ESP Biography

SCHUYLER SMITH, Stanford junior

Major: Computer Science

College/Employer: Stanford

Year of Graduation: 2015

Brief Biographical Sketch:

Schuyler Smith has loved math and science for as long as he can remember. He grew up in upstate New York, and has enjoyed attending and now teaching at Splash for many years. Last summer he was a software engineering intern at Dropbox, and before that at Google. In high school he was a US Presidential Scholar, qualified for the USAMO five times, and has been in the gold division of USACO. He has also been a teaching assistant for Art of Problem Solving's programming classes, started an open source project, controlled the world's largest telescope, and written a paper that was presented at an Artificial Intelligence conference in Denmark. In his free time he enjoys tinkering with his computers, photography, tennis, flashlights, and penguins.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

E3674: Scene to Screen: How Cameras Work in Splash! Spring 2014 (Apr. 12 - 13, 2014)

Most of us have cameras in our pockets all the time, so it's easy to take them for granted. However, a lot of engineering goes into making the experience of taking a picture as easy and seamless as it is today. In this class we'll learn about the entire image pipeline, from lenses (what is chromatic aberration? how does a zoom lens work?, how does autofocus work?) to sensors (how do we detect color? what is sensor noise?) to processing (how does JPEG compression work? what is a color space?) and displays (how does an LCD work?).

M2990: Computers from the Ground Up: FETs to CPUs in Splash! Spring 2013 (Apr. 13 - 14, 2013)

In this class we'll dive into the nitty-gritty details as we learn how a computer works all the way from transistors to a complete modern processor. Topics covered will include: transistors, digital logic, basic CPU architecture, pipelining, out-of-order execution, multi-threading, and semiconductor manufacturing. Feel free to come with your own questions too - if we can't answer them we're also very good at making things up. Note that this is the first class in a two-part series. Each class can stand alone, but if you want to learn more about the software side of computers then sign up for our other class, "Computers from the Ground Up: HDDs to OSes" too!

M2991: Computers from the Ground Up: HDDs to OSes in Splash! Spring 2013 (Apr. 13 - 14, 2013)

In this class we'll dive into the nitty-gritty details as we learn how a computer works all the way from the parts in the box to compilers and operating systems. Topics covered will include: hard drives, solid state drives, RAM, caching, basic GPU architecture, operating systems, compilers, parallelism, and running applications. Feel free to come with your own questions too - if we can't answer them we're also very good at making things up. Note that this is the second class in a two-part series. Each class can stand alone, but if you want to learn more about the hardware side of computers then sign up for our other class, "Computers from the Ground Up: FETs to CPUs" too!

M2593: Computers from the Ground Up in Splash! Fall 2012 (Nov. 03 - 04, 2012)

In this class we'll dive into the nitty gritty details, as we describe how a computer works all the way from transistors and logic gates through compilers and operating systems. Topics covered will include: transistors, digital logic, basic CPU and GPU architecture, pipelining, out-of-order execution, multi-threading, caching, memory, hard drives, monitors, operating systems, compilers, and running applications.

M2321: Introduction to Linux in Splash! Spring 2012 (Apr. 21 - 22, 2012)

Always wondered what this whole open-source thing is all about? Heard of Linux but never tried it? Never heard of Linux? This class is for you! In less than two hours we'll fly through the basics of Linux, why it matters, and how you can try it or get involved. Then, because that's not enough, we'll jump into a quick technical overview of how Linux/GNU actually works, several common programs/use cases, and an introduction to the terminal. Also, there will be penguins.

M1891: Introduction to Linux in Splash! Fall 2011 (Oct. 29 - 30, 2011)