Another incredible gift
I'm writing this blog post to share that I was wrong in something I wrote a few years ago. At the time, a student had drawn a picture of my three cats based on my stories of them from class. When he finished the second programming class, he framed the drawing as a gift for…
A kind word
Today is the first day of the fourth week of spring quarter at DePaul. Happily, I am finding myself less tired than I typically am almost halfway through the spring quarter. I took on an expanded advising role this academic year, which comes with a course reduction, something that my…
The bright lights
I just finished grading my second final exam, so I am done with the winter quarter (other than filing grades with the university). I still need to prepare my spring quarter class, but I hope to get that done with enough time to enjoy some of spring break next week. This was a…
A timely reminder
The Winter quarter in my school has, at least for the past decade or so, been a time when we do a lot of interviewing for faculty positions. At first this was because of growth in our programs, but more recently it has been because of a good number of faculty retirements (and a…
Experience matters
This is the end of the third week of the Winter quarter at DePaul, which means I'm almost a third of the way through my two classes. This is the second round of my new iteration of algorithms, and I feel like it's better than the first time I taught it. I remember everything…
It’s not always about me
The fall quarter at DePaul ended almost two weeks ago, and last week I finished my grading. That's a huge relief, of course, since it means I'm free from teaching until January which gives me more time for other things. The submission of grades also brings with it another…
Thankful
The Fall quarter at DePaul ended on Tuesday, and in an uncharacteristic move for me, I spent my Thanksgiving morning finishing up the grading for my algorithms class. I enjoyed teaching the class so much that I didn't want the students to wait an extra day to get the results from the…
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
When they listen, again
We just finished midterms at DePaul, and I am absolutely exhausted. Creating an exam for the new algorithms class along with all the other regularly scheduled things drained me, and even caused me to violate my no work on weekends rule. But I got through it. And as is…
Shaking things up
Today is the first day of the third week of the quarter (yes, DePaul's mid week start in the Fall quarter confuses everyone), and we are off to a good start. The beginning of the academic year always brings more energy with it, since we've had a couple of months to reset. But…
Moving on from the past
I moved to Chicago to start graduate school at the University of Chicago almost 34 years ago. While I've written on this blog about how I ended up at the UC, I've never discussed my experience in graduate school. And there is a reason for that: it wasn't a good one. I doubt…
New energy for an old course
People who read this blog with any regularity know that I primarily teach introductory programming. There are a lot of reasons for that, of course: there are more sections of introductory programming than anything else in the School of Computing (SoC); pedagogy and…
CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery.
America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons.
Watch and share his message.
Backchannel communication
Today is the start of final exams at DePaul, ending the long and annoying time of quarter-system purgatory. As a result, I finished my assignment grading last week, something that I always celebrate since grading is the second most hated task of my job. (The most hated:…
A brief reprieve
We have officially hit the hardest part of the academic year at DePaul, the time when everyone at a Northern Hemisphere institution on the semester system is done and posting happy graduation pictures on social media but we have another 3 weeks of our quarter. I'm not struggling…
🧪 The head of NSF's computer science directorate, Greg Hager, just resigned.
"My ability to carry out my vision, to provide a voice for computing research, and to provide authentic leadership to the community are diminished to the point that I can have more impact outside NSF than within it."
PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081
Learning and failure
If you do a search on this blog for the word "failure" you will find a lot of entries, including some dating back more than a decade. In one from 2014, I specifically talk about failure in the introductory programming classes that I teach, and re-reading it I could have…
An excellent birthday
I served for many years on the SIGCSE Board, something that I enjoyed doing and something that has many fond memories associated with it. But one of the things that I did not enjoy was being away from Chicago so often on my birthday. The SIGCSE Technical Symposium often…
The vibe of 2025: "In Memoriam. Law." Seen at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.
Friends who are in Pittsburgh for 2025 SIGCSE TS: don't miss Andrea Watkins presenting our live coding work! Her presentation is Friday afternoon, and her practice talk suggests it will be amazing. A link to the paper for those like me who won't be there in person: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
A form of resistance
Most of January and February have felt like an endless gauntlet of bad news. I had completely forgotten the feeling of relief I had when Biden assumed the presidency of the U.S. and I stopped waking up every morning dreading the news. I definitely remember now the exhausted…
Recommend Manuel's post about tenure track vs teaching track academic positions in a CS context. maperezquinones.medium.com/academic-pre...
Google search for "caffeine per day" AI Overview gives potentially deadly advice, suggesting that 10 energy drinks per day is 400mg caffeine. It's actually around 2000. "The recommended daily caffeine intake for healthy adults is up to 400 milligrams (mg). This is equivalent to about four cups of brewed coffee or 10 cans of energy drinks. However, individual caffeine tolerance varies, and some people may experience negative effects at lower doses. It is important to listen to your body and adjust your caffeine intake accordingly. Pregnant women, children, and people with certain medical conditions may need to limit their caffeine intake further. Consult with a healthcare professional for personalized advice."
How is this production technology?
Here's Google Gemini potentially getting someone killed. Ten energy drinks is typically 1600-3000 mg of caffeine.
Pride and concern
It's the start of a new calendar year, which is traditionally a time for reflecting on what you've been doing and what you might do differently. This January several things are converging to make me think about DEI and broadening participation in computing (BPC). The first event…
We’re cancelling the guilty part of guilty pleasures. Wanna read romance books and drink cheap wine? Valid. Watch the trashiest reality show and scroll through Amazon? I support this. Listen to the same early 2000s pop song a thousand times in a row? Why stop there? Find that joy and SQUEEZE.
