Teaching
The Quantum Pontiff
Category archives for Teaching
Make Em Laugh, Make Em Cry
Posted by Dave Bacon on June 8, 2009 Scenes from today’s CSE 322 (introduction to formal methods in computer science) final:
Schools Out For Winter
Posted by Dave Bacon on December 8, 2008 The final has been administered:
Will the Real Reason For Quantum Theory Please Stand Up?
Posted by Dave Bacon on August 4, 2008 Michael Nielsen has a nice essay up explaining Why the world needs quantum mechanics: Conventional wisdom holds that quantum mechanics is hard to learn. This is more or less correct, although often overstated. However, the necessity of abandoning conventional ways of thinking about the world, and finding a radically new way – quantum mechanics –…
WTFA to LOLCAT Conversion
Posted by Dave Bacon on June 9, 2008 What I drew on the whiteboard during today’s final:
School’s Out For Summer…Almost
Posted by Dave Bacon on June 9, 2008 Today is the final exam for the course I’ve been teaching this summer. So I need some reading material for when I’m not watching the students take their exam. Here are two fun ones I just downloaded (one via Alea): arXiv:0803.3913: The Reverse of The Law of Large Numbers Authors: Kieran Kelly, Przemyslaw Repetowicz, Seosamh…
Teacher of the Year
Posted by Dave Bacon on May 10, 2008 For a second straight year, the winner of the U.S. Teacher of the Year, is a University of Washington graduate. Of course I’m not supposed to say that, as not bragging is an sacred northwest tradition. (Did you know that the University of Washington receives the second most federal research funding of any institute in…
CSE 322 Week 2: Nondeterminism Rocks
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 11, 2008 Last week, in the class I’m teaching, we talked about the basics of deterministic finite automata. In week two we moved on to more interesting and slightly less basic material. In particular we introduced the notion of a nondeterministic finite automata and, by the end of the week, had showed that the class of languages…
CSE 322 Spring 2008, Week 1
Posted by Dave Bacon on April 5, 2008 This quarter I am teaching CSE 322: Introduction to Formal Models in Computer Science. Good fun. As part of my teaching I am LaTeXing up lecture notes from the class, which follow closely the book we are using, Sipser’s “Introduction to the Theory of Computation.” Here are the first three lectures for those with nothing…
Embarassment Is…
Posted by Dave Bacon on March 31, 2008 …realizing that the class you are teaching for the first time this quarter ends on the half hour, not the hour, and therefore the fact that you are rushing through the material must seem extremely amusing to the students who know the class ends at 20 minutes after. Doh. Doh. Doh!
Do We Teach Addition Backwards?
Posted by Dave Bacon on December 7, 2007 Addition, for me, is intimately connected up with my concept of a number. When I think of numbers in my head, I often think of the number in connection with its constituent parts, and when I divide these parts up into equal pieces I “get” multiplication. However, on top of this bare bones thinking, I…