I have always been fascinated with Physics, and find myself applying basic models of Physics in my thinking all the time. Surprisingly, the things that I learned from Physics and Chemistry classes during Junior High have been serving me very well, daily and till these days. After gotten in to college, I thought I could set sometimes for Physics. I attempted Walter Lewin’s courses several times yet never had the time to finish.

Fortunately, an educator in Vietnam already came up with a Physics curriculum for CS majors. Here are the main notes I took from his blog post written in Vietnamese.

Learning Physics even if you are a CS major will be beneficial because:

  • IT is huge right now and you probably don’t have time for too much unnecessary knowledge.
  • Working with computers means that naturally you will have the habit to self-study a lot when needed.
  • Combining Physics ideas/concept with programming, data crunching can generates good chunks of start-up ideas.
  • By learning basic Physics ideas and concepts, you will know what to look up for when needed.
  • Many Physics ideas are useful when working IoT, Cyber Physical System, Graphics, Signal Analysis, Microcontroller, Quantum Computing and Cryptography, etc.

You don’t need to study Physics the traditional way(which is almost impossible if you are also majoring CS), just focus on the core ideas, concepts and their applications. After the having a grasp of the basics, you can try to focus more on the topics that you are interested in. Moreover, the following curriculum should be sufficient for giving you a decent Physics foundation, which will help you grasp the big picture of Physics, while providing you with enough foundational knowledge to help you be open to new computing technology(that are deeply Physics) like Quantum Computing or Brain Simulation.

Part 1. Physics and the World System

  1. Oscillation and motion

    Deep dive: Structures in the universe

  2. Electromagnetic radiation and light

    Relativity theory and Positioning technology

  3. Quantum theory and Quantum World

    Energy and Spectroscopy

    Part 2. Material Science for Computers

  4. Semiconductor and Microprocessor

    MOSFET technology

  5. Magnetic Materials

    Computer Memory

  6. Measurement

    Electronic Microscope, medical imaging

    Part 3. Physics of Sensors

  7. Pressure and heat sensor

    Abnormal sound detection and noise filtering

  8. Chemical sensor

    Material analysis and environmental protection

  9. Magnetic sensor

    Radar signal analysis and environment monitoring

Part 4. Light and Computer Graphic

  1. Laser

    Design and making microchip

  2. Graphic Display and Lighting

    Advertising display and decoration

  3. Fiber-optic

    Application of Photonics Technology

    Part 5. Physics and the Future of Computing

  4. The Physics foundations of Quantum Computing

    Shor’s algorithm

  5. Quantum Information

    Quantum Cryptography

  6. The Physics foundation of Brain Simulation and Computing

    Hopfield network and Spin glass

I’ll try to include the materials, but for now I’ll just leave it here. (May 10 2023)