I have been wanting to try out video podcasts on my Nano for a while now. So, during my down time between quarters this week, I have decided to check out the available OpenCourseWare videos at M.I.T. Last night I watched the first lecture for 6.002 Circuits and Electronics. Wow, this lecture got me so wired I couldn't sleep last night. In one fell swoop, Professor Agarwal managed to provide a stimulating introduction to the realm of electrical engineering while simultaneously providing me with a justification for my own progression from electrical engineer to computer scientist. Sure, I already knew that there is a continuity between these disciplines - but to see it drawn out in one big picture was still enlightening.
Basically, the gist of the lecture was this:
- As electrical engineers, we start out with observable principles in nature -- the electrical properties of the physical things around us -- and we create layer upon layer of abstraction from that starting point.
- Each layer of abstraction provides a simplified understanding of the complexities of the previous layer, and provides us with a means for more simply creating interesting systems.
- Along this line of thought, we move from real electrical characteristics of physical things to simplified versions of those characteristics. We build upon that to create various types of electrical systems, eventually finding ourselves in the digitial abstraction, and then the clocked digital abstraction which of course leads us to computer systems, which we further abstract with operating systems and programming languages.
Ok, that is the very simple version. I highly recommend the lecture for non-techies who want to get a grasp on the big picture of electrical/computer/software engineering. The few real technical details he throws out should not be a impediment to understanding the overall lecture. Techies too -- I realize this is freshman level material -- but I can say that if I would have had a lecture like this way back in my early undergraduate days at Purdue, I think my whole perspective going into engineering would have been different. Even now, [mumble]-teen years later, I found Professor Agarwal's lecture to be a stimulating re-introduction to the field.
