Yes, just like that. After one month of continuous intensity, this wonderful experience called COSMOS ended today. Over the last two days, the students presented their final projects. Yesterday, each group gave a presentation on the various techniques they used in producing their videos. Each group utilized the three major skills they developed over this month: media programming, image editing, and video/audio editing. This is a great achievement, especially for those students who had absolutely no experience with computer programming prior to coming to COSMOS.
After the presentations, we saw the videos. They were great, and a lot of fun to watch. Many of the groups incorporated images and videos taken throughout the month, so we got to relive many special moments.
This morning the students had their projects on display for their parents, who attended today. This was followed by the closing ceremony, where the students received the well-deserved certificates of completion. I was delighted to see that three of our students won scholarships (in competition with all 150 COSMOS students): Alejandra Lopez received the prestigious COSMOS Director's Scholarship, and Tiffany Cchan and Albert Liu received COSMOS College Access Scholarships. These are prized awards: only one COSMOS Director's Scholarship is given, and only ten COSMOS College Access Scholarships are given. I heartily congratulate these students. I only wish all of our students could have won a scholarship, as they are all deserving.
Well, the above gives you most of the facts. What I can't express is the deep emotion that we all have as this program ends. While I feel very happy that our students did so well, I am extremely sad that I will not be seeing them in class this coming week. I hope they will keep in touch (hey everyone - look me up on facebook!), and that our friendships will continue beyond this day. For a good memory, check out the Cluster 1 slide show.
I wish to thank my team, those special people who helped me with COSMOS. My co-faculty, Christine Alvarado and Paul Kube, were terrific, as usual. We've done this for numerous years, and their dedication is inspiring. Our Teacher Fellow, Shirley Miranda, was "the best." She really made this program her own and worked so well with us to make it successful. In fact, if I had to pick an MVP, she gets the award. We had superb teaching assistants: Elizabeth Arrowsmith, Krista Davis, Tiffany Hopkins, Ming Kawaguchi, and Wenjing Rao. They cared so much for the students. Everyone worked many hours, way beyond the call of duty. Just read everyone's blogs, and you'll see why.
I want to also thank the people who make COSMOS happen and help us produce "our show": the Resident Assistants associated with Cluster 1 Lindsey Fogleman and Nick Gills who took good care of our students outside of class, COSMOS Program Manager Becky Hames who supported our every request, Monica Rodriquez who always answered the phone with a willingness to help, Justin Williams who took care of our financial and last-minute room requests, Resident Dean Pat Danylyshyn-Adams who allowed us to do our "Computer scientists are real people too" program during off hours, COSMOS Director Charles Tu who generously supported our cluster, and Dean of Engineering Frieder Seible for starting and keeping the COSMOS program going at UCSD.
I say this every year, and after COSMOS ends, I am reminded why. After 20 years at UCSD, COSMOS may just be the most meaningful thing I do here. The magic that happens both inside and outside the classroom is beyond words. If you are part of COSMOS, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It also reminds me of what a privilege it is to be a teacher.
I will end with one final plea to everyone in Cluster One: Remember the magic, and stay in touch!
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Distributed Systems and Common Knowledge
Today we discussed distributed systems. I explained what distributed computer systems are, what are their advantages and disadvantages (over centralized systems), and we analyzed the two fundamental problems of decentralized control: (1) state uncertainty, i.e., no node can know with complete certainty the states of the other nodes, and (2) action uncertainty, i.e., no node can know with complete certainty the actions of other nodes. We discussed the Byzantine Generals problem, and the problem of "common knowledge." The latter was especially fun, because I had various groups of students sit in chairs at the front and wear blue or pink headbands. Each student in the group had to figure out if they were wearing a blue headband. This can be done by pure deduction given three pieces of information: (1) a publicly given hint that at least one has a blue headband, (2) the ability to see the headbands of others, and (3) the responses (or non-responses) they give to my repeated question, "Are you wearing a blue headband?". If there are N students wearing blue headbands, then those N students will all be able to simultaneously answer "Yes" after the Nth time the question is asked. My hat goes off to Ziaozhe who came closest to figuring out how this is done.
This was the final session of the Beyond Media Computing thread. It is a little sad to see it end. I think we did a good job in showing some of the variety and depth of problems in computer science. I hope the students will remember what they learned in our thread.
