References

Start here

1. Ben G. Streetman and Sanjay K. Banerjee (2015). Solid State Electronic Devices. Pearson, 7th edition.The standard first textbook on how silicon devices work: bands, doping, junctions, transistors. Clear and not too mathematical.
2. Adel S. Sedra and Kenneth C. Smith (2020). Microelectronic Circuits. Oxford University Press, 8th edition.The classic circuits course: diodes, MOSFETs, amplifiers and digital CMOS. Its problem sets are exactly what interviews draw from.
3. Chris Miller (2022). Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology. Scribner.The readable history of the industry: foundries, EUV, export controls. Great interview small-talk material.

Books

• Donald A. Neamen (2012). Semiconductor Physics and Devices: Basic Principles. McGraw-Hill, 4th edition.A second textbook with more worked examples; good when Streetman's explanation does not click.
• S. M. Sze and Kwok K. Ng (2007). Physics of Semiconductor Devices. Wiley, 3rd edition.The reference book device engineers keep on the desk. Use it to look things up, not to read cover to cover.
• Neil H. E. Weste and David Money Harris (2011). CMOS VLSI Design: A Circuits and Systems Perspective. Addison-Wesley, 4th edition.How gates become chips: CMOS logic, delay, power, memory and the design flow.
• Jan M. Rabaey, Anantha Chandrakasan and Borivoje Nikolić (2003). Digital Integrated Circuits: A Design Perspective. Prentice Hall, 2nd edition.The other standard digital-IC text; strong on dynamic power and the inverter.
• James D. Plummer, Michael D. Deal and Peter B. Griffin (2000). Silicon VLSI Technology: Fundamentals, Practice and Modeling. Prentice Hall.The fabrication textbook: oxidation, lithography, etch, implant, deposition, with the physics behind each step.
• Stephen A. Campbell (2013). Fabrication Engineering at the Micro- and Nanoscale. Oxford University Press, 4th edition.A more practical fab text that also covers packaging basics.
• Rao R. Tummala (2001). Fundamentals of Microsystems Packaging. McGraw-Hill.The packaging textbook: wire bond, flip chip, substrates, thermal paths and reliability.
• B. Jayant Baliga (2008). Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices. Springer.By the inventor of the IGBT. Explains blocking voltage, drift regions and why SiC changes the numbers.
• Ned Mohan, Tore M. Undeland and William P. Robbins (2003). Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design. Wiley, 3rd edition.The standard power-electronics text: buck converters, inverters, PWM, switching losses.

Papers

• William Shockley (1949). The Theory of p-n Junctions in Semiconductors and p-n Junction Transistors. Bell System Technical Journal 28(3), 435-489.Where the diode equation and the depletion-region picture come from.
• John Bardeen and Walter H. Brattain (1948). The Transistor, A Semi-Conductor Triode. Physical Review 74(2), 230-231.The one-page announcement of the first transistor.
• Dawon Kahng and Mohamed M. Atalla (1960). Silicon-Silicon Dioxide Field Induced Surface Devices. IRE-AIEE Solid-State Device Research Conference, Pittsburgh.The first MOSFET. Cited constantly; the conference talk itself is short.
• Frank M. Wanlass and Chih-Tang Sah (1963). Nanowatt Logic Using Field-Effect Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Triodes. IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, Digest of Technical Papers.CMOS is invented: complementary pairs that draw almost no static current.
• Robert H. Dennard, Fritz H. Gaensslen, Hwa-Nien Yu, V. Leo Rideout, Ernest Bassous and Andre R. LeBlanc (1974). Design of Ion-Implanted MOSFET's with Very Small Physical Dimensions. IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 9(5), 256-268.Dennard scaling: why shrinking transistors used to give free speed and power, and why that stopped.
• Digh Hisamoto et al. (2000). FinFET: A Self-Aligned Double-Gate MOSFET Scalable to 20 nm. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 47(12), 2320-2325.The FinFET paper from Berkeley; the structure Intel shipped first in 2012 (22 nm tri-gate) and every phone chip has used since 2015, up to the 3 nm era.
• Gordon E. Moore (1965). Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits. Electronics 38(8), 114-117.free onlineFour pages that became Moore's law. Read the original before quoting it.
• B. Jayant Baliga (1982). Semiconductors for High-Voltage, Vertical Channel Field-Effect Transistors. Journal of Applied Physics 53(3), 1759-1764.Introduces the Baliga figure of merit, the reason SiC and GaN beat silicon in power devices.

