity to start creating a portfolio by bringing that knowledge into your projects.