PS: After class, we had a surprise birthday party for our GREAT Teacher Fellow, Shirley. I think she was genuinely surprised and happy. We all think she is the best!
This was the final session of the Beyond Media Computing thread. It is a little sad to see it end. I think we did a good job in showing some of the variety and depth of problems in computer science. I hope the students will remember what they learned in our thread.
PS: After class, we had a surprise birthday party for our GREAT Teacher Fellow, Shirley. I think she was genuinely surprised and happy. We all think she is the best!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Combinatorics, Probability, and Gambling
I did not get a chance to blog on this past Wednesday's session in the Beyond Media Computing thread, so here it is. The session was on Combinatorics, a branch of mathematics that is central to computer science. Basically, combinatorics is about how to count things. In computer science, we often need to systematically enumerate something that varies (the states of a data structure, the execution paths in code, etc.). We also often need to use probability and statistics. Combinatorics helps in these kinds of problems.
To make this a fun session, we focused mostly on probability and how it underlies gambling. We began by discussing the "MegaMillions" lottery in California. In this lottery, you select five numbers from the range 1 to 56, and then 1 MEGA number from 1 to 46. The jackpot as of 7/24/07 was $44,000,000. The question is: Is this a good bet? To make this judgement, we need to calculate the odds. Using combinatorics, we determined that the odds are 1 in 175,711,536, which is clearly a losing proposition if the return is only $44 million (for a $1 bet). And, just how hard is it to win? We determined that it is similar to tossing a coin and getting 28 consecutive heads!
We then looked at other probability problems, including those involving dice and the famous "Monty Hall" problem. The latter goes as follows: Suppose you're on a game show and you are to choose one of three doors. Behind one door is a car. Behind each of the other two doors is a goat. After you choose a door, the host opens another door which has a goat. (The host knows what's behind the doors, and always chooses one with a goat). You are then asked whether you'd like to stick to your original choice, or switch doors with the remaining one that is closed. It turns out that it is better to switch, as the probability that you will get a car with your original choice remains 1/3, but by switching, the probability of getting the car is 2/3.
Finally, we discussed the famous Gambler's Ruin problem, which basically says that, in a negative expectation game, if you play long enough, you will eventually lose everything. We closed by tying the discussion back to computer science, and why combinatorics and probability are so useful.
To make this a fun session, we focused mostly on probability and how it underlies gambling. We began by discussing the "MegaMillions" lottery in California. In this lottery, you select five numbers from the range 1 to 56, and then 1 MEGA number from 1 to 46. The jackpot as of 7/24/07 was $44,000,000. The question is: Is this a good bet? To make this judgement, we need to calculate the odds. Using combinatorics, we determined that the odds are 1 in 175,711,536, which is clearly a losing proposition if the return is only $44 million (for a $1 bet). And, just how hard is it to win? We determined that it is similar to tossing a coin and getting 28 consecutive heads!
We then looked at other probability problems, including those involving dice and the famous "Monty Hall" problem. The latter goes as follows: Suppose you're on a game show and you are to choose one of three doors. Behind one door is a car. Behind each of the other two doors is a goat. After you choose a door, the host opens another door which has a goat. (The host knows what's behind the doors, and always chooses one with a goat). You are then asked whether you'd like to stick to your original choice, or switch doors with the remaining one that is closed. It turns out that it is better to switch, as the probability that you will get a car with your original choice remains 1/3, but by switching, the probability of getting the car is 2/3.
Finally, we discussed the famous Gambler's Ruin problem, which basically says that, in a negative expectation game, if you play long enough, you will eventually lose everything. We closed by tying the discussion back to computer science, and why combinatorics and probability are so useful.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Computer Scientists Are Real People Too
This year, we've started a new extra-curriculur activity in Cluster 1, which is titled "Computer Scientists Are Real People Too." The idea is to show the students that we academics also have other interests outside of school, many of which are probably in common with the students, and many of them are fun things to share with others. For example, today, Liz led a GREAT session on how to use a yo-yo. She is very talented with the yo-yo, and showed us (students AND teaching staff) the basics as well as some really cool tricks. The last time I used a yo-yo was a very long time ago, and I was really amazed with the hi-tech yo-yo's that are now available. And if you are really good at it (like Liz), you can perform some real magic. As for me, I barely got past "walk the dog" (but in theory at least, I know the moves for "rock the cradle" - though turning theory into practice will require many hours of practice). Thanks Liz for putting on a great show!
