Schedule
Note: This is a tentative schedule. This course is actively under development and both topics and schedule are subject to change.
Week |
| Date |
| Topic |
| Assignment |
Module 1: Foundations | ||||||
Week 1 |
| 08/31 |
|
| ||
| 09/01 |
|
| |||
| 09/03 |
| Full-Stack Architecture; Cloud Shell Setup; How LLMs Work (Concepts, Limitations, Failure Modes) |
| ||
Week 2 |
| 09/07 |
| Version Control with Git & GitHub: init, commit, branching, merge conflicts |
| |
| 09/09 |
| Advanced Git: rebasing, worktrees; GitHub Workflows: issues, PRs, code review |
| Team Foundations Assignment Released | |
Week 3 |
| 09/14 |
| Prompt Engineering: zero-shot, k-shot, chain-of-thought, self-consistency |
| |
| 09/16 |
| Advanced Prompting: tool calling, RAG (intro), reflexion; Local Models |
| Prompt Engineering Assignment Released | |
Module 2: Building Software with AI | ||||||
Week 4 |
| 09/21 |
| AI-Assisted Development Workflows; Prompt Evaluation & Iteration Strategies |
| |
| 09/23 |
| Web Frameworks; Scaffolding with AI; Rapid Prototyping |
| Streamlit App Assignment Released | |
Week 5 |
| 09/28 |
| Unit Testing with pytest and doctest; Test-Driven Development (TDD) |
| |
| 09/30 |
| AI-Generated Test Suites; Property-Based Testing; Code Coverage Analysis |
| Testing Assignment Released | |
Week 6 |
| 10/05 |
| Relational Databases and SQL; Cloud Databases |
| |
| 10/07 |
| Database Integration in Full-Stack Apps; GenAI APIs; Embeddings & Vector Search Fundamentals |
| ||
Module 3: Design & Architecture | ||||||
Week 7 |
| 10/12 |
| UI/UX Design: Paper Prototyping, Personas, User Journeys |
| |
| 10/14 |
| AI-Assisted UI/UX Prototyping; HTML and CSS |
| Feature Planning Assignment Released | |
Week 8 |
| 10/19 |
| Software Architecture: Code Smells, Design Patterns, Modular Design |
| |
| 10/21 |
| Modular Design Patterns: Code Organization, Composition, and Reusable Components for AI Systems |
| Architecture Assignment Released | |
Module 4: Advanced AI Tooling | ||||||
Week 9 |
| 10/26 |
| Autonomous Coding Agents: Architecture, Tool Use, Planning; Guardrails & Reliability |
| |
| 10/28 |
| Model Context Protocol (MCP): Designing and Implementing MCP Servers |
| MCP Server Assignment Released | |
Week 10 |
| 11/02 |
| Multi-Agent Development Environments |
| |
| 11/04 |
| Concurrent Agent Workflows; Vibe Coding: Capabilities and Risks; Cost & Latency Tradeoffs |
| Multi-Agent Assignment Released | |
Week 11 |
| 11/09 |
| AI-Powered Code Review: Manual vs AI-Assisted; Best Practices |
| |
| 11/11 |
| AI vs Human Reviews: Strengths, Blind Spots, Trust; PR Automation; Experimentation & Evaluation (A/B Testing, Metrics) |
| Code Review Assignment Released | |
Module 5: Security, Deployment & Multi-Stack | ||||||
Week 12 |
| 11/16 |
| Application Security Risks; Static Code Analysis; Prompt Injection & AI-Specific Threats |
| |
| 11/18 |
| Triaging Findings; AI-Assisted Vulnerability Remediation; Secure Development Practices |
| Security Scanning Assignment Released | |
Week 13 |
| 11/23 |
| Docker and CI/CD Pipelines: GitHub Actions, Continuous Deployment |
| |
| 11/25 |
| Thanksgiving Break — No Class |
| ||
Module 6: Final Project & Future | ||||||
Week 14 |
| 11/30 |
| Cloud Deployment; Monitoring & Observability; AI System Logging & Tracing |
| Final Project Sprint Begins |
| 12/02 |
| Final Project Integration: PRs, Code Reviews, CI/CD, Security; Performance & Cost Optimization |
| ||
Week 15 |
| 12/07 |
| Industry Trends; Emerging Paradigms: Autonomous Agents; Ethics, Bias, and Safety |
| |
| 12/09 |
| Demo Day: Team Presentations and Final Reflection |
| Final Project Due | |
Final project assessment: December 21.