Operating systems sit at the heart of modern computing, yet they are notoriously difficult to teach and learn due to their complexity and the breadth of topics they encompass. John Lions' fame results from taking a new approach to teaching operating systems 50 years ago, by studying the source code.
This event offers a unique opportunity to hear from Prof. Frans Kaashoek, one of the world’s leading researchers and educators in operating systems, as he discusses how MIT approaches this challenge today.
Xv6 and its book are a recreation of UNIX v6 and Lions' commentary. This talk explores how we use xv6 for a "learning by doing" approach to teaching operating systems at MIT, and what changes we made to xv6 to reflect important OS topics today. The wide use of xv6 is a tribute to Lions' legacy.
Frans Kaashoek is the Charles Piper Professor in MIT's EECS department and a member of CSAIL, where he coleads the parallel and distributed operating systems group. Frans is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the recipient of the ACM SIGOPS Mark Weiser award and the 2010 ACM Prize in Computing. He was a cofounder of Sightpath, Inc. and Mazu Networks, Inc.
John Lions Distinguished Lecture
