CS 101: Building a Search Engine

Professors David Evans and Sebastian Thrun introduce us to the course together with Sergey Brin from Google.

[D. Evans] Hi, I'm Dave Evans, a professor at the University of Virginia

[S. Thrun] And I'm Sebastian Thrun. I'm a research professor at Stanford University and a Google fellow.

So you probably remember me from AI class

that attracted over 100 000 students.

And we're teaching a new class now together with David.

So David, what's this course all about?

[David] So the course is an introduction to computer science: building a search engine.

There's no previous programming experience required

and we're going to teach you some of the most exciting ideas in computer science.

And you'll learn how to read and write programs

and by the end of the course you will build your own search engine

[Sebastian] So you can build a search engine in seven weeks?

[David] Indeed you can

By the end of the class you will build your own search engine

[Sebastian] So I have quite a few friends who do search engines

and I asked one of them, Sergey Brin, who's co-founder of Google

"Why should you take this class and learn all about computing?"

[Sergey] I think computer science is really an enabler

for you to do pretty much anything.

So much of our life today

is about information

or electronics

or some sort of computation.

Whether we're talking about a microwave oven

or whether we're talking about elections, for example.

Kind of any range of life, it always involves some sort of computing today.

And to be able to understand that deeply

and to be able to control it and to be able to innovate in that field

is what lets you innovate in almost any field.

[David] I'm thrilled to have a chance to introduce you all to computer science.

I'll hope you'll join us.

[Sebastian] And we'll see you in class.

[CS 101: Building a search engine]

[Taught by Professor David Evans & Professor Sebastian Thrun]