Instructor:
David Wagner
(daw@cs, 733 Soda Hall)
Lectures:
Mon Wed, 1:00-2:30pm, 405 Soda
Office Hours:
Mon Wed, 2:30-3pm, 405 Soda / 773 Soda, David Wagner
Fri, 2-3pm, 726 Soda, Sizhe Chen (starting Jan 30)
See the schedule of lectures and readings.
See the schedule of lectures. You're required to read each paper before lecture, write a brief summary, and submit your summary via Gradescope by 11am on the day of the class when reading is due.
You will do a class project involving independent research, in groups of 2-3. At the end of the semester, you will prepare a presentation on your project topic. See for more details.
You will be expected to write scribe notes for one lecture. Please sign up to scribe one lecture by adding your name to the scribe spreadsheet (link on Ed). Take notes on the lecture discussion. Then, submit a PDF file with your scribe notes on Gradescope within one week after the lecture you are assigned to scribe. You don't need to duplicate the paper. Do record the ideas and points that came out in lecture and the discussion during class.
You're welcome to use AI to help you understand papers and learn about the subjects we're studying. UC Berkeley provides free access to Gemini 3 Pro; log in with your Berkeley Calnet account, and select "Pro" at the lower right. Please write the final answer to the summaries and assignments yourself.
I created an Ed discussion site for general discussion. You're also welcome to send me email. Sizhe Chen is the TA for this course, and you can contact him at sizhe.chen@berkeley.edu. The EECS department provides a way to report incidents of concern related to climate; you are welcome to use it.
If you're interested in taking CS 261 and you're not a PhD or 5th year Masters student in CS/EECS, instructor approval is required to enroll; please fill out this form. I might not know whether I can approve any undergraduates for the course until after the first day of classes.