Category: 2. Teaching
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Another unintended benefit of chat AIs
Professors always hope for crisp, clear, and correct answers from students in response to questions. Often, we get wishy-washy answers that make us despair. This gets particularly bad when asking for a term definition. For example, I might ask: “What is a for loop in computer programming?” hoping for something like “A for loop is…
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When requirements come last
Peter Naur was probably the first to realize that “computing is a human activity” and that as we program, we are not only solving problems, we are also only just beginning to understand them. This even affects small projects like student theses. For engineering theses, i.e. theses in which some artifact is to be built,…
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What to make of the high-tech layoffs
To my disconcerted students: Sadly, the massive layoffs in Silicon Valley and around the world that we are currently observing are a low-frequency yet business-as-usual event. Let me tease apart the different components and draw some conclusions for your career. First of all, you may have observed how they are all happening at once. This…
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An illustration of how chat AIs might disrupt teaching
With the recent general availability of chat AIs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, teachers have to ask themselves how to deal with student homework potentially created using these tools. In the following ten minute video I provide a short illustration from my own teaching how students might use such chat AIs in creating homework, and I discuss…
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Lecturing is getting increasingly bipolar
In this fifth semester of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can’t help but predict that teaching by way of lectures will be getting more bipolar. I foresee two main modes of lecturing: This may hardly sound surprising, but some of the underlying mechanics that are leading me to this prediction may. There are two noteworthy developments:…
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Top three career advice for students
These are the three top pieces of career advice I give to my students: In more detail: If you don’t feel comfortable with the people you are going to work with, your job will be miserable. Chances are that even after moving within the organization, it won’t get much better. If you help generate revenues…