I changed up a few things in my undergraduate algorithms course this year. I probably wouldn’t have if I wasn’t charged with designing an online version of the same course, one that would be static for at least three years, so far as I understand it. One major thing that I changed was the assignment [...]
April 30, 2012
The $17,500 computer science degree
Our department has announced a new, entirely online, bachelor’s degree in computer science which can be completed in one year. Given that we are a public university, this translates to a $17,500 degree*. I will admit, when I first heard the idea I did not have very good thoughts about it. My negative thoughts included [...]
January 29, 2012
Undergraduate-appropriate summer projects
(updated: now with links to projects) A friend asked me, in reference to my post about the call for proposals for REU positions from CRA, “What kind of projects did you have them work on?” Two years ago, I proposed two projects and used one. (I was to have two students, but sadly the shuttle [...]
December 21, 2011
Wonderful, funded undergraduates for the summer
The solicitation for summer research projects for undergraduates from the CRA-W is out: the DREU. I highly recommend proposing a project. For those who haven’t heard of it, the DREU are Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates (from Underrepresented Groups in Computer Science and Engineering). How it works: profs suggest projects; students apply; the fine people who [...]
October 14, 2011
Death by Powerpoint
In my grad algorithms course, I am teaching in an increasingly Socratic way (not all the way there yet) and covering less material as well. Well, going through fewer examples. In my freshman “Orientation to Computer Science” course, I am doing this much less so. I find it challenging because, while the material is quite [...]
October 4, 2011
Note to self: turn off cell-phone data connection during class
In my large intro class I used Robozzle to talk about program control and introduce recursion. Robozzle does use a true call stack and to solve some puzzles (for example, learning stack, recursed, learning stack 2, limit your stack, counting – green) you really need to understand both recursion and how the to use the call stack. This is week [...]
July 7, 2010
Summer undergraduate research projects in theory
“In theory” as in “in theoretical computer science”. I am lucky to have a student through the CRA-W Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Anna Harutyunyan joins me for 10 weeks from Utah State University. I think it might be more of a learning experience for me than Anna (although my opinion is biased) and [...]