I really appreciate that many in our staff have volunteered to lead these kinds of activities. Krista ran a session on painting, Ming is hosting a little sci-fi book club, and next week, Shirley will be leading a karoake session. There are so many other activities we would love to offer, but time is becoming so precious (just about one week left).
I really appreciate that many in our staff have volunteered to lead these kinds of activities. Krista ran a session on painting, Ming is hosting a little sci-fi book club, and next week, Shirley will be leading a karoake session. There are so many other activities we would love to offer, but time is becoming so precious (just about one week left).
ALGORITHMS!
Today was great - pure computer science. The lesson, led by Krista, was on algorithms, one of the most central of concepts. She began by introducing what an algorithm is and how we as computer scientists characterize their goodness. The students were then given an exercise: given a set of n integers, devise an algorithm that computes the largest number that is a function of the integers using only simple arithmetic operations. This is not easy! I was impressed with the solutions and how the students came up with their algorithms.
Next, the "Stable Matching" problem was presented, in terms of medical students being matched to hospitals for residency. This is a non-trivial problem to understand, never mind to devise an algorithm that produces an optimal (most stable) matching. Within a few minutes of having first seen this problem, some of the students already had at least some ideas on a possible algorithm. Krista then presented the optimal algorithm, and led a discussion. The students were clearly engaged - based on their questions and responses - despite the complexity of the topic. They had to deal with concepts such as termination, running time, proving correctness, fairness, stability, etc.
Finally, the students were taught about "big-Oh" as a way of characterizing running time, and this was applied to different sorting algorithms. The students then went to the lab where Krista went over Java code for various sorting algorithms and showed how they work in detail. The students were asked to modify the algorithms to achieve improvements in running time.
What was taught today is typically material that students are exposed to well into a university-level class on algorithms over a number of lectures, and it was by far the most advanced material covered in our thread. It was a classic and well-executed lesson by "Professor" Krista, and I could only admire the students' participation and willingness to try to understand this difficult subject matter.
Next, the "Stable Matching" problem was presented, in terms of medical students being matched to hospitals for residency. This is a non-trivial problem to understand, never mind to devise an algorithm that produces an optimal (most stable) matching. Within a few minutes of having first seen this problem, some of the students already had at least some ideas on a possible algorithm. Krista then presented the optimal algorithm, and led a discussion. The students were clearly engaged - based on their questions and responses - despite the complexity of the topic. They had to deal with concepts such as termination, running time, proving correctness, fairness, stability, etc.
Finally, the students were taught about "big-Oh" as a way of characterizing running time, and this was applied to different sorting algorithms. The students then went to the lab where Krista went over Java code for various sorting algorithms and showed how they work in detail. The students were asked to modify the algorithms to achieve improvements in running time.
What was taught today is typically material that students are exposed to well into a university-level class on algorithms over a number of lectures, and it was by far the most advanced material covered in our thread. It was a classic and well-executed lesson by "Professor" Krista, and I could only admire the students' participation and willingness to try to understand this difficult subject matter.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
How Computers Work, and How Petco Park Works
Yesterday Krista taught a class and lab on how a computer works, from the digital logic on up to program compilation and execution. I think this was an especially difficult lesson, as it is not easy to get the concepts of how everything in a computer ultimately boils down to 0's and 1's. I was impressed that most of the students got the ideas, and were able to, for example, construct various logic gates out of nand gates, and in the lab, build at least a half adder if not a full adder. This is quite an achievement given that some students were seeing this material for the first time.
Today, we went to Petco Park. We were shown the video/audio production control room and how everything works as far as producing a professional baseball game. The students got to play with a combination of digital and analog equipment - the video cameras, mixers, switches, etc. - and best of all, they got to control the large screen in the stadium. I'm hoping some students post some of the photos they took. It was a really fun time, and I appreciate so much that our students got a chance to have this experience, thanks to our friend Sue Botos (who we met thanks to Beth Simon, one of our great instructors of last year whom we miss) with the Padres baseball team who arranged this event and to David Desrochers for putting on a great show for us. As we were walking inside the stadium and seeing so much that most fans never get to see, one of the students, Sonia, told me: This is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life!
