Classes

Representing Information

Class 1: Introduction [Slides]

• Course Objectives
• Why do we need to understand computing?
• Expectations
• What are we curious about
• Who am I and why am I teaching this course
• Introducting Digital vs. Analog

Class 2: The Digital Abstraction [Slides]

• Beginning of Course Survey
• Analog/Digital
• Digital Music

Class 3: Apple is Lossy, but Microsoft has bigger Megabytes [Slides]

• 16 bits
• What’s a “MB”?
• Data Compression
• Why Binary?

Class 4: Continuous Binary Representations [Slides]

• Project 1 Questions
• Continuous Binary Representations
• Encryption
• Leaking DRAM (Cold Boot Attacks)

Class 5: Computing on Binary Data [Slides]

• Addition Algorithms
• What is an algorithm?
• Binary Addition Algorithms
• Multiplcation
• 0.010101010101010…

The Internet and the Web

Class 6: Search [Slides]

• How computers encode text, Unicode
• Possible Paths for the Course
• Search Engine Trivia Contest!
• Introducing Web Search

Class 7: Finding Needles on the Web [Slides]

• ChatGPT is not a search engine: “hallucinating” UVA classes
• Search Strategies
• Jefferson’s Library
• Index, Hashing
• Grading Philosophy

Class 8: The Internet and the World Wide Web [Slides]

• Networks
• Developer Tools in Web Browsers
• Chappe’s Semaphore Network
• Latency and Bandwidth
• The World Wide Web

Class 9: PageRank and Packet Pathways [Slides]

• Crawling the Web
• Finding the “best” web pages, PageRank
• Version Control Systems: git
• Packets on the Internet
• ping and traceroute (tracert on Windows)

Class 10: Zombie Packets! [Slides]

• Routing on the Internet
• IPv4 vs. IPv6
• How traceroute works?
• Domain Names (why its good to live in Anguilla)

Class 11: Owning a Piece of the Internet [Slides]

• Mid-Course Survey (the survey will remain up, please submit any time you want)
• Owning a Piece of the Internet
• Buying a Domain Name

Trust on the Internet

Class 12: Bootstrapping Trust [Slides]

• HTTPS
• Requirements for Transport Layer Security
• Introduction to Encryption
• Kerckhoff’s Principle
• Jefferson’s Wheel Cipher
• Key Agreement over an Insecure Channel
• Signatures

Class 13: TLS Everywhere! [Slides]

• Happy Leap Day!
• Project 2: Responding to Search Requests
• Desining Transport Layer Security
• Certificates
• How TLS became used everyhwere

Class 14: Ask Anything [Slides]

Programming

Class 15: Programming [Slides]

• What is Language?
• Components of Language: Primitives, Means of Combination, Means of Abstraction
• JavaScript and the DOM

Class 16: Languages and Grammar [Slides]

• Science of Programming?
• Backus Normal Form
• Generating Infinite Languages

Class 17: JavaScript Programming [Slides]

• Recapping and Extending BNF Grammars
• News Highlights: Poisoning, Tim Berners-Lee, and the Reddit IPO!
• Programming in JavaScript

Class 18: Functions in JavaScript [Slides]

• How to Learn a Language
• Functions in JavaScript

Class 19: Repetition [Slides]

• Questions about BNF grammar and derivations
• Florida’s Social Media ban
• JavaScript for loops

Class 20: Reasons for Paranoia, Programming with Recursion [Slides]

• xz backdoor
• Recursive Definitions and Functions
• Spelling Correction (Edit Distance)

Class 21: Aliignment [Slides]

• Edit distance
• Genome alignment

Class 22: Exam Review [Slides]

Artificial Intelligence

Class 23: Artificial Intelligence? [Slides]

• Exam Questions Discussion
• Is it AI?

Class 24: Artificial Intelligence! [Slides]

• Brief History of “Artificial Intelligence”
• Introduction to Machine Learning

Class 25: Universal Machines and Learning Machines [Slides]

• Turing’s Machine Model
• Universal Machines
• Machine Learning by Modeling Neurons

Class 26: Large Language Models [Slides]

• Training a Language Model
• Tuning and RLHF
• Limitations of Generative AI
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation

Class 27: Invent the Future! [Slides]

• Predicting the Future
• Exponential Progress
• Jobs for Human Beings