Hi! My name is Jonathan Tsai and I created this course. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 2006. During my undergraduate studies, I studied under and worked with Dr. Dan Garcia, one of the renowned instructors of computer science in the nation, and my teaching style and methodology is largely inspired by him.
Professionally, I have been working in Silicon Valley for over 2 decades as a software engineer at various technology companies, both large enterprises as well as startups.
This is an introductory programming class meant to be taught to kids aged 11 or older. In the summer of 2024, I am currently teaching my son and a couple of his friends computer programming.
This course aims to find a balance among teaching fundamental theories and concepts (30%), computer programming and languages (25%), software engineering (25%), and software engineering and programming techniques (25%) – meaning, you will get A LOT more CS theory (ideally) than a traditional (college-level) programming class, but you will not get as much theory as a traditional (college-level) CS class.
If you ask most kids, they will say that they want to learn computer programming so that they can make their own video games.
So, as a final project, we will aim to build AND publish and fully functional video game!