Two more free online classes from Stanford Engineering

The two newest classes, "Introduction to Computer Networks," and “Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries,” offer participants the chance to learn from some of Stanford's most accomplished faculty.

Tens of thousands students have already signed up for Stanford’s two newest free online classes, both being offered this fall via Class2Go, the university’s first open-source nonprofit online education platform.

The classes, “An Introduction to Computer Networks” and “Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries,” both begin on October 8.

Photo: John Todd

“Introduction to Computer Networks” will be co-taught by Nick McKeown, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Philip Levis, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering. This is the first time the class will be offered online.

The class will cover the design and workings of computer networks, including the Internet. Both McKeown and Levis see benefits in increasing the number of people who understand the workings and design of the Internet because it is so integral to everyday life.

”The Internet is fundamental to so many uses of computers today, ranging from online shopping to search engines to online trading,” said Levis. “Making this course publicly available could be a valuable resource for people to understand something that’s transforming how we conduct business, interact with friends and family, and learn. You’ll learn about the technology that you’re using as you take the class.”

The professors said they are motivated by the opportunity to make this knowledge more broadly available. “What gets us most excited is to think about the thousands of people around the world who would otherwise have no access to Stanford material,” said McKeown. “It feels quite an honor to be able to share our class with so many people.”

The “Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries” class will be taught by Bruce Clemens, the Walter B. Reinhold Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. Also online for the first time, the class focuses on the operating principles and applications of emerging technological solutions to meet the energy demands of the world.

Topics to be covered include the scale of global energy usage and requirements for possible solutions, as well as a look at the promise current materials research offers for providing next-generation solutions. This class, which covers the fundamental physics and chemistry underlying these technologies as well as device structure, design and performance, aims to attract students with a very broad range of backgrounds and experience.

“Putting the lectures on-line allows students to focus appropriate time on new concepts,” said Clemens. “Offering the course to the wider community is a chance to help build excitement in this important area.”

Both classes offer enrollees the opportunity to learn from some of Stanford Engineering’s most distinguished faculty.

McKeown, a professor at Stanford since 1995, is a well-known entrepreneur who recently sold his networking startup, Nicira, to VMware. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), a Fellow of the IEEE and the ACM.

Most recently, he received the ACM Sigcomm “lifetime achievement” award for his contributions to the design, analysis and engineering of high-performance routers, resulting in a major impact on the global Internet.

Levis, who joined the Stanford faculty in 2005, received a 2008 NSF CAREER award and a Microsoft Research New Faculty Fellowship. The results of his research, including the TinyOS operating system, nesC language, Trickle algorithm, and the collection tree protocol (CTP), have been adopted by tens of thousands of users and researchers worldwide.

In addition to his professorship in materials science, Clemens is a professor of photon science at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and a professor, by courtesy, of applied physics. He is the 2012 President of the Materials Research Society. He and his group work on a variety of energy-related technologies, including photovoltaic and hydrogen storage materials.

Several more online classes will be offered on Class2Go in winter and spring; early likely candidates include nanotechnology and a class at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. Class2Go also is being used for portions of courses taught on-campus to Stanford students.

Class2Go, developed by engineers in Stanford’s computer science department, is for research as well as teaching, offering faculty the opportunity to learn about learning as they teach.

Class 2Go is one of three online learning platforms being tested by Stanford. The university is offering a total of 16 free online classes this fall – five classes on VentureLab, a platform developed by Stanford faculty and student, and nine using Coursera, a for-profit company founded by two Stanford computer science professors.

Stanford kicked off a wave of free, online class offerings last fall, when it put three of its most popular computer science courses online for free. A growing number of universities have since begun to provide free, online classes.

Last modified Fri, 19 Oct, 2012 at 15:06