Standards and codes

• JEDEC (2013). JESD235: High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM. JEDEC.HBM2 uses the same 3.9 µs tREFI and 32 ms refresh window as DDR5.
• JEDEC (2020). JESD79-5: DDR5 SDRAM. JEDEC.Refresh: tREFI is 3.9 µs, so 8,192 refresh commands cover every row within a 32 ms window below 85 °C; DDR4 (JESD79-4) uses 7.8 µs and 64 ms.

Documentation and tutorials

• Fairchild Semiconductor, now onsemi (2014). PN2222A: NPN General-Purpose Amplifier (datasheet, Rev. 1.1.0). onsemi.com.free onlineThe other common 2N2222 in TO-92, with the opposite E-B-C lead order; IC 1 A, VCEO 40 V.
• onsemi (2013). P2N2222A: Amplifier Transistors, NPN Silicon (datasheet, Rev. 7). onsemi.com.free onlineTO-92 case 29 style 17: pin 1 collector, 2 base, 3 emitter (C-B-E with the flat face toward you). IC 600 mA, VCEO 40 V, hFE 100 to 300 at 150 mA, fT 300 MHz.

Start here

1. Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill (2015). The Art of Electronics. Cambridge University Press, 3rd edition.The practical electronics bible: components, regulators, op-amps, microcontrollers, and an appendix on drawing schematics.
2. Henry W. Ott (2009). Electromagnetic Compatibility Engineering. Wiley.The grounding, return-path and EMI book. If a board makes noise or picks up noise, the answer is in here.
3. Eric Bogatin (2018). Signal and Power Integrity: Simplified. Prentice Hall, 3rd edition.Impedance, transmission lines, crosstalk and decoupling explained with pictures rather than Maxwell's equations.
4. Clyde F. Coombs Jr. and Happy T. Holden (editors) (2016). Printed Circuits Handbook. McGraw-Hill, 7th edition.How boards are actually fabricated and assembled, written by the industry. Dip into the chapters you need.

Books

• Adel S. Sedra and Kenneth C. Smith (2020). Microelectronic Circuits. Oxford University Press, 8th edition.The classic circuits course: diodes, MOSFETs, amplifiers and digital CMOS. Its problem sets are exactly what interviews draw from.
• Hank Zumbahlen (editor), Analog Devices (2008). Linear Circuit Design Handbook. Newnes.free onlineFree from Analog Devices. The chapters on passive components, grounding and PCB layout are short and correct.
• Ned Mohan, Tore M. Undeland and William P. Robbins (2003). Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design. Wiley, 3rd edition.The standard power-electronics text: buck converters, inverters, PWM, switching losses.
• Georg Simon Ohm (1827). Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet. T. H. Riemann, Berlin.The book that states V = I · R. The 1891 English translation, The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically, is the easier read; scans of both are free online.
• Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands (1964). The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volume II: Mainly Electromagnetism and Matter. Addison-Wesley; free online edition by Caltech.free onlineChapter 13 explains why a current makes a magnetic field and which way it points, with the right-hand rule; chapter 22 covers AC circuits.
• Austin Hughes and Bill Drury (2019). Electric Motors and Drives: Fundamentals, Types and Applications. Newnes, 5th edition.The friendliest motors book: induction, permanent-magnet and the drives that run them, with almost no heavy maths.
• Christopher T. Robertson (2004). Printed Circuit Board Designer's Reference: Basics. Prentice Hall.A short practical reference on layers, stack-ups and design rules.
• Howard Johnson and Martin Graham (1993). High-Speed Digital Design: A Handbook of Black Magic. Prentice Hall.Old but still the clearest on rise time, ringing and termination.
• Bruce Archambeault (2002). PCB Design for Real-World EMI Control. Springer.Measured, not theoretical: what actually reduces emissions on real boards.
• Mark I. Montrose (2000). Printed Circuit Board Design Techniques for EMC Compliance. IEEE Press, 2nd edition.A layout-rules handbook for passing EMC tests.

