Courses

How do computers work? How does the Internet work, and how about your smartphone? We are surrounded by technology in our daily lives, and living in Silicon Valley we are surrounded by many of the companies that create technology. Yet very few people understand how any of it works. This course is not “Technology for Dummies”—it is a broad survey of technology for students with only a layman’s knowledge of science.

Starting with basic topics like “what is electricity?” and “the mathematics of 1s and 0s,” we will work our way up to today’s advanced technologies, including smartphones, GPS, the Internet, and self-driving cars. We will dig into each topic, covering how each individual piece of the technology works, and then how these technologies come together to make the final product work. We will also talk about the people and the companies behind the technologies—fascinating stories like how a single person in Taiwan in 1985 completely changed the way the entire semiconductor industry operates. We will also provide a glimpse into the future, looking at what to expect five or ten years from now based on where research is happening today.