Sunday, January 25, 2009

Prof. J



J教授是CS教演算法的老師 也算是個大咖 我以前修過他的計算幾何學

是一個native american

特點是滿有自己的想法 會作一些平常人不會作的事

例如禮拜二他在課堂上live直播歐巴馬就職演說 播完才開始上課

也許是他也想見證這歷史的一刻吧

--

J在大學部開的algorithm是有名的tough 雖然我在台大修過了 這學期我還是決定旁聽這門課 畢竟這是我離開UIUC前沒上過會後悔的課阿

他每週都會有作業 他說交過的作業題目 隨時可以在課堂上點人起來講要怎麼解

有趣的是修課的人還要選每週一小時的head-banging session 有點像是台灣的討論課或演習課

但不是在教室 而是在CS系館的討論空間 可能作業都很難 不去head-banging session的話自己是想不出來的 用head-banging來誇張地形容想到破頭?!

我以前看過他的head-banging session 只見他或助教一步步暗示 但不會直接說:“就這樣解那樣解......“

還有他說 “for all n“這樣的敘述出現在演算法裡會直接得零分 想想其實是有道理的 因為這樣太模糊了

最後 他說作業若不會寫 回答“I don't know“可以得25%的分數 因為“it's important to realize that there's something you don't know“

好像滿有道裡的 可是我又覺得怪怪的

是嗎?

Saturday, January 24, 2009

教授語錄

某個第一學期上課教授的部份語錄

Time: fall 07
Department: math
Nationality: Russia
Age: somewhere between my dad and my grandpa
Characters: stumbled English, heavy accent, very sincere, very polite, walks back and forth along blackboard and faces downwards while figuring out appropriate answers to the raised questions, unrecommended teaching template in terms of fluency, or from a "standard" point of view, but I really like him.

Quotations:

1.
Alex: "So in the equation set we have 'f(x) = b' and '-f(x) = -b', which are equivalent so we have to eliminate one of them. Since we are positive people, let's keep the first one......"

Us: "......"

2. (Introducing knapsack problem)
Alex: "Suppose there's a thief with a backpack and he can bear up to X pounds with it; for example, X = 110......"

Tim(student): "What? that's too much......"

Alex: "Some people bear really heavy things, especially mountain-climbing guys, but not girls. Girls don't bear that much."

Some girl: "Oh they do......"

Tim: (to Alex) "You're not supposed to say that."

Alex: "......I apologize!"

3.
Alex: "This is the drawback of this algorithm. However, it's really not that bad. Every cloud has a silver lining......"

Us: "......"

4. (In some not-so-easy topic)
Alex: "Do we go too fast?"

No response.

Alex: "Do we go too slow? Does anyone want me to be faster?"

No response.

No response.

Alex: "Anyway I can't be any faster!"

(p.s. he meant his English)