Papers

• Gustav Kirchhoff (1845). Ueber den Durchgang eines elektrischen Stromes durch eine Ebene, insbesondere durch eine kreisförmige. Annalen der Physik und Chemie 140(4), 497-514.The paper with the two circuit laws, written when Kirchhoff was a 21-year-old student. The laws are stated in the closing section.
• Léon Charles Thévenin (1883). Sur un nouveau théorème d'électricité dynamique. Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences 97, 159-161.Two pages: any network seen from two terminals behaves like one source in series with one resistance.

Standards and codes

• IPC (2012). IPC-2221B: Generic Standard on Printed Board Design. IPC.The base design standard: clearances, trace width charts, hole sizes. The trace-width formula in this course comes from it, and Table 6-1 column B2 gives the 0.1 mm (to 30 V) and 0.6 mm (31 to 150 V) clearances quoted in the layout lesson.
• IPC (2009). IPC-2152: Standard for Determining Current Carrying Capacity in Printed Board Design. IPC.Newer and more accurate current-capacity data than the IPC-2221 charts; use it when a trace really matters.
• IPC (2010). IPC-7351B: Generic Requirements for Surface Mount Design and Land Pattern Standard. IPC.Footprint (land pattern) geometry for SMT parts.
• IPC (2020). IPC-A-610H: Acceptability of Electronic Assemblies. IPC.What a good solder joint looks like; the inspection standard assemblers work to.

Documentation and tutorials

• Espressif Systems (2025). ESP32 Hardware Design Guidelines: Schematic Checklist. docs.espressif.com.free onlineCHIP_PU (EN) must not be left floating; the recommended RC delay is R = 10 kΩ and C = 1 µF; strapping pins GPIO0, GPIO2, GPIO5, MTDI (GPIO12) and MTDO (GPIO15); 0.1 µF at each digital supply pin.
• Advanced Monolithic Systems (2012). AMS1117: 1A Low Dropout Voltage Regulator (datasheet). advanced-monolithic.com (free PDF at advanced-monolithic.com/pdf/ds1117.pdf, http only).free online1 A output, current limit 0.9 to 1.5 A; dropout 1.1 V typical and 1.3 V maximum at 0.8 A (note 4: higher above 0.8 A); quiescent current 5 mA typical, 11 mA maximum; a 22 µF solid tantalum output capacitor keeps it stable; SOT-223 46 to 90 °C/W depending on copper.
• Toshiba (2014). TB6612FNG: Driver IC for Dual DC Motor (datasheet). toshiba.semicon-storage.com.free onlinePin table: STBY, IN1, IN2 and PWM each have a 200 kΩ internal pull-down. VM 2.5 to 13.5 V, 1.2 A average and 3.2 A peak per channel above 4.5 V, 0.5 Ω typical upper plus lower on-resistance, PWM to 100 kHz (figures checked in the 2008-05-09 revision).
• David Haboud, Altium (2016). Getting Started with PCB Design. Altium tutorial, 29 pages.free onlineA short walkthrough of the whole flow in Altium Designer: project, schematic, nets, rules, routing, 3D view, fabrication files. The same steps as this course's KiCad lesson, in the other major tool.
• The KiCad Team (2025). KiCad Documentation. docs.kicad.org.free onlineThe official manual for the free tool used in this course.
• Altium Limited (2002). P-CAD 2002 PCB User's Guide. Altium, 620 pages.The manual for Altium's older P-CAD tool. Dated software, but chapter 3 (layers, placement, selection, properties) and the tutorial in chapter 4 explain layout concepts that every tool still uses.

Start here

1. Roland Siegwart, Illah R. Nourbakhsh and Davide Scaramuzza (2011). Introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots. MIT Press, 2nd edition.The mobile-robot textbook: locomotion, kinematics, sensors, localization, planning. Matches this course's robot closely.
2. Kevin M. Lynch and Frank C. Park (2017). Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control. Cambridge University Press.free onlineFree online with videos. The modern way to teach kinematics.
3. Gene F. Franklin, J. David Powell and Abbas Emami-Naeini (2019). Feedback Control of Dynamic Systems. Pearson, 8th edition.The standard controls course: PID, root locus, frequency response, digital control.
4. Sebastian Thrun, Wolfram Burgard and Dieter Fox (2005). Probabilistic Robotics. MIT Press.Sensor noise, Kalman and particle filters, localization and SLAM. The book behind every autonomy stack.

