EECS 485: Web Systems

The University of Michigan
Fall 2025
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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

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

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John Kloosterman

jklooste@umich.edu

jkloosterman.net

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Raed Almomani

almomani@umich.edu