public class Nick extends Jong implements GradStudent
I remember talking to Nate a week or two ago about how I had always enjoyed taking classes and feared research. In the weeks leading up to this semester however, I began to perceive classes as somewhat of a distraction from my real work. Oddly enough, my growing ambivalence towards classes has reassured me about my decision to become a graduate student and hence a researcher.
Classes began today. My first impressions are nonnegative. I have been told that Communication Networks is easy and that I'll learn nothing, but in the first day we covered a nontrivial fraction of my networking knowledge. Professor Gouda appeared astonished that you could get a bachelor's and enter a doctoral program in computer science without ever taking a networking class, as is apparently the case with most of us. Some of my aibo lab colleagues who are also in Intelligent Robotics this semester have already given me a hard time for taking a course I've technically already taken. Ben claimed he will teach it more like a breadth course this semester, and so far it looks like the course I really wanted a year ago. I only wish I could have taken them in the opposite order; much of this material would have been good background to have last time.
I met with Elaine Rich, the professor for whose AI class I will be a TA. She wants to try treating the classes more like discussions and expecting the students to read the appropriate chapters beforehand (instead of lecturing). I'm not sure whether to consider her approach ambitious or unrealistic, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm looking forward to exercising my teaching neurons again, but let's see what I say after her proposed assignments-due-every-class-meeting start rolling in.
Classes began today. My first impressions are nonnegative. I have been told that Communication Networks is easy and that I'll learn nothing, but in the first day we covered a nontrivial fraction of my networking knowledge. Professor Gouda appeared astonished that you could get a bachelor's and enter a doctoral program in computer science without ever taking a networking class, as is apparently the case with most of us. Some of my aibo lab colleagues who are also in Intelligent Robotics this semester have already given me a hard time for taking a course I've technically already taken. Ben claimed he will teach it more like a breadth course this semester, and so far it looks like the course I really wanted a year ago. I only wish I could have taken them in the opposite order; much of this material would have been good background to have last time.
I met with Elaine Rich, the professor for whose AI class I will be a TA. She wants to try treating the classes more like discussions and expecting the students to read the appropriate chapters beforehand (instead of lecturing). I'm not sure whether to consider her approach ambitious or unrealistic, but I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm looking forward to exercising my teaching neurons again, but let's see what I say after her proposed assignments-due-every-class-meeting start rolling in.