e-readers compared
I have been testing out various e-readers over the summer and thought my experiences might help save other late-adopters some time. I started looking into e-readers because I suffer from eye strain...
View ArticleExperiments in teaching: am-I-ready-for-this quiz
I am teaching ‘the grad algorithms course’ for the second time. It is the first time I am teaching a course for the second time and am excited at finally having the opportunity to fix my previous...
View ArticleExperiments in teaching: am-I-ready-for-this? quiz outcome
Last week, I gave the students in my grad algorithms class an am-I-ready-for-this? quiz. I promised to report back, and I’m already a little late on that. The average for the quiz was ~ 70% – I was...
View ArticleExperiments in teaching: problem-solving sessions
In a more significant experiment than the am-I-ready-for-this quiz, I am rethinking the assignments that accompany my grad algorithms course. In last year’s class, I had the grad students work in...
View ArticlePedagogical excuses: bad penmanship
Finally an excuse for my bad black/whiteboardpersonship! Apparently, retention of information is improved if the way it is presented is difficult to read: … if something is hard to see or hear, it...
View ArticleWomen are not at an advantage in our field
I was asked a question a few months ago: Do women have an advantage in our field? There was a time when I would have chirped ‘NO!’ and stormed off. That time might not have been too long ago. But it...
View ArticleA skulk of FOCS talks
The FOCS talks are now available online! I waited until now to report on FOCS for this very reason. I am not about to compete with Suresh or Lance for live blogging conferences. I’m not sure where...
View ArticleWriting reference letters
I was just sitting down to write the first1 reference letter that I have ever written and realized that I have never read a reference letter and have little idea of what should go into one. This...
View ArticleWhat does arXiving mean?
What does it mean to post a paper to arXiv? More specifically, a paper that has not been accepted to a peer-reviewed venue; less specifically, to any easily-searchable, time-stamped, respected...
View ArticleExperiments in teaching: am-I-ready-for-this? quiz followup
One of my experiments in teaching this quarter was to have a quiz the second week of class on material that I considered so basic, that if you couldn’t do very well on the quiz, well, you may well...
View ArticleLooking a gift horse in the mouth
When I was a grad student, I was in a professor’s office when an undergrad stopped by to give the professor an art card as a thank you for writing a recommendation letter. The professor kindly turned...
View ArticleEqual access use for bicyclists
The Corvallis City Club hosted a presentation by and discussion with ODOT’s Corvallis representative Jerry Wolcott and Corvallis Public Works Director Steve Rogers yesterday to discuss planned...
View ArticlePC innocence
I’ve long been meaning to remark on my experiences of being on the SODA and ALENEX program committees this past year and fellow bloggers recent reflections on PC membership encourages me to finally...
View ArticleA flat 6-pack of SODA
Rightly chastised by Suresh for not blogging while at SODA [1] – enough time has passed for me to completely forget anything I might have wanted to say. But the timing is perfect. I am procrastinating...
View ArticleTopology through crochet
A good friend taught me how to crochet on Sunday night. I started with the classic square-to-be-used-as-a-dish-rag project and moved onto the spiral-to-be-used-as-a-pot-stand project. Project number...
View ArticleNSF Day at Oregon State
The NSF is coming to OSU to hold a one-day workshop on Wednesday, April 13 on the “Foundation, its mission, priorities, and budget [covering] the NSF proposal and merit review process and NSF programs...
View ArticleA lens on the sciences
The workshop on Theory of Computation as a Lens on the Sciences at Berkeley was this weekend. For the three people out there that haven’t seen Christos Papadimitriou’s talk on the same, I recommend it....
View ArticleLecture notes for Baker's technique for PTASes in planar graphs
In teaching so far, I have relied almost exclusively on textbooks and other people’s lecture notes (Jeff Erickson comes to mind, again and again) for providing materials to my students. Yes, I would...
View ArticleConversations with other theoretical computer scientists
Claire Mathieu caught me on IM a few weeks ago – she was in the middle of a discussing a quote with Valerie King by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, at Barnard College’s commencement. You can...
View ArticleFSM is from OSU
So, when you arrive to Oregon State, in the spirit of, well, school spirit, you’re told of all the things that OSU is known for. The marionberry, a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry and...
View Article
