Newly minted
I just started – a week before my official start date – as an assistant professor at Oregon State University in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I feel very luck to be here,...
View ArticleAlgorithms advertising for incoming grad students
One of my first professorial tasks will be a 4-minute talk to incoming grad students. I don’t expect any of the students in the audience will be explicitly interested in algorithms research. After...
View ArticleWhy blog?
Bill Gasarch asked me to make a statement about my blog and in responding to him, I realized I might as well post it here. This blog will likely be YATB (yet another theory blog) – hopefully I will...
View ArticleWhat theory should every non-theory Ph.D. student know?
I’ve survived my first week of teaching graduate algorithms and data structures. “Survived” really isn’t the right word. I’ve had a lot of fun and the students in the class are bright and interactive,...
View ArticleHow to find a postdoc
While I hardly think I should be doling out advice … In algorithms, there have been a lot of postdoc positions advertising on the two main email lists, TheoryNT and dmanet. In my experience, many of...
View ArticleINFORMS on the Smart Grid
I hadn’t heard of the “smart grid” until I arrived in Oregon. Our department is pushing for a sustainability research collaboration initiative, SENERGI, and so it wasn’t long before I heard our former...
View ArticleJob talks
I recently found out that when I gave my job talk at Oregon State University last year, I was being recorded. I was hesitant to post it, but I hope that, despite this far-from-perfect performance, it...
View ArticlePostdoc after postdoc after postdoc?
There’s talk of postdocking* in the air – for one, Jonathan Katz posted about how to better match recent grads to postdoc positions. It looks like this year’s academic-job market is even worse than...
View Articlenth Combinatorial Potlatch
The Combinatorial Potlatch is a semi-regular (which for last 7 years has been yearly!) one-day workshop in combinatorics held in Cascadia. It is very informal (no name tags!), very relaxed (only three...
View ArticleDonation price of anarchy
I recently went to a Christmas party where, instead of a gift exchange, there was a donation exchange. Essentially, we each placed a cause’s name into a hat, people draw the names and are asked to...
View ArticleSODA 20 minute talks
Many people have been blogging on the technical content at SODA, but I won’t. Given that David has already hinted that I only value the first 10 minutes of most talks, clearly I’m not in the position...
View ArticleSODA 2012 to be in Kyoto, Japan
I missed the business meeting to have dinner with a non-SODA-attending friend and so missed the voting over the location of SODA 2012 which was apparently a close tie. I’m a little dismayed at SODA...
View ArticleAdaptive analysis
Jérémy Barbay was visiting me this week from Universidad de Chile. Although we overlapped at Waterloo by a few months, we had never talked in depth about research before. His visit was great timing...
View ArticleJournals ranked by turnover times?
I had a search of the blogs and web at large to see if there was any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) about the turnover rates for TCS (and friendly) journals. Short answer: I couldn’t find much. I...
View ArticleJournals ranked by turnover times: now with colour!
Based on David’s link to the AMS data on journal backlogs in my last post (thanks Dave!) and the ISI Web of Knowledge citation report, I’ve wasted some time making the following fancy graph. There are...
View ArticleSummer undergraduate research projects in theory
“In theory” as in “in theoretical computer science”. I am lucky to have a student through the CRA-W Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates program. Anna Harutyunyan joins me for 10 weeks...
View ArticleLessons on writing conference reviews
I’m on the SODA 2011 program committee and finding it, as everything this last year (grant writing, NSF panelling, grad student advising), a condensed learning experience. Our reviews are almost due...
View ArticleExperience Theory Project and Prezi
I’m participating in the Experience Theory Project at the University of Washington right now. ETP is an event for undergraduates with talent and interest in theoretical computer science, sponsored by...
View ArticleAnnouncement: n-th Annual Combinatorial Potlatch 12/11/10 at Western Washington
Last year I spoke at the n-th Annual Combinatorial Potlatch and had a blast. The informal workshop is a great idea; I wish there were more regional events like them. Maybe there are and I just don’t...
View ArticleExperiments in teaching: am-I-ready-for-this quiz
I am teaching ‘the grad algorithms course’ for the second time. It is the first time I am teaching a course for the second time and am excited at finally having the opportunity to fix my previous...
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