Lab TAing

One of my colleague just got a TA ship and is in charge of teaching the electronics lab. Since I had TAed this lab previously, she approached me for any tips or tricks I had to offer. As I am always too eager to dole out advices, we had a good twenty-minute discussion on what one ought and ought-not to do. The gist of my advice was that role of the TA was to assist the students do the experiments without resorting to any kind of spoon-feeding. Towards this end, I would stress the importance of the following.

1. Do the experiment in advance, even if it is piece of cake. Performing the experiment yourself makes potential problems surface when there would seem to be none. Some of them may be really trivial, e.g., an experiment setup may be such that it may require three probes per person, and you may need to get extra probes beforehand. If the experiment is complicated, you could also jot down the possible mistakes students are going to make.

2. Ask the students to start doing the experiment as soon as they arrive, without waiting for the TA. The students should also be encouraged to skip a problem if they are struck if the TA is not available or busy somewhere. These practices help control congestion especially if you have a large class and for particularly difficult experiments.

3. Never tell the solution, always drop progressively easier hints. Not only will this make the students think harder but also make them smarter, taking some load off the TA's shoulders for future experiments. You could try to give the students some pointers in the beginning but the best practice is to let them figure out everything by themselves. However you must be available for hinting whenever they are struck.

4. Visit each student periodically, see what numerical values they obtained and whether they are in the ballpark. Encourage students to doubt their solutions and "feel" the circuit. The ability to approximately solve circuits is extremely important. When a student shows you his value, think aloud on how you would confirm that the value is approximately correct. Encourage the students to emulate this reasoning style.

5. Encourage proper report writing skills. Depending on the instructor/course, one may or may not have to submit lab reports and those require specific guidelines to be handed out. But the process of jotting down observed values in the lab is also important. Encourage students to write down everything, including what may have went wrong.

6. Drop examples of real-life applications where the said circuits are being used. It takes away the monotony of lab work.

7. Lab exams are the easy part (at least for the TA). These are days when you can relax while the students toil.

Apart from these, I also follow the philosophy that for the time a person is my student, "their business is my business." In particular, I remember a related incident where a co-TA's best student did not show up at the final exam. While discussing the grading policy later, I was surprised to learn from him that he did not even send an email inquiring his student about what had happened as "it was none of his business". I disagree with this ideology but do understand that it may be something cultural.

Proposal Reviews

I recently got an opportunity to review a couple of NSF proposals my professor gave me. Interestingly, one of the proposal was excellent while the other one was mediocre. I thus learned a lot comparing their writing styles.

For those new to the dojo, most state, army and private funding is procured by submitting proposals to the corresponding agencies which are mostly peer-reviewed. The intent of the proposal is to pose research problems, solving which would significantly advance the state of the art. These problems must somehow be related to the authors past work, thereby establishing his/her credibility. In the end, not all problems need to be solved. The idea instead is to establish concrete directions of future research that are promising not only for the author but for the entire community.

While I am no authority on proposal writing, I could point out some "common mistakes" I have noticed thus far.

1. Wish-list: The proposal should not sound like the future-work sections of conference papers. One cannot simply say that NP-hard problems will be investigated without explicating the exact approach. In fact each proposed problem must be devoted a couple of paragraphs at least: one formulating the problem and another giving an insight into the proposed solution methodology and possible challenges.
2. Text-only: Mathematics is a language. Use of equations helps express problems clearly. While it is necessary to keep the description at a higher level, one or two equations per-page is not scary at all.
3. Secret-designs: It is possible for a reviewer to pick up the proposed solution and start working on it. However, proposals which entice reviewers into taking up the problems are always considered the best and always get accepted. Its a risk that has to be taken.
4. Jargon-master: Peer reviewed proposals do not need to use DARPA-like jargon except probably beyond the summary. Buzzwords like cyber-infrastructure should not be used in a proposal that investigates routing protocols.
5. Can-be-generalized: The usefulness of running examples cannot be stressed more. However, generalizing toy-examples is often easier said than done. I have seen at least two proposals that described their approach on toy examples and left the problems at that stage.