Today, we went to Petco Park. We were shown the video/audio production control room and how everything works as far as producing a professional baseball game. The students got to play with a combination of digital and analog equipment - the video cameras, mixers, switches, etc. - and best of all, they got to control the large screen in the stadium. I'm hoping some students post some of the photos they took. It was a really fun time, and I appreciate so much that our students got a chance to have this experience, thanks to our friend Sue Botos (who we met thanks to Beth Simon, one of our great instructors of last year whom we miss) with the Padres baseball team who arranged this event and to David Desrochers for putting on a great show for us. As we were walking inside the stadium and seeing so much that most fans never get to see, one of the students, Sonia, told me: This is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Digital vs. Analog
Today we talked about what "digital" means. We began by talking about what is information (based on a simplified version of Shannon's development of information theory - one of my favorite expositions of this is Pierce's book). The students had some fun (or maybe it was more me) guessing my age by doing a binary search. I lied about my age, and so they learned an important lesson - that there is good information and bad information! We then discussed how various forms of media - books, audio, images, video - encode their information as sequences of numbers. Pythagoras said more than 2500 years ago that "all is number," and we are coming full circle with quantum physics (which we talked about!). We discussed information vs. knowledge (and how little we really know - think Descartes). Finally, we segued to discussing analog vs. digital computation (and communication). I think this is the part the students enjoyed the most, because they learned how to use an abacus (and why it captures the essence of digital computation) and how to use a slide rule (analog computation). All in all, a fun afternoon.
We never got to the "big" questions that I promised at the beginning of the session: Is the brain digital or analog? Can a human be digitized? Is the universe a giant digital computer? Maybe we will revisit these at a later date. (But there's just too much to cover!!!).
We never got to the "big" questions that I promised at the beginning of the session: Is the brain digital or analog? Can a human be digitized? Is the universe a giant digital computer? Maybe we will revisit these at a later date. (But there's just too much to cover!!!).
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Intelligence, human and artificial
This afternoon's session that Krista gave on AI was fascinating, both in the material that was presented, and in how the students got thoroughly involved in the discussion. She began by discussing: What is intelligence? Is it possible for machines to be intelligent? How would we know? etc.
Then, we watched various segments of one of my favorite movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey, specifically those involving HAL (which, by the way, according to the book means Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer). Krista would show a scene and then ask thought-provoking questions which prompted a discussion.
For example, the first part was of HAL being interviewed for a television show, where he describes that he, as part of the "HAL 9000 series," is perfectly reliable and has never committed an error, and that he "enjoys" working with humans and finds them "stimulating." It amazed me that the students had no qualms at all about the idea that a machine can have emotions; they also made the distinction of whether the emotions were real or simulated for human consumption. I saw lights turn on in their heads when Krista confronted them with the questions: But what are emotions? What does it mean to say they are "real," and how would we know? This pattern continued for the various other segments.
Another scene showed HAL asking to see some of the drawings of a crew member (one of the two humans), only for HAL to segue to more personal questions asking how he (the human) felt about the mission (i.e., HAL's main concern). I really liked Jordi's response to this, that HAL was doing what most humans do, engaging in "small talk" only to then get at what they really have on their minds, making the broader point that it is these kinds of behaviors that are more indicative of whether or not HAL is "intelligent."
The final scene had all the students riveted, where HAL is making every emotional appeal to the human to not disconnect him, and then reverting to a more primitive thought process as the higher-order functions of his "brain" are being disabled, ending in the singing of "Daisy" (which Krista did a good job in explaining its significance).
What I got from this discussion is that this new generation of students is quite open to the eventuality of machine intelligence, and maybe that seemingly human qualities such as emotions may be transferrable to machines.
We then discussed other aspects of AI, such as reasoning, natural language processing, vision, the Turing test, robots, artifical life - lots of great stuff, and very thought provoking. A video was shown of Karl Sims' "virtual creatures," where computer-simulated evolution is used to program behavior such as swimming and walking/jumping. The students were really engaged and fascinated that such behavior could be the result of a computer-driven evolution as opposed to more intentional human-directed programming.
This was the first day where I saw every single student very engaged and contributing to the discussion. Credit to Krista for getting everyone to speak, and for presenting the material in an interesting and stimulating way. She is a natural and gifted teacher. And judging from the students' blogs, I think she is a big hit with the students. Just a few of the responses:
"Today's lecture on AI was extremely stimulating."
