MITx class(es): [LINK] and discussion
MIT is offering online classes under the name MITx, the first of which is MITx 6.002: Circuits and Electronics. I think the idea is similar in philosophy to that of the Stanford AI class, which I saw interested LessWrong-ers, though the subject matter (intro EE class) may appeal less to the LessWrong programming/AI/logic demographic. The class itself runs from March 5 - June 8 of this year.
Link: MITx 6.002
I’ve registered for the class already; I’ve always felt as though circuit theory was a weak point for me compared to EE friends, as physics classes gave me the bare bones by comparison. Feel free to bug me with questions like, “So how much progress have you made recently with the MITx class?” (I’ll take any free sources of motivation that I can get.) Also, if any LessWrong-ers are interested, we could start a study group when the class actually begins to keep ourselves motivated and on top of the material.
Related: Coursera is offering a boatload of interesting courses from Stanford and Berkeley professors. (But it’s mired in legal and administrative problems, apparently… Launch dates aren’t definite.)
Meanwhile, Udacity is offering standard CS courses. (Although the two courses that launched today both have a Google-related twist, so I don’t know how ‘standard’ the others will be.)
The CS 373 class they are offering is about learning the basics needed for a self driving car. It is a direct follow up to the AI class, building on what was learned there and actually coding this time around. Considering what a large role probability plays and that it is an opportunity to learn Python I would expect many LWers to show interest.
Enrolment’s only open till the 28th (or maybe 27th). Anyone who wants to sign up better do that fast.
Would anyone like to explain what the subject of this course is in a way comprehensible to people who aren’t familiar with the above jargon?
This course is on how to calculate voltages and currents within electronic circuits. It talks about the different parts that such circuits are made out of, and how they affect the voltages and currents within them. It will not teach you why you’d ever want to calculate a voltage or current, and probably won’t bother telling you that, in real life, engineers use computer programs to do these calculations, and the computer programs usually use much more accurate models than the simplified ones that these courses teach.
I’ve taken a lot of these courses and they were the biggest waste of time ever. (Then again, I consider most of my college education to have been a waste of time only undergone to please my parents, so...)
Also, my father, who is a professor of electrical engineering, agrees that introductory EE courses are some of the most boring and unpleasant courses ever given at any college; supposedly EE gets more interesting later on, much the way mathematics education gets more interesting once you’re done memorizing multiplication tables, but I never reached that point.
Exactly what I was looking for—thank you!
They would say that, wouldn’t they?
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I fear that is the simple version :-) All that stuff is what makes up the starting point for analogue electronic engineering.
I am signed up.
I signed up.
Software Engineering for Software as a Service opened today. If anyone else is taking and wants to form a study group, let me know.
I think I will probably enrol, to revise some of my old knowledge. Thank you for the link!
Great idea, I’d join.
Related: Coursera is offering a boatload of interesting courses from Stanford and Berkeley professors. (But it’s mired in legal and administrative problems, apparently… Launch dates aren’t definite.
Meanwhile, Udacity is offering standard CS courses. (Although the two courses that launched today both have a Google-related twist, so I don’t know how ‘standard’ the others will be.)