ITWS-4500: Advanced Web & Agentic AI Development

Theory, Systems, and Practice in Full-Stack and Agentic AI Development

Course Overview

Welcome to ITWS-4500: Web Science Systems Development, an advanced course focusing on the design and implementation of modern, production-quality web applications as integrated systems. This course examines architectural and design patterns underlying contemporary web platforms, with emphasis on system decomposition, data flow, scalability, reliability, and security.

NoteSpring 2026 | RPI Lally School of Management

Location: Lally 102 Times: Tuesday/Friday 12:00-1:50 PM (Section 01) | 2:00-3:50 PM (Section 02) Instructor: Jason Kuruzovich

What You’ll Learn

This course adopts a full-stack perspective, integrating modern frontend frameworks, backend services, databases, and APIs into cohesive and maintainable applications.

Technical Foundations

  • Infrastructure as Code with Docker & Docker Compose
  • Frontend Architecture with React/Angular
  • Backend Services with Node.js & Express
  • Data Architecture with MongoDB & PostgreSQL
  • Authentication and security patterns

Advanced Topics

  • Agentic AI Architecture and workflows
  • AI-Assisted Development practices
  • CI/CD Pipelines and automated testing
  • Cloud Deployment and scaling
  • System Integration and performance

Course Structure

The course is lab-intensive and project-driven, with students working collaboratively to design, build, deploy, and present a full-stack web application.

Component Weight Description
Lab Assignments 30% Weekly hands-on technical exercises
Semester Project 30% Group full-stack application
Quizzes 30% Two comprehensive assessments
Participation 10% Class engagement and discussion

This Week

TipWeek 1: January 13-16, 2026

Tuesday (1/13): Course Introduction - Web Applications as Architectural Patterns View Slides

Friday (1/16): Infrastructure as Code - Containers, Docker, and Docker Compose View Slides

Technology Stack

Throughout this course, you’ll work with a modern MERN-style architecture:

                    ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
                    │           Client Applications           │
                    │    (React / Angular / Mobile)          │
                    └─────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                          │
                    ┌─────────────────────▼───────────────────┐
                    │              API Gateway                │
                    │         (Express.js / Node.js)         │
                    └─────────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                                          │
          ┌───────────────┬───────────────┼───────────────┬───────────────┐
          │               │               │               │               │
    ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐   ┌─────▼─────┐
    │  MongoDB  │   │PostgreSQL │   │   Redis   │   │   Auth    │   │ AI Agent  │
    │(Documents)│   │(Relations)│   │  (Cache)  │   │ Service   │   │ Services  │
    └───────────┘   └───────────┘   └───────────┘   └───────────┘   └───────────┘

Contact & Office Hours

Instructor: Jason Kuruzovich Email: kuruzj@rpi.edu Office: Pitt 2206 Office Hours: Tuesday 9:00-11:00 AM (in person) | Book Online

This course website is built with Quarto and hosted on GitHub Pages.