Class Introduction
Welcome to COE 332: Software Engineering & Design!
Course Time: Every T/TH 11:00am - 12:30pm on Zoom
The objective of this course is to introduce students to advanced computing concepts in software engineering, software systems design, cloud computing and distributed systems, and computational engineering. Through a series of assignments spanning the course of the semester, students will build a cloud-based, computational system to analyze a time series dataset and provide a web-accessible interface to their system.
Note
Zoom recordings should be automatically uploaded to Canvas following each lecture.
About the Instructors
Joe Allen
Joe Allen joined the TACC Life Sciences Computing Group in 2015 where he works to advance computational biology and bioinformatics research at UT system academic and health institutions. His research experience spans a range of disciplines from computer-aided drug design to wet lab biochemistry. He is also interested in exploring new ways high performance computing resources can be used to answer challenging biological questions. Before joining TACC, Joe earned a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Jamestown (2006), and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech (2011).
Charlie Dey
Charlie is the Director of Training and Professional Development with the User Services group at TACC with a background in web development and scientific computing. Charlie’s responsibilities at TACC include organizing, developing content, and building curriculums for TACC’s academic course selection taught in conjunction with several departments at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as for TACC’s professional development and educational training. Prior to joining TACC, he worked as a Senior Application Developer for the Carle Foundation, and as a computer science instructor at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. He was also a member of a specialized application development team at the University of Illinois and has also been a contracted research consultant for NASA Ames Research Center, studying computational immunology and bioinformatics. Charlie holds a Bachelor’s Degree concentrating in Computer Science and Biology from Eastern Illinois University, and certifications in 3D programing and visualization.
Brandi Kuritz
Brand joined TACC in 2018 as an intern and established CIC’s support infrastructure while learning software engineering and computer science fundamentals. She is now employed full time as a software developer and is currently working on development for TACC APIs and supporting utilities.
Joe Stubbs
Joe leads the Cloud and Interactive Computing (CIC) group, which focuses on building cloud native applications and infrastructure for computational science. CIC develops, deploys and maintains multiple national-scale clouds as part of ongoing projects funded by the National Science Foundation. Additionally, the CIC group contributes to and deploys multiple cloud platforms-as-a-service for computational science including the Agave science-as-a-service platform, TACC’s custom JupyterHub, and Abaco: Functions-as-a-service via the Actor model and Linux containers. These platforms are leveraged by numerous cyberinfrastructure projects used by tens of thousands of investigators across various domains of science and engineering. Prior to joining the University of Texas, Joe received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Texas, Austin and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan. His recent interests include distributed systems, container technologies and interactive scientific computing.
About the Syllabus
Grades for the course will be based on the following:
30% Homework - Approximately 8 assignments, assigned on Tuesdays and due the following Tuesday. The lowest score will be dropped.
30% Midterm - We will have a written midterm.
40% Project - Students will form groups and will submit a final class project consisting of a distributed, web-accessible, cloud system to analyze a time series dataset. The project will draw from and build upon work done throughout the semester in homework assignments. More details will be given in the upcoming weeks.
Approximate Schedule and Key Dates (subject to change):
Week 1: Intro, Linux, Python Review
Week 2: JSON, Unit Testing
Week 3: Version Control, Intro to Containers
Week 4: Advanced Containers, YAML, Docker Compose
Week 5: HTTP, REST, Intro to Flask
Week 6: Advanced Flask, Integration Testing
Week 7: Databases, Persistence in REST
Week 8: Review, Midterm
Spring Break
Week 9: Virtualization: Container Orchestration and Kubernetes
Week 10: Virtualization: Container Orchestration and Kubernetes Cont
Week 11: Continuous Integration
Week 12: Asynchronous Programming
Week 13: Queues
Week 14: Special Topics
Week 15: Special Topics - Final Week of Class
Last Day of Class: Final Project Due
Office Hours
Office hours will be held every T/TH for 1 hour immediately following the class. Office hours will also be available by appointment. No in-person office visits are available this semester. Instead, we will meet by Zoom (ad hoc) and/or in the dedicated class Slack space:
Within that space, you will find two channels dedicated to this class: #coe332-general and #coe332-officehours. The general channel will be used for general discussion, posting links and materials, and making general announcements to the class. The office hours channel will be used to interact with course instructors and receive help. Students are expected be signed in and checking slack at least twice a week.
Attention
Everyone please click on the Slack link above and request access
Key Prerequisites
This course assumes familiarity with the Python programming language and strong working knowledge of basic, high-level language programming concepts including: data structures, loops and flow control, and functions. We also assume a basic, working knowledge of the Linux command line.
We will briefly review programming concepts in Linux and Python during the first week of class, the first homework assignment will be based on these topics, and we will make every effort to help students who are less familiar with these concepts in Python. Ultimately, each student is expected to and responsible for mastering this material. This is not an introductory programming class and we will not have time to give a comprehensive treatment of all of these topics.
You will need an SSH client and way to edit / run Python code to be successful in this class. There are many programs available, and it does not matter much which you choose as long as you are comfortable using them.
SSH Client:
PuTTY (Windows)
MobaXterm (Windows)
Windows Subsystem for Linux (Windows)
Terminal (Mac, Linux)
iTerm (Mac)
Python IDE
Additional Help
Our main goal for this class is your success. Please contact us if you need extra help.
Joe Allen - wallen [at] tacc [dot] utexas [dot] edu
Charlie Dey - charlie [at] tacc [dot] utexas [dot] edu
Brandi Kuritz - bkuritz [at] tacc [dot] utexas [dot] edu
Joe Stubbs - jstubbs [at] tacc [dot] utexas [dot] edu