Books

• Nikolaus Correll, Bradley Hayes, Christoffer Heckman and Alessandro Roncone (2022). Introduction to Autonomous Robots: Mechanisms, Sensors, Actuators, and Algorithms. MIT Press.free onlineA free, modern, hands-on robotics text with simulation exercises.
• Austin Hughes and Bill Drury (2019). Electric Motors and Drives: Fundamentals, Types and Applications. Newnes, 5th edition.The friendliest motors book: induction, permanent-magnet and the drives that run them, with almost no heavy maths.
• Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill (2015). The Art of Electronics. Cambridge University Press, 3rd edition.The practical electronics bible: components, regulators, op-amps, microcontrollers, and an appendix on drawing schematics.
• Elecia White (2024). Making Embedded Systems: Design Patterns for Great Software. O'Reilly, 2nd edition.How professional firmware is structured: drivers, state machines, timing, debugging.
• Karl J. Åström and Tore Hägglund (1995). PID Controllers: Theory, Design, and Tuning. ISA, 2nd edition.Everything practical about PID: anti-windup, derivative filtering, tuning rules.
• Karl J. Åström and Richard M. Murray (2021). Feedback Systems: An Introduction for Scientists and Engineers. Princeton University Press, 2nd edition.free onlineFree online. Clear chapters on PID and on why loops go unstable.
• John J. Craig (2018). Introduction to Robotics: Mechanics and Control. Pearson, 4th edition.The classic manipulator text: frames, forward and inverse kinematics, dynamics, control.
• Valentino Braitenberg (1984). Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology. MIT Press.Tiny thought-experiment robots whose wiring makes them seem to fear or love light. The origin of reactive obstacle avoidance.

Papers

• Rodney A. Brooks (1986). A Robust Layered Control System for a Mobile Robot. IEEE Journal of Robotics and Automation 2(1), 14-23.The subsumption architecture: simple behaviours layered to make a robust robot.
• R. E. Kalman (1960). A New Approach to Linear Filtering and Prediction Problems. Journal of Basic Engineering 82(1), 35-45.The Kalman filter. Dense, but the idea of blending a prediction with a noisy measurement starts here.
• J. G. Ziegler and N. B. Nichols (1942). Optimum Settings for Automatic Controllers. Transactions of the ASME 64, 759-768.The original tuning rules, still used as a starting point.
• Johann Borenstein and Liqiang Feng (1996). Measurement and Correction of Systematic Odometry Errors in Mobile Robots. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 12(6), 869-880.The UMBmark calibration method used in the kinematics lesson.
• Vladimir J. Lumelsky and Alexander A. Stepanov (1987). Path-Planning Strategies for a Point Mobile Automaton Moving Amidst Unknown Obstacles of Arbitrary Shape. Algorithmica 2, 403-430.The Bug algorithms: provably complete navigation with only a contact sensor and a compass.
• Peter E. Hart, Nils J. Nilsson and Bertram Raphael (1968). A Formal Basis for the Heuristic Determination of Minimum Cost Paths. IEEE Transactions on Systems Science and Cybernetics 4(2), 100-107.The A* paper: the best-first search behind most grid path planners.
• Alberto Elfes (1989). Using Occupancy Grids for Mobile Robot Perception and Navigation. Computer 22(6), 46-57.Occupancy grids: the map representation most robots still use.
• Hugh Durrant-Whyte and Tim Bailey (2006). Simultaneous Localization and Mapping: Part I. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine 13(2), 99-110.The standard SLAM tutorial; part II covers the state of the art of its time.
• Josh Tobin, Rachel Fong, Alex Ray, Jonas Schneider, Wojciech Zaremba and Pieter Abbeel (2017). Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS).Why randomizing the simulator helps controllers survive the real world.
• Morgan Quigley et al. (2009). ROS: An Open-Source Robot Operating System. ICRA Workshop on Open Source Software.free onlineThe paper that introduced ROS and its nodes-and-topics design.
• Steven Macenski, Tully Foote, Brian Gerkey, Chris Lalancette and William Woodall (2022). Robot Operating System 2: Design, Architecture, and Uses in the Wild. Science Robotics 7(66).Why ROS 2 exists, what DDS and QoS buy, and who uses it.

Documentation and tutorials

• Toshiba (2014). TB6612FNG: Driver IC for Dual DC Motor (datasheet). toshiba.semicon-storage.com.free onlinePin table: STBY, IN1, IN2 and PWM each have a 200 kΩ internal pull-down. VM 2.5 to 13.5 V, 1.2 A average and 3.2 A peak per channel above 4.5 V, 0.5 Ω typical upper plus lower on-resistance, PWM to 100 kHz (figures checked in the 2008-05-09 revision).

