The weekly post: Oct 28, 2012

This week we went more in-depth with the time complexity and saw more examples of different algorithms. We talked about divide-and-conquer recurrences, or something like that, and I got confused as to what exactly was going on. The lectures had given us a proof sketch of these types of recurrences, so from what I was reading it says we should split up the problem into some amount of subproblems and solve that. We then recombine (which I am not sure what that means) and from there it should be proved. I'm guessing that the concept is that you have to prove a smaller case of the problem and extend it to the problem given - it sounds kind of like induction.

We then took a look at multiplying bits recursively and analyzed the time complexity of it, and in the end we ended up with big theta(n^2). However, our professor then proceeded with showing us Gauss' trick to reduce the number of multiplications for recombining the divided factors. Although it was only reduced by one, the time complexity became n^(1.5). Initially I thought "it was only reduced by 0.5?", but when seeing the graph of n^2 and n^(1.5) I was shocked at how big of a difference it made.

After that our professor showed us the time complexity of finding the two closest point pairs for a whole set of randomly scattered points. Once again he divided the problem into two, but after that I got very confused. There was something about taking the difference between two points and using that difference to narrow down the search, but I vaguely understood that part of the lecture, I will definitely need to review it.

The tutorial for this week was pretty much the same; I couldn't really hear what my TA was saying and his writing was very faint on the board.

Also, my second assignment for this course is due this coming Friday but I have yet to start it. I've been caught up with a midterm in AST221 this coming Monday that I need to study for, and it has been difficult for me to grasp some concepts, but I've been holding out. I also received my mark for the first assignment in CSC236 and I had gotten perfect, which was something I wasn't expecting! At the time I found it difficult and doubted my answers but now I feel like I have a good understanding on the flavours of induction.

The weekly post: Oct 21, 2012

There's not much to talk about this week, we had a lecture on time complexity again and it's great that it's touching up on what we had done in CSC165. A lot was taken off my shoulders after the test and it felt nice to be able to start reviewing some past material. I had done the tutorial handout for that week and I was able to get most of the questions. The only one I had trouble on was analyzing a recursive function and writing a closed form of it, but the TA went over it and I eventually got it.

We also got our test marks back! I only had one mark taken off, which I felt was an odd reason to remove a mark but I'll just have to trust the TA's judgement... I'm still waiting for the mark for my first assignment, which I think I did worse on, mainly because I still hadn't grasped the various forms of induction yet at that time. In the end up to this point my time here in 236 came across some obstacles but has generally been a positive experience. Hopefully I'll be able to say that in the future.

The weekly post: Oct 13, 2012

As a sidenote, I will hopefully try to post on this blog every once a week so as to keep up with the slog guidelines.

So this week we had a midterm test on Thursday, and I personally didn't feel like I was ready for it. I had a calculus quiz earlier that day too, so I had to find a way to manage my study time, and split my homework accordingly. Unfortunately I went into procrastinator mode and spent several hours doing God-knows-what, as long as it took away potential study time. Also I focused a lot more of my study time on calculus than for 236. Sooner or later it was around 4 in the morning, so I decided it was time to let my subconscious go to work.

Finally at school I took care of my calculus quiz, and then decided to spend my 4-hour break studying for the upcoming test, but I ended sleeping for about half of my break; the other half was spent reviewing my homework, tutorial handouts and lecture examples. When test time dawned I had a little more confidence in myself but of course there was some anxiety...

When I finished the test I felt like it went very well. I didn't leave a question blank or anything, and it seemed like my proofs were all pretty strong. I would say that the last problem was the only one that made me stop and think for longer than any of the other questions. However, I guess if you really do understand the basics of Mathematical Induction it shouldn't be too hard to apply it to some proof that seems difficult at first glance.

I guess in the end, I was really happy about how my midterm test went. Hopefully I'll be able to keep my confidence and expectations for this course, but I do think that if I want to keep this up, I really need to start fixing my study habits, and should start getting more sleep.

A look into my A1 experience

When Assignment 1 came around, I already found myself drowning in a pool of homework from my other courses, and on the other hand also deprived of homework from another course - that may sound nice but it doesn't help when you consider that you actually need to stay caught up when a quiz or test comes around. Either way, I decided to leave Assignment 1 until the very end, which was a terrible idea. The assignment was due on the 5th, and I also had another problem set due the same day... which I had only finished one part of. So I finished the problem set for the other course (which kept me up until 5am), then went to sleep, knowing I needed to get up in a few hours to commute back to school. 

Finally at school, barely staying awake and falling asleep in some classes, it was time for me to finish the rest of Assignment 1. I had finished some of the assignment before hand, but I had only finished the easier questions before tackling the hard ones. Upon reaching these hard questions I found myself lost. Luckily, the office hour for the assignment approached and I decided to attend it. I got to the office hour late since I had a class at the same time but I knew I needed to go. When I got there I was nervous, since I don't really like asking questions, so I just sat down and let the discussions go on. Whenever one discussion finished I thought that maybe it would be a good time to raise my hand and present a question, but I could never bring myself to do it... I was hesitant, intimidated, nervous.. Fortunately some of the questions I had in mind were covered. 

When the office hour was done I left and went over to the library to finish up my assignment. I was able to figure out the problems I had for the last two questions, but the one that bothered me the most was question 3. I had read over the first lecture slide and took the professor's hint with the partitioning of a set, but after the partition I was on my own. My first idea was adding the number of subsets in one partition to the number of subsets in the other partition (which I later realized was very close to the solution I came up with). No matter how much I tried the amounts did not add up properly. However, the office hour definitely gave me the help I needed. I had forgotten what a bijection was and when my professor used it in our first lecture, to put it simply I had no idea what he was doing. But I managed to figure it out and that proved to be a very helpful breakthrough for my question 3 proof. In the end, I pulled through and finished the assignment with only a couple of hours left (whether that's something to be proud I will not be sure).

I now know that I will only end up hurting myself if I keep on leaving my homework off like this. But, just because I know doesn't mean anything, I have to be ready to do something about it, which is something I still  am not sure about...

An introduction

I never really was the blogging type, and never thought that I'd have to keep a blog for a course in school, AND have my mark depend on a blog either, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Anyways, because of my newbie-ness to the blogging world I have been procrastinating my first post, so here goes...

I guess it's best to start with an introduction. My name is Louie and I'm currently attending UofT (you probably could have guessed that but I needed to start with something), pursuing a double major in computer science and astronomy & astrophysics. In my spare time I like to dance and play piano, while attempting to balance a part-time job and school work.

Well, I guess that should be enough for an introduction. I'll do my best to keep this updated and fulfill all the criteria my slog handout told me to fulfill.