EECS 485: Web Systems

The University of Michigan
Fall 2025

A holistic course of modern web systems and technologies, covering front end and back end. Build an Instagram clone in the first half of the semester and a Google clone in the second. Syllabus

Welcome to EECS 485, Fall 2025!

We're so glad you're here! A few announcements for first week of class:

  • You may attend any lecture or lab section. If you are registered for the ARR lecture section, pick any of the lecture times that work for your schedule. Attendance is not graded.
  • Yes we have lab during first week of classes
  • Read the syllabus
  • Add the exams to your calendar: Oct 21, 7pm; Dec 10, 7pm

This Week

Project 1

Templated Static Site Generator

Due Tue, Sep 9
Lab
Slides and Demos
Recordings
Lecture
In-person
Studio recordings

Schedule

Day Lecture Lab Deadline
Week 1
Aug 25 - 29

L01 Introduction

L02 Static Pages

Project 1 Intro
Week 2
Sep 1 - 5

L03 Server-side Dynamic Pages

L04 Sessions

Python
Week 3
Sep 8 - 12

L05 Encryption

L06 Web Security

Project 2 Intro and Databases
Project 1 due Tue Sep 9 11:59pm
Week 4
Sep 15 - 19

L07 REST APIs

L08 Client-side Dynamic Pages

Flask and Sessions
Week 5
Sep 22 - 26

L09 Client-side Applications

L10 Asynchronous Programming

P3 Intro and Rest APIs
Project 2 due Tue Sep 23 11:59pm
Week 6
Sep 29 - Oct 3

L11 MapReduce

L12 Google File System
(last lecture on midterm)

Asynchronous Programming and React
Week 7
Oct 6 - 10

L13 OS and Parallelism

L14 Networking

No lab

Project 3 due Tue Oct 7 11:59pm
Week 8
Oct 13 - 17

No lecture - Fall Break

No lecture

No lab
Week 9
Oct 20 - 24

No lecture

No lecture

Project 4 Intro and MapReduce
Midterm Tue Oct 21, 7pm
Week 10
Oct 27 - 31

L15 Text Analysis for Web Search

L16 Link Analysis for Web Search

No lab
Week 11
Nov 3 - 7

L17 Scaling Search

L18 Scaling Static Pages

Multithreaded Debugging
Week 12
Nov 10 - 14

L19 Scaling Dynamic Pages

L20 Scaling Storage

Project 5 Intro and MapReduce Pipelines
Project 4 due Tue Nov 11 11:59pm
Week 13
Nov 17 - 21

L21 Recommender Systems

L22 Ads and Auctions

Inverted Index Servers
Week 14
Nov 24 - 28

No lecture

No lecture - Thanksgiving

No lab

Project 5 due Tue Nov 25 11:59pm
Week 15
Dec 1 - 5

L23 Blockchain

L24 Dark Web

TBD
Exam Week
Final Wed
Dec 10, 7pm

People

Reach us at eecs485staff@umich.edu

Andrew DeOrio head shot
Andrew DeOrio

awdeorio@umich.edu

andrewdeorio.com

John Kloosterman head shot
John Kloosterman

jklooste@umich.edu

jkloosterman.net

Raed Almomani head shot
Raed Almomani

almomani@umich.edu