Start here

1. Austin Hughes and Bill Drury (2019). Electric Motors and Drives: Fundamentals, Types and Applications. Newnes, 5th edition.The friendliest motors book: induction, permanent-magnet and the drives that run them, with almost no heavy maths.
2. Ned Mohan, Tore M. Undeland and William P. Robbins (2003). Power Electronics: Converters, Applications, and Design. Wiley, 3rd edition.The standard power-electronics text: buck converters, inverters, PWM, switching losses.
3. Gregory L. Plett (2015). Battery Management Systems, Volume I: Battery Modeling. Artech House.How a BMS models a cell. Volume II covers state-of-charge estimation. Plett's free course videos follow the books.
4. James Larminie and John Lowry (2012). Electric Vehicle Technology Explained. Wiley, 2nd edition.The whole vehicle: batteries, motors, power electronics, charging, in one readable book.

Books

• R. Krishnan (2010). Permanent Magnet Synchronous and Brushless DC Motor Drives. CRC Press.Field-oriented control and the dq model, in depth.
• J. R. Hendershot and T. J. E. Miller (2010). Design of Brushless Permanent-Magnet Machines. Motor Design Books.How PM motors are actually designed: magnets, windings, cooling, losses.
• B. Jayant Baliga (2008). Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices. Springer.By the inventor of the IGBT. Explains blocking voltage, drift regions and why SiC changes the numbers.
• Thomas B. Reddy (editor) (2011). Linden's Handbook of Batteries. McGraw-Hill, 4th edition.The battery reference: chemistries, cell construction, performance data.

Papers

• Felix Blaschke (1972). The Principle of Field Orientation as Applied to the New Transvector Closed-Loop Control System for Rotating-Field Machines. Siemens Review 34, 217-220.Field-oriented control is born: control an AC motor like a DC motor by rotating the frame.
• John B. Goodenough and Kyu-Sung Park (2013). The Li-Ion Rechargeable Battery: A Perspective. Journal of the American Chemical Society 135(4), 1167-1176.A Nobel laureate's own overview of how lithium-ion cells work and where they are going.
• K. Mizushima, P. C. Jones, P. J. Wiseman and J. B. Goodenough (1980). LixCoO2 (0 < x ≤ 1): A New Cathode Material for Batteries of High Energy Density. Materials Research Bulletin 15(6), 783-789.The lithium cobalt oxide cathode that made lithium-ion possible.
• A. K. Padhi, K. S. Nanjundaswamy and J. B. Goodenough (1997). Phospho-olivines as Positive-Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries. Journal of The Electrochemical Society 144(4), 1188-1194.The LFP cathode paper; LFP is now in most standard-range EVs.

Standards and codes

• SAE International (2024). SAE J3400: NACS Electric Vehicle Coupler. SAE.The North American Charging Standard (Tesla's connector) as an open standard; rated up to 1,000 V DC and 1,000 A with cooling, per the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
• IEC (2020). IEC TS 62196-3-1:2020: Vehicle connectors, vehicle inlets and cable assemblies for DC charging intended to be used with a thermal management system. IEC.The cooled-coupler specification: up to 1,500 V DC and 500 A with thermal management.
• IEC (2022). IEC 62196-3:2022: Plugs, socket-outlets, vehicle connectors and vehicle inlets, Part 3: Dimensional compatibility requirements for DC and AC/DC pin and contact-tube vehicle couplers. IEC.Configurations AA (CHAdeMO), EE (CCS1) and FF (CCS2) are rated 1,000 V DC and 400 A.
• Federal Highway Administration (2023). 23 CFR Part 680: National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Standards and Requirements. Code of Federal Regulations.free onlineThe NEVI minimum standards: at least four DC ports at 150 kW each, simultaneously (680.106); ISO 15118 and OCPP 2.0.1 (680.108); 97 % uptime per port (680.116).
• SAE International (2017). SAE J1772: Electric Vehicle and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Conductive Charge Coupler. SAE.The AC charging connector and the pilot signal used in the charging lesson.
• ISO (2022). ISO 15118-20: Road Vehicles, Vehicle to Grid Communication Interface, 2nd Generation Network Layer and Application Layer Requirements. ISO.Plug and charge, bidirectional charging and the car-to-charger protocol.
• Open Charge Alliance (2020). Open Charge Point Protocol 2.0.1. Open Charge Alliance.free onlineHow chargers talk to the back office: sessions, meter values, load management, firmware.
• IEC (2017). IEC 61851-1: Electric Vehicle Conductive Charging System, Part 1: General Requirements. IEC.The international charging-system safety and modes standard.
• NFPA (2023). NFPA 70, National Electrical Code, Article 625: Electric Vehicle Power Transfer System. NFPA.The US electrical code article for charging installations: circuit sizing, disconnects, ventilation.
• US Department of Justice (2010). 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design. US DOJ.free onlineFederal accessibility rules; EV charging guidance builds on them.
• California Building Standards Commission (2022). California Building Code, Chapter 11B: Accessibility to Public Buildings (Section 11B-812, Electric Vehicle Charging Stations). CBC.Table 11B-228.3.2.1 (how many accessible EVCS) and 11B-812.6 and 11B-812.7 (216 in long; van 144 in, standard 108 in, ambulatory 120 in wide; 60 in aisle), checked against the 2022 edition and unchanged in 2025; confirm against the edition your site uses.