"Todays lessons were especially intriguing and i have become very interested in how AI works."
"I enjoyed the lecture in the afternoon. AI interests me because one day I hope computers will be almost as smart as humans."
"I have to say today lesson is really cool. I learned a lot of from Krista about AI, especially the part that we can use our brain to control the robot."
"Overall I enjoyed the session and felt Krista did a good job preparing for it."
"I have to admit that it was the best one so far."
Wow.
Then, we watched various segments of one of my favorite movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey, specifically those involving HAL (which, by the way, according to the book means Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer). Krista would show a scene and then ask thought-provoking questions which prompted a discussion.
For example, the first part was of HAL being interviewed for a television show, where he describes that he, as part of the "HAL 9000 series," is perfectly reliable and has never committed an error, and that he "enjoys" working with humans and finds them "stimulating." It amazed me that the students had no qualms at all about the idea that a machine can have emotions; they also made the distinction of whether the emotions were real or simulated for human consumption. I saw lights turn on in their heads when Krista confronted them with the questions: But what are emotions? What does it mean to say they are "real," and how would we know? This pattern continued for the various other segments.
Another scene showed HAL asking to see some of the drawings of a crew member (one of the two humans), only for HAL to segue to more personal questions asking how he (the human) felt about the mission (i.e., HAL's main concern). I really liked Jordi's response to this, that HAL was doing what most humans do, engaging in "small talk" only to then get at what they really have on their minds, making the broader point that it is these kinds of behaviors that are more indicative of whether or not HAL is "intelligent."
The final scene had all the students riveted, where HAL is making every emotional appeal to the human to not disconnect him, and then reverting to a more primitive thought process as the higher-order functions of his "brain" are being disabled, ending in the singing of "Daisy" (which Krista did a good job in explaining its significance).
What I got from this discussion is that this new generation of students is quite open to the eventuality of machine intelligence, and maybe that seemingly human qualities such as emotions may be transferrable to machines.
We then discussed other aspects of AI, such as reasoning, natural language processing, vision, the Turing test, robots, artifical life - lots of great stuff, and very thought provoking. A video was shown of Karl Sims' "virtual creatures," where computer-simulated evolution is used to program behavior such as swimming and walking/jumping. The students were really engaged and fascinated that such behavior could be the result of a computer-driven evolution as opposed to more intentional human-directed programming.
This was the first day where I saw every single student very engaged and contributing to the discussion. Credit to Krista for getting everyone to speak, and for presenting the material in an interesting and stimulating way. She is a natural and gifted teacher. And judging from the students' blogs, I think she is a big hit with the students. Just a few of the responses:
"Today's lecture on AI was extremely stimulating."
"Todays lessons were especially intriguing and i have become very interested in how AI works."
"I enjoyed the lecture in the afternoon. AI interests me because one day I hope computers will be almost as smart as humans."
"I have to say today lesson is really cool. I learned a lot of from Krista about AI, especially the part that we can use our brain to control the robot."
"Overall I enjoyed the session and felt Krista did a good job preparing for it."
"I have to admit that it was the best one so far."
Wow.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
What exactly is a computer?
Today was a good day. It began with a field trip to Reuben H. Fleet Museum in Balboa Park to attend a seminar titled "MySpace or Your Space: A Look At Privacy in Online Forums," set up for us by Shirley. At first, I thought it was going to be a disappointment because the speaker never showed up! However, the person who filled in, a professor of ethics (at USD?) did a great job, and elicited a wide variety of opinions from the students. I am now much better aware of what MySpace is, and more importantly, I think our students became much more aware of the consequences of what they post.
In the afternoon, we had the first session of the Beyond Media Computing thread. We discussed the most basic of questions: what is computer science, what is science, what is engineering, what is a computer, ... I showed several pictures and asked, "Is this a computer?" In addition to a standard PC, I showed images of Stonehenge (credit to Krista for this great idea), a rope, a compass and straight edge, an abacus, a slide rule, and a brain. Various definitions (excellent ones) were proposed for what a computer is by the students, which formed the criteria that would be applied to each of the images in answering the question and giving reasons why this is or is not a computer (and how a computer is distinguished from a calculator). I was extremely impressed with the student responses. This is indeed a very bright bunch. We discussed different types of computers (digital, analog, quantum - with a tangent on quantum mechanics, ...). We also discussed what a computer scientist does, "computational thinking," history of computers and calculation, personalities like Babbage, Lovelace, and Turing, the various areas of computer science, and where I believe computer science is going. If it sounds like a lot, it was! I want the students to see that their preconceptions of our discipline may be quite narrow, and I think it is working.