TAing at IITK

My first ever stint as a TA was during my fifth year at IIT Kanpur. Since IITK has a good number of graduate students, the overall load was light. For most part of the semester, my job simply involved LaTeXing assignments and solutions, getting photocopies, and putting up solutions on the notice board.

The assignments were handed out on a weekly basis, and both text and figures involved math symbols (it was a communications course). Since I had a limited knowledge of LaTeX and related drawing tools, I ended up spending a lot of time drawing the figures.

At times when the instructor was absent, I was also called upon to take some of the tutorial sessions. These sessions involved explaining solutions to one or more of the problems in case people were struck. Since I already had the solutions, the task was not challenging in any way. Indeed, after I had taken a couple of sessions, I wondered how some of my own past tutorial instructors had managed to do such a bad job.

The instructor of the class was Prof. AK Chaturvedi. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of that TAship was the opportunity to observe one of the best teachers in the EE department up close. I specifically remember admiring his attention to detail. For instance, I was often careless and made typos in almost all the assignments and solutions. Needless to say, he used to catch all the typos - every time. He also made significant efforts trying to be available in his office before quizzes and exams and often organized extra office hours inviting students to clear their doubts.

Finally, the most boring part was having to stand in the lecture hall while the students wrote their exams. But I suppose it would be boring even if I were to become a professor.

Student Feedback Forms

Its judgment day and the anonymous student feedback forms have finally arrived. I contended that they were probably filled halfheartedly. It was the last day of classes and everyone had something better to do. But I did hope that they would at least provide me some feedback on my teaching style.

Unfortunately however, there weren't many long comments. Most of the responses to "What did the instructor do that most helped your learning?" were "Helped me when I got struck" or "Explained the problem well." Fortunately, the response to "Additional Comments" was always "Very good TA" or "Best TA ever." I am satisfied but (a little) sorry that I will probably not be TAing again - I have an RA now.

Of the lighter side, there were some interesting comments as well. The following was a response to "What did the instructor do to help..."

"Was able to look at the circuit and instantaneously tell the problem."

In reality, I have always sucked at circuits. This was the reason why I kept away from circuits courses in my undergrad and chose communication. In the lab though, every one is doing the same experiment and makes similar mistakes. Since I was always skirting around the lab trying to see where people got struck, I was always up-to-date with the common mistakes of the session. From a student's perspective though, it would have appeared instantaneous. Too bad the speed of light is finite.

The following was a response to "Additional Comments"

"I wanna be the very best
Like no one ever was
To catch them is my real test
To train them is my cause..."

I was stumped when I first saw these lines. Who is this guy trying to catch ? A little search revealed that the lines are from Pokeman (the anime) and the only thing he is trying to catch is his breath from running animarathons. Ironically, his response to the number of course hours spent was 0-2: pretty low for someone who wants to be the "very best."

How not to slack off ?

Living in US sure has way too many distractions. For a easy going graduate student, who wants to experience everything his university provides, life seems like an adventurous journey of Indiana Jones. But its usually not very late until you realize that Mike Slackenerny used to feel the same way when he was in his first year.

How not to get distracted is the big question. But do not get excited, I am not giving out the answer in public. At least, if I knew it. Since I too am a grad student who gets distracted by every little video that comes out on stage6.divx I can kill to know the answer (kill mosquitoes not homo-sapiens). In theory one could find millions of books and sites which claim that they know the answer. But as Morpheus one said, knowing the path is different (and boring) than walking the path. So I am going to try out something different this time.

1. Using Google calender, I have put up milestones for the entire month. For example, finish reading with Network Coding till March 7, start searching for wireless project ideas on March 10 and so on.
   
2. It is very important to make realistic targets. I remember one of my friends, whose plans for the final exam read like: 'Finish entire syllabus of Physics and Chemistry till Monday, redo all the 15 assignments on Monday night, do all the practice problems in the book on Tuesday morning, etc'. Trying to poke a hole in the sky might make you a better archer but eventually you will get frustrated with constant failure. You might take consolation in the fact that you have done good work and the aim was just too high anyway. But this is when you make failing a habit and lower your confidence. You start taking challenges which are either too easy (so that you are sure of completing them) or too difficult (since failing it is already your second nature). Again, from experience, if targets are constantly on the higher side and you happen to achieve one of them, it does feel great at first. But the victorious feeling tends to persist longer than it should and starts affecting the next target.
   
