Title: AIINFRA 300: Agentic AI & the Model Context Protocol (MCP)

00 · Course Information
  Outcomes & Rubrics
Week 01 — Agentic AI Foundations and the Provider Landscape
  Lecture 1 — What Makes an AI System "Agentic"?
  Lab 1 — Build and Benchmark Your First Code-Writing Agent
  Discussion 1 — Drawing the Line Between Workflow and Agent
  Quiz 1 — Agentic AI Foundations and the Provider Landscape
  Week 01 Resources
Week 02 — Tool Calling, ReAct, and Agent Planning Patterns
  Lecture 2 — Tool Calling, ReAct, and Agent Planning Patterns
  Lab 2 — Build a ReAct Agent by Hand in LangGraph
  Discussion 2 — When Is the Full ReAct Loop Worth It?
  Quiz 2 — Tool Calling, ReAct, and Agent Planning Patterns
  Week 02 Resources
Week 03 — Memory and State Management for Agents
  Lecture 3 — Short-Term vs. Long-Term Memory in Agentic Systems
  Lab 3 — Building Short-Term and Long-Term Memory for a LangGraph Agent
  Discussion 3 — Designing a Consolidation Policy
  Quiz 3 — Memory and State Management for Agents
  Week 03 Resources
Week 04 — OpenAI, Claude, and Multi-Provider API Integration
  Lecture 4 — Same Job, Different Contracts: OpenAI, Claude, and the Compatibility Layer Between Them
  Lab 4 — Build a Provider-Agnostic LLM Wrapper with LiteLLM
  Discussion 4 — Catching What the Compatibility Layer Won't Tell You
  Quiz 4 — OpenAI, Claude, and Multi-Provider API Integration
  Week 04 Resources
Week 05 — AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and OpenRouter Routing
  Lecture 5 — Three Clouds, Three Auth Models, One Agent
  Lab 5 — Build a Cost/Latency-Aware Multi-Provider Router
  Discussion 5 — Choosing a Fallback Order
  Quiz 5 — AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and OpenRouter Routing
  Week 05 Resources
Week 06 — Cost, Latency, and Observability Instrumentation
  Lecture 6 — Seeing Inside the Black Box: Cost, Latency, and Trace-Based Observability
  Lab 6 — Self-Hosted Tracing with Langfuse, LiteLLM, and Local vs. Cloud Models
  Discussion 6 — When the Dashboard Lies (Green Spans, Failed Task)
  Quiz 6 — Cost, Latency, and Observability Instrumentation
  Week 06 Resources
Week 07 — Code-First Agent Frameworks I: LangGraph and Pydantic AI
  Lecture 7 — Two Ways to Build an Agent: Graphs vs. Schemas-and-Functions
  Lab 7 — Two Agents, Two Mental Models
  Discussion 7 — Linear Workflow or State Machine?
  Quiz 7 — Code-First Agent Frameworks I: LangGraph and Pydantic AI
  Week 07 Resources
Week 08 — Code-First Agent Frameworks II: CrewAI and OpenAI Agents SDK
  Lecture 8 — Two Roads to Multi-Agent Systems: Crews, Handoffs, and the State-Management Trade-Off
  Midterm Exam
  Discussion 8 — Pick Your Trade-Off
  Week 08 Resources
Week 09 — MCP Architecture Deep Dive
  Lecture 9 — Inside the Host-Client-Server Model
  Lab 9 — Trace a Live MCP Session
  Discussion 9 — One Client, One Server: Why It Matters
  Quiz 9 — MCP Architecture Deep Dive
  Week 09 Resources
Week 10 — Building Agent-Native CLI Tools and MCP Servers
  Lecture 10 — From API Calls to Agent-Native CLIs and MCP Tools
  Lab 10 — Build an API-Backed CLI and MCP Server
  Discussion 10 — Designing CLI Commands Agents Can Actually Use
  Quiz 10 — Agent-Native CLI Tools and MCP Servers
  Week 10 Resources
Week 11 — MCP Authentication and Tool/Agent Security
  Lecture 11 — Locking Down the Deputy: MCP Authentication and Tool Security
  Lab 11 — Red Team / Blue Team Your Own MCP Server
  Discussion 11 — Why Does the Authentication Gap Persist?
  Quiz 11 — MCP Authentication and Tool/Agent Security
  Week 11 Resources
Week 12 — Multi-Agent Orchestration and Handoffs
  Lecture 12 — Supervisors, Handoffs, and Agent-to-Agent Protocols
  Lab 12 — Supervisor vs. Swarm: Building and Comparing Two Multi-Agent Architectures
  Discussion 12 — Centralized Supervisor or Decentralized Swarm?
  Quiz 12 — Multi-Agent Orchestration and Handoffs
  Week 12 Resources
Week 13 — Human-in-the-Loop Workflows and Emerging Standards (A2A, [AGENTS.md](http://AGENTS.md))
  Lecture 13 — Pausing for Permission: HITL, A2A, and [AGENTS.md](http://AGENTS.md)
  Lab 13 — Interrupt, Approve, Delegate
  Discussion 13 — One Artifact or Two?
  Quiz 13 — Human-in-the-Loop Workflows and Emerging Standards (A2A, [AGENTS.md](http://AGENTS.md))
  Week 13 Resources
Week 14 — Agent Evaluation and Observability
  Lecture 14 — From "Did It Work?" to "How Did It Get There?"
  Lab 14 — Trajectory Evaluation with DeepEval and GAIA
  Discussion 14 — When the Judge and the Human Disagree
  Quiz 14 — Agent Evaluation and Observability
  Week 14 Resources
Week 15 — Agent Deployment and Guardrails Introduction
  Lecture 15 — Guardrails as Middleware and Getting Agents to Production
  Lab 15 — Wrapping an Agent with NeMo Guardrails
  Discussion 15 — Where Should Guardrails Concentrate?
  Quiz 15 — Agent Deployment and Guardrails Introduction
  Week 15 Resources
Week 16 — Capstone Project & Course Review
  Final Capstone Project
  Capstone Presentation
  Course Review & Reflection
  What's Next