ECS 191 (Winter 2026)

Building products

General information

Information Details
Lecture time and location Tue/Thur from 11am-12:20pm @ Olson Hall 146
Discussion time and location Tue from 2:10pm-3pm @ Wellman Hall 115
Instructor Sam King (kingst@ucdavis.edu)
Sam's office hours Tue/Thur from 1pm-2pm 3053 Kemper
TA Jun Min Kim (jnmkim@ucdavis.edu)
Jun's Office HoursTBD
FinalFri March 20th from 10:30am-12:30pm
Canvas https://canvas.ucdavis.edu/courses/1088394

Overview

This course will teach you how to build software products. We will focus on both the technical aspects of building modern software products as well as the human side. The human side includes coming up with ideas, identifying potential users, getting them to use it, and learning something from their use of your product.

The prerequisite for this class is undergraduate operating systems (ECS 150 or equivalent).

Lectures

You are responsible for knowing about all announcements made in lecture. We will discuss expectations about the project, suggestions for how to succeed, and grading guidelines in class, and general class policy issues, so make sure you don't miss any lectures.

Do I need use AI tools?

Yes, but I'm not going to enforce it. AI tools have to potential to speed up your ability to build software products. Through this class you will get experience using modern AI tools for building software, but at the end of the day if you choose to build software by hand, without automation, that is fine too. The point is shipping products, not using AI tools.