Reports

• Tim A. Burress et al., Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2011). Evaluation of the 2010 Toyota Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive System. ORNL/TM-2010/253.free onlineA government lab tears down a production motor and inverter and publishes every measurement. The model for how to benchmark a drive unit.

Start here

1. Jami J. Shah and Martti Mäntylä (1995). Parametric and Feature-Based CAD/CAM: Concepts, Techniques, and Applications. Wiley.How feature trees and parametric history work, and why they break.
2. Geoffrey Boothroyd, Peter Dewhurst and Winston A. Knight (2011). Product Design for Manufacture and Assembly. CRC Press, 3rd edition.DFM and DFA as a method: the checks an AI design agent should encode.
3. Anthropic and the MCP community (2025). Model Context Protocol Specification. modelcontextprotocol.io.free onlineThe protocol used in the Claude CAD tool lesson: tools, resources, transports.

Books

• Martti Mäntylä (1988). An Introduction to Solid Modeling. Computer Science Press.The classic B-rep kernel book, with the Euler operators every kernel implements.

Papers

• Aristides A. G. Requicha (1980). Representations for Rigid Solids: Theory, Methods, and Systems. ACM Computing Surveys 12(4), 437-464.The survey that defined solid modelling: B-rep, CSG and what makes a representation valid.
• Jiri Kripac (1997). A Mechanism for Persistently Naming Topological Entities in History-Based Parametric Solid Models. Computer-Aided Design 29(2), 113-122.The topological naming problem and one way to solve it.
• Liane Makatura et al. (2023). How Can Large Language Models Help Humans in Design and Manufacturing? arXiv 2307.14377.free onlineAn honest study of GPT-4 doing CAD, DFM and manufacturing tasks: what worked and what failed.
• Karl D. D. Willis et al. (2021). Fusion 360 Gallery: A Dataset and Environment for Programmatic CAD Construction from Human Design Sequences. ACM Transactions on Graphics 40(4).Real human CAD sequences as training data; shows what 'CAD as a program' looks like at scale.
• Rundi Wu, Chang Xiao and Changxi Zheng (2021). DeepCAD: A Deep Generative Network for Computer-Aided Design Models. IEEE/CVF International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV).Generating CAD as sketch-and-extrude sequences rather than meshes.
• Shunyu Yao et al. (2023). ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models. International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR).free onlineThe reason-then-act loop that tool-using agents follow.
• Timo Schick et al. (2023). Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Tools. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS).free onlineModels calling tools, which is what an MCP server exposes.

Documentation and tutorials

• Open Cascade SAS (2025). Open CASCADE Technology Documentation. dev.opencascade.org.free onlineThe open B-rep kernel under FreeCAD, CadQuery and build123d.
• build123d contributors (2025). build123d Documentation. build123d.readthedocs.io.free onlineThe code-CAD library used in the MCP lesson.
• Model Context Protocol maintainers (2026). MCP Python SDK: v2 migration guide. py.sdk.modelcontextprotocol.io.free onlineWhat changed in SDK 2.0: FastMCP became MCPServer, timeouts moved to seconds, and only ToolError text reaches the model. The lesson listing targets 2.x.