How a lecture runs: one live demo launched on the premise you set and left running, two check-ins where you push it further, and Q&A to close
The lecture is one half of the week’s rhythm; the crit is the other. It runs to the same shape every week, so the format costs you nothing after week 1. For times, rooms and the decks themselves, see the lectures page.
The shape#
- opener: you set the demo’s premise, and it’s set running
- agentic concept block
- first check-in: the demo is revealed, and you push it further
- web concept block
- second check-in: the demo is revealed again, and you push it once more
- closer: the next crit’s provocation
- Q&A
The structured content runs around ninety minutes; Q&A takes what’s left.
From week 9, you spend more lecture time on your final project. In weeks 9 and 10, you get a brief introduction to the web topic in the lecture and the full explanation on its topic page. Week 11 is a guest lecture from Tom Griffiths, one of the course tutors, presenting his own material — so there is no demo and no check-ins that week. Week 12 has no lecture: the Thursday 11am slot hosts an optional seminar instead, Scientific Research in the Age of Gen AI (Hanna Neumann 1.33; register only if you’re going), and Friday 30 October, 1–3pm, is a final-project drop-in in the usual lecture room.
One demo, one run#
Every lecture with a demo uses a single live one on a real repo, launched near the start and still running at the closer. Most weeks it starts from a hall of fame pick, and the class identifies the premise — what it will build — before anything runs.
Live means live. Nothing is staged or rehearsed, every prompt is composed on the spot, and some weeks the demo goes sideways; the recovery is usually worth more than the plan would have been.
Twice per lecture, the convenor pauses the slides and asks the class to take over. You see what the agent has done, get half a minute with the person next to you, then answer the standing question: “yes, and” — how can the premise go further? The convenor types and runs one suggestion, so everyone watches the same unplanned experiment. Weird suggestions are the good ones.
Following along in your own clone of the lecture-demos repo is welcome, and a laptop is worth bringing for it, but you can participate without one.
The record#
Lectures are captured by the standard ANU AV setup and the recordings are published on Canvas. Within 24 hours, a cleaned-up transcript of the demo’s Claude Code session is published alongside the deck and a PDF of the slides. Both are linked from that week’s post on Ed Discussion.
The microphones record the front of the room reliably. Neighbour discussions during the check-ins and much of the Q&A happen off-microphone, so the recording captures them poorly or not at all. The deck does not include those discussions.
The PDF is the deck as delivered and doesn’t change. The deck on this site is kept current, so it may have gained corrections, citations, examples and diagrams since the lecture.
Lectures are not marked. If you miss one, catching up is on you: watch the recording, read the deck and transcript, and bring what’s still unclear to Ed or your next crit.