Reading, Commenting, and Class Participation

CS 225 Spring 2011

Readings

In CS225 this term, you are expected to read and comment on the relevant portions of the Pseudorandomness text prior to attending class. The readings for the first few lectures are as follows :

• Monday 1/24: Chapter 1 (Introduction)
• Wednesday 1/26: NO CLASS
• Monday 1/31: Sections 2.1 (Polynomial Identity Testing), 2.2 (The Computational Model and Complexity Classes), 2.3.1 (Sampling)
• Wednesday 2/2: Sections 2.3 (Sampling and Approximation Problems), 2.4 (Random Walks and S-T Connectivity)

Commenting

We will set up an online forum for posting your comments. You should always post at least one comment, ideally more. Your comments should be posted by midnight the night before lecture. Here are some examples of things to think about when reading and commenting:

• How would you summarize the development of material in a few English sentences?
• What are the key notions and concepts introduced (in both high-level and technical terms)? Why are particular choices made in the definitions? What would happen if things were defined differently?
• What are the main results? How would you describe the conceptual messages underlying the formal mathematical statements? Why are the results interesting (or not)? How could they possibly be improved?
• What are the possible connections or relevance to anything else you have seen (outside this course)?
• What points do you find particularly confusing?
• Do you understand the proofs at both a high level and technical level? How would you explain them at both levels?
• What interesting questions does the material bring to mind (not just the explicitly stated open problems)?
• How would you draw a picture to illustrate what's happening in a particular construction?

If you are uncomfortable posting some comments to the forum, you may email them to us privately at cs225@seas.harvard.edu.

Class Participation

In class, I won't lecture but will mostly ask questions to get you all to identify the most important and/or difficult material, and get you all to explain it to each other. Many of my questions will be in the spirit as the examples above, and will be guided by the comments on you post on the readings. I will often ask people to come to the board to explain things (whether the material itself or what is confusing them about it!). The goal is for class to feel like a collaborative effort to understand and explore the material, so expressing your confusions is just as important a contribution as giving a correct explanation. I hope that everyone will become an active and comfortable participant and the amount of guidance I'll need to provide in lecture will decrease as the term goes on.

Your class participation grade will be based on a combinatoin of your commenting on the readings and your involvement in discussons in class.