I am now looking forward to Krista's session on AI on thursday. The students are definitely primed!
In the afternoon, we had the first session of the Beyond Media Computing thread. We discussed the most basic of questions: what is computer science, what is science, what is engineering, what is a computer, ... I showed several pictures and asked, "Is this a computer?" In addition to a standard PC, I showed images of Stonehenge (credit to Krista for this great idea), a rope, a compass and straight edge, an abacus, a slide rule, and a brain. Various definitions (excellent ones) were proposed for what a computer is by the students, which formed the criteria that would be applied to each of the images in answering the question and giving reasons why this is or is not a computer (and how a computer is distinguished from a calculator). I was extremely impressed with the student responses. This is indeed a very bright bunch. We discussed different types of computers (digital, analog, quantum - with a tangent on quantum mechanics, ...). We also discussed what a computer scientist does, "computational thinking," history of computers and calculation, personalities like Babbage, Lovelace, and Turing, the various areas of computer science, and where I believe computer science is going. If it sounds like a lot, it was! I want the students to see that their preconceptions of our discipline may be quite narrow, and I think it is working.
I am now looking forward to Krista's session on AI on thursday. The students are definitely primed!
Monday, July 9, 2007
And so it begins
COSMOS got off the ground today. We got to know the students a bit, and saw them interact in class. I think we have a good and fun group. With time, we'll see how sharp they are, but first impressions are good.
Christine led the morning session with various introductory exercises that I think worked quite well. In the afternoon, Paul gave his overview on computers and computation. The students got their accounts and cameras, set up their blogs, and are ready to go. We wasted no time in getting them thinking about media computing and, more generally, computer science.
I get to go tomorrow afternoon, though I still have work to do. It is so hard to plan some of the academic aspects of COSMOS because designing a class and lab depends so much on the students' skills and backgrounds, most of which we only really learn after they get here and have a chance to see them perform in class.
The big plus for me this year is that I have a great cluster assistant, Krista. We have spent the last two weeks meeting numerous hours every day to plan and work on our thread. I really appreciate her commitment (and we've barely begun!). This is the first time I am working with someone so closely on the design of a course, and I am enjoying the collaboration very much.
In fact, the entire cluster staff this year is outstanding. All the cluster assistants - Krista, Liz, Ming, Tiffany, and Wenjing - are all highly intelligent, highly skilled, fun people to work with. We also have a great Teacher Fellow, Shirley, who will do an excellent job on the "Science Communication" portion of the curriculum. And having both Christine and Paul back as co-instructors is a real joy. I really could not have asked for a better team.
Well, I need to run off and work on tomorrow's lesson: What is Computer Science? Hopefully I can report a positive result after class.
Christine led the morning session with various introductory exercises that I think worked quite well. In the afternoon, Paul gave his overview on computers and computation. The students got their accounts and cameras, set up their blogs, and are ready to go. We wasted no time in getting them thinking about media computing and, more generally, computer science.
I get to go tomorrow afternoon, though I still have work to do. It is so hard to plan some of the academic aspects of COSMOS because designing a class and lab depends so much on the students' skills and backgrounds, most of which we only really learn after they get here and have a chance to see them perform in class.
The big plus for me this year is that I have a great cluster assistant, Krista. We have spent the last two weeks meeting numerous hours every day to plan and work on our thread. I really appreciate her commitment (and we've barely begun!). This is the first time I am working with someone so closely on the design of a course, and I am enjoying the collaboration very much.
In fact, the entire cluster staff this year is outstanding. All the cluster assistants - Krista, Liz, Ming, Tiffany, and Wenjing - are all highly intelligent, highly skilled, fun people to work with. We also have a great Teacher Fellow, Shirley, who will do an excellent job on the "Science Communication" portion of the curriculum. And having both Christine and Paul back as co-instructors is a real joy. I really could not have asked for a better team.
Well, I need to run off and work on tomorrow's lesson: What is Computer Science? Hopefully I can report a positive result after class.
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