3. I think if targets are spaced out properly, I will be able to take out time and be guilt free at the same time.

Let us see how this one goes.

Update (3/5): Here is now my calender looks now. The brown entries correspond to day-to-day activities and commitments. The blue entries correspond to the milestones set by me. It seems to work out well so far since I am able to achieve my goals and do even low priority tasks (such as going to the gymnasium).
By the way, the cool photo is from Google calender. And it seems DivX Inc. took my comment to heart and shut down stage6.divx - God bless them.

Doing Better Research

I have been slacking off a lot recently. I think it is time for a little retrospection.

1. Listening to presentations: This is something I am very bad at. Usually most presentations are not in my exact area and the presenters are not always very good ones. They always begin well by giving a broader picture and the motivation for their work. This part usually interests me. But soon I start getting lost into the mathematics and eventually loose interest. Trying to take in information like a sink is neither interesting nor recommended.
• The mathematics part usually involves description of some tools or techniques the author has employed. Since my work also involves use of such tools, it is a good idea to try to make a note of these.
  
• To benefit fully from a seminar/presentation, I think it is necessary to know atleast the basics of that area. Thus it might be a good idea to do a google search on that topic before hand, and spend about 15 minutes reading the basics to get started, before the presentation.
• Whenever there is a waning of interest because of too much mathematical details, it might be a good idea to stop listening to the presenter and go up one level. Remind oneself of the point the presenter is trying to make by doing this proof. Try to think beyond the presenter (what he might have done in his later slides, what should be the natural extension of the work and what could be some practical issues with the presenters implementation ?)
2. Reading papers: Depends upon if the paper is in my area or not.
   
• If it is, I must spend atleast half an hour contemplating what the author could have done after just reading the abstract. Since I have been doing research in that area, understanding what the author is proposing simply after reading the abstract may not be that difficult. Of course, later that paper has to be read in detail and possible extensions should be thought of.
  
• If, on the other hand it is something that I have to learn, it might be a good idea to read the abstract, introduction and conclusion. Write down what is being proposed and what could be the possible extensions. Then move to the system model. A research journal entry should follow.
  
• If it is something I am just using as a look-up for use in my research, glossing over it should be fine. But do not look up unless you are absolutely sure you can not solve the problem by yourself. Simply Googling whenever in doubt is NOT recommended.
  
3. Attending classes: This of course have many caveats.
• Mathematical details cause loss of interest: Follow the same strategy as presentaions; try to think of possible implications and applications of the course material in your research.
• Mathematical details are too trivial: try to find shortcuts. Correlate with other non-trivial parts.
  
• Class is a bouncer: try asking more general questions (such as the intuition behind the results). Create analogies and ask if they make sense. Do not let the instructor think that you are able to understand.
• Class itself is quite trivial: fall asleep and make sure to snore as loudly as possible.
  
4. Keeping up the motivation: try reviewing what has been achieved in the last week. Compare it to a more productive week you have had in the past.
   

Exam Time and Emma

Exam time is usually the most imaginative time for me. It is when I am completely burdened with ToDos, that I tend to loose my concentration and wander into reveries. I imagine things that I would do after the exams, things that should be done in general, future planning or simply a plot for a blockbuster movie.
It was Monday night and I had to submit a project by Tuesday midnight. I was unable to make the simulations run and the report was not even half complete. I decided to stay in the lab for the night hoping to finish things till dawn have a sweet morning sleep. At approximately 2am, I ventured into the story of how Emma tried to take over the internet.

Of course, Emma was not a girl that I was fantasizing about; instead she was an artificially intelligent program, written by a graduate student in midwest, which employed human like memory structure consisting of nodes containing concepts linked to each other in virtual hyper space. I spent approximately two hours working on the story and amount of creativity I had generated is enough to make two movies. On the downside, I had to stay in the lab for the next 23 hours and went home next day at 1am. Unfortunately, I still have my last exam tomorrow which means I will be telling you the story some other (exam) day.