Selected Reading of Ph.D. Dissertations

Detailed reading of 5 selected Ph.D. dissertations within a field of computer science. For undergraduates, the course is an introduction to advanced foundational concepts within a field as well as an in-depth look at detailed research. For graduate students, the course focuses on historical reading as well as an opportunity to read dissertations and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. Both groups of students discuss historical context, how ideas succeeded or did not and why, and how they manifest in modern technology. The discussion of each dissertation completes with a guest lecture by its author. The selected dissertations change with each offering but are always from a coherent time period and topic area. Prerequisites: CS110 for undergraduates, EE282 for graduate students.