Abstract:
The course "Introduction to Computer Systems" at Carnegie Mellon University presents the underlying principles by which programs are executed on a computer. It provides broad coverage of processor operation, compilers, operating systems, and networking. Whereas most systems courses present material from the perspective of one who designs or implements part of the system, our course presents the view of a system visible to application programmers. Students learn that, by understanding aspects of the underlying system, they can make their programs faster and more reliable. This approach provides immediate benefits for all computer science and engineering students and also prepares them for more advanced systems courses. We have taught this course every semester since Fall, 1998 with enthusiastic responses by the students, the instructors, and the instructors of subsequent systems courses.
As a way to spread this style of course to other schools, we have published the textbook "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective," now in its second edition. The book is now in use at over 185 universities worldwide. More information can be found at http://csapp.cs.cmu.edu/.
Bio:
Randal E. Bryant is Dean of the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science. He has been on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon since 1984, starting as an Assistant Professor and progressing to his current rank of University Professor.
Dr. Bryant's research focuses on methods for formally verifying digital hardware, and more recently some forms of software. His 1986 paper on symbolic Boolean manipulation using Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) has one of the highest citation counts of any publication in the computer science literature. Along with David R. O'Hallaron, he authored the textbook "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective", now used in over 130 universities worldwide and translated into Chinese and Russian.
Dr. Bryant is a fellow of the IEEE and the ACM, as well as a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His awards include: the 2010 ACM/IEEE A. Richard Newton Award, the 2009 IEEE/EDAC Kaufman Award, the 2007 IEEE Emmanuel Piore Award, the 1997 ACM Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award (shared with Edmund M. Clarke, Ken McMillan, and Allen Emerson) for contributing to the development of symbolic model checking, and the 1989 IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize for the best paper appearing in any IEEE publication during the preceding year.
Dr. Bryant received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1973, and his PhD from MIT in 1981. He was on the faculty at Caltech from 1981 to 1984.
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