Calendar

Week 1

Mon Jan 19

No class, MLK day

Wed Jan 21

Introduction: Mandatory reading: the syllabus

Week 2

Mon Jan 26

~~LLM Code Generation: Modifying an Existing Codebase~~ Class is cancelled (snow day), in-class activity is homework instead. Check your email for activity instructions.: Mandatory reading: Willison’s 2025: The year in LLMs

Before class on Jan 28

Reflection essay on experience w/ LLM code generation due

Wed Jan 28

LLM Code Generation: Discussion: No reading

Week 3

Mon Feb 2

Requirements Engineering: User Discovery Lab

Mandatory reading: Synthetic Users: If, When, and How to Use AI-Generated “Research”

Background reading: The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. (Note: this is a book; it costs $10. You’re not required to read this, but you should be familiar with the ideas in it before class.)

Special topics reading: Analysis of LLMs vs Human Experts in Requirements Engineering

Mon Feb 2

Project team declaration due

Wed Feb 4

Requirements Engineering: Creating Effective User Stories: Background reading: INVEST in Good Stories, and SMART Tasks
Special topics reading: When Prompts Go Wrong: Evaluating Code Model Robustness to Ambiguous, Contradictory, and Incomplete Task Descriptions

Week 4

Sun Feb 8

Project requirements doc due

Mon Feb 9

Requirements Engineering: Creating Dev Specs

Mandatory reading: Development Spec Guidelines

Background reading: How To Be A Program Manager and Design Docs at Google

Special topics reading: Aligning Requirement for Large Language Model’s Code Generation

Before class Feb 11

Reflection essay on requirements gathering w/ LLMs due

Wed Feb 11

Requirements Engineering: Discussion: No reading

Week 5

Sun Feb 15

Project specification doc due

Mon Feb 16

Frontend: Introduction: Mandatory reading: Vibing a Non-Trivial Ghostty Feature
Special topics reading: Inside Out: Uncovering How Comment Internalization Steers LLMs for Better or Worse

Wed Feb 18

Frontend: Creating the UI Code: Mandatory Reading: How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills (this isn’t directly related to the lecture content, but I think everyone should read it)

Week 6

Mon Feb 23

~~Frontend: Creating UI Behaviors~~ Class cancelled (snow). In-class activity instead.: Mandatory reading: Good Vibrations? A Qualitative Study of Co-Creation, Communication, Flow, and Trust in Vibe Coding

Before class on Feb 25

Reflection essay on LLMs for frontend dev due

Wed Feb 25

~~Frontend: Discussion~~ Class cancelled (snow). Remote demos instead.: No reading

Week 7

Sun Mar 1

Project frontend code initial submission due

Mon Mar 2

Frontend: Discussion: Special topics reading: A Causal Perspective on Measuring, Explaining and Mitigating Smells in LLM-Generated Code

Wed Mar 4

Backend: Coding Lab: Special topics reading: Smoke and Mirrors: Jailbreaking LLM-based Code Generation via Implicit Malicious Prompts

Week 8

Mon Mar 9

Backend: Understanding Backends: Special topics reading: From Code to Correctness: Closing the Last Mile of Code Generation with Hierarchical Debugging

Before class on Mar 11

Reflection essay on LLMs for backend dev due

Wed Mar 11

Backend: Discussion: No reading

Fri Mar 13

Project backend code initial submission due

Mar 14 to Mar 22

Spring Break, no classes

Week 9

Mon Mar 23

Testing w/ LLMs: Intro: Mandatory reading: Software Testing with Large Language Models: An Interview Study with Practitioners
Special topic reading: An LLM Agentic Approach for Legal-Critical Software: A Case Study for Tax Prep Software

Wed Mar 25

Testing w/ LLMs: TDD and CI: Background reading: The Art of Agile Development: Test-Driven Development
Special topic reading: E-Test: E’er-Improving Test Suites

Week 10

Mon Mar 30

Testing w/ LLMs: Mutation Testing: Background reading: Mutation Testing

Before class on Apr 1

Reflection essay on LLMs for testing due

Wed Apr 1

Testing w/ LLMs: Discussion: No reading

Week 11

Sun Apr 5

Project synthetic tests submission due

Mon Apr 6

Deployment: Intro: Reading: TBD

Wed Apr 8

Deployment: Backend: Reading: TBD

Week 12

Mon Apr 13

Deployment: CD: Reading: TBD

Before class on Apr 15

Reflection essay on deployment due

Wed Apr 15

Deployment: Discussion: No reading

Week 13

Sun Apr 19

Project deployment due

Mon Apr 20

Static analysis + LLMs: Intro: Mandatory reading: TBD
Special topics reading: PredicateFix: Repairing Static Analysis Alerts with Bridging Predicates

Wed Apr 22

Static analysis + LLMs: Discussion: Special topics reading: LLM-Based Repair of Static Nullability Errors

Week 14

Mon Apr 27

Slack or class’ choice: Reading: TBD

Before class on Apr 29

Reflection essay on special topic due (graduate students only)

Wed Apr 29

Special topics discussion + course wrapup: No reading

Week 15

Mon May 4

Project presentations: No reading

Mon May 4

Project final submission + postmortem due