Thursday, October 13, 2011

Reminder: Proficiency profile exam in class tomorrow

Folks
 
 This is just to remind you that  there will be a proficiency profile exam tomorrow in class. See the original mail below
for details. Note that if you miss the exam  you will likely be required to make it up by going to the test center somewhere. 
You are thus better off taking care of this during class time tomorrow.

regards
Rao

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Subbarao Kambhampati <rao@asu.edu>
Date: Sun, Oct 2, 2011 at 5:10 PM
Subject: The class of 10/14 will be a proficiency profile exam in class
To: Rao Kambhampati <rao@asu.edu>


Folks:

 During the whole period of the class of Oct 14th, you will have a proficiency profile examination 
(the details are in the blurb below). Please note that if  you miss the exam, they will require you to take it 
during some make-up session (which may not be a feasible option since they apparently have to complete
all exams by Oct 15th).

 (Note that while your participation is required, your performance on this exam *will not* affect your grade. as the
blurb below says, you will get the results for your own consumption, and they will also give you 10 sun dollars). 

Rao



==========

ETS Proficiency Profile

As part of ASU's efforts to understand our contributions to student learning, this class
was selected to participate in the ETS Proficiency Profile this fall. This is a 40-minute
test that measures your proficiency in critical thinking, reading, writing and mathematics.

You will take this exam as a part of this course on Oct 14th. On the day of the exam,
you will bring your ASU Sun Card and a No.2 pencil. I, along with test proctors,
will administer the exam as part of our class period. It is expected that all students
complete the exam as part of this course on the identified date. If for any reason you
do not take the exam on the identified date, you will participate in a make-up session.
However, make-up sessions are very limited and students are expected to complete the
exam during our course's scheduled time.

There are several benefits to taking this exam for you and for our college. First, you will
receive a score report with feedback on your performance in these important skill areas.
Second, you will receive a $10 incentive loaded onto your Sun Card in October/early
November. You will represent our college and help us understand our impact on your
learning. You will take this exam two more times during your undergraduate experience
at ASU-in the spring of your second year and the spring of your fourth year. You will be
able to see your growth during this time and will help ASU determine to what extent we
have taught students the skills they need to be successful after graduation.

We appreciate your participation and your efforts to represent our college in this
important initiative.

Friday, October 7, 2011

*Mandatory* Blog questions on Complexity and Search Engines [Due by 10/21]

Folks:

 Here are a few questions on complexity and search engines--mostly to check what got through. You are required to
enter your answers to the questions as a comment on the blog:


1. My friend was asked by his boss to come up with an efficient algorithm for a time-tabling problem for the company.
My friend was unable to come up with anything that runs in less than exponential time. He wanted to convince his boss that
no one else could have done any better. He went and told the boss this: "Look, this time-tabling problem can be easily (i.e., in polynomial time)
converted into a boolean satisfiability problem. Now, it is well known that boolean satisfiability is an NP-Complete problem (i.e., it is one of 'em
monster problems in class NP). So it is no bloody surprise that I am unable to come up with anything other than an exponential algorithm".

What do you think of my friends' reasoning?


2. Explain why the arguments based on reductions to/from NP-complete problems is needed? Can't we just prove that a problem can't have anything
other than exponential (or polynomial) solution? Do you know of any famous problems that were thought to be exponential for a long time until someone found a polynomial algorithm?


3. One of the CSE faculty members used to have a bunch of magnetic words stuck to his (then metallic) doors. All the students passing by will try to arrange the magnetic words to make interesting english messages. If we assume that each student was making it a point to use *all* the words in his/her message, then what would the bag-of-words similarity measures say about the pair-wise difference among those messages? Considering that I told you that search engines use these as the default similarity metrics, what does it make you think about the intelligence of search engines?



4. Suppose I have a document D1: "Rao is a happy chap"   I make another document D2 by copying all the text from D1 and pasting it 2 times into D2 (so D2 is
"Rao is a happy chap Rao is a happy chap"). What will the bag similarity metric say about the similarity between D1 and D2? What will the cosine-theta (or vector) similarity metric
say about the similarity between D1 and D2? Which do you think is better for this case?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Re: The class of 10/14 will be a proficiency profile exam in class

You can ignore it.  The whole class will do it on 14th.

Rao

On Thursday, October 6, 2011, Michael Gutierrez <Michael.W.Gutierrez@asu.edu> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I got the following email today.
>
> Hello Michael,
>
> You were scheduled to participate in the administration of the Proficiency Profile as part of your ASU  101-CSE on 9/30/2011. Our records show that you did not complete the test on the test date.
>
>  
>
> I am contacting you to schedule a make-up session on one of the four campuses. These are our final make-up sessions, so please reply by 1:
>
> 00 pm for today's session or 4:00 PM for tomorrow's session to ensure time to get you on our schedule.
>
>  
>
> As the exam is a requirement of your course, and assists the institution with making valuable decisions that will impact your course curriculum over the next few years, it is important that you attend this make-up exam. In addition, for your time and contributions you will be rewarded $10 on your ASU Sun Card.
>
>  
>
> Please review the dates, times and locations below and respond to this email with the date and time that works best for you. Space is limited to 25 students a session, so it is important that you contact us at your earliest convenience.
>
>  
>
> Campus                                Time                      Date
>
>  
>
> Tempe                  3:00 PM                                Thur, 10/6
>
> Tempe                  9:00 AM                               Fri, 10/7
>
>  
>
> If you have any questions, please consult your instructor or respond to ProficiencyProfile@asu.edu.
>
>  
>
> Sincerely,
>
> University Office of Evaluation and Educational Effectiveness
>
>  
>
> I am confused about this because I was under the impression that our test date was 10/14 and also I was at class last Friday which is the day they are telling me I missed the test.   So, I am wondering what steps I should take to resolve this?  Thank you.
>
>  
>
>  
>
> From: Michael Gutierrez
>
> Information Technology Specialist:
>
> ASU Graduate College
>
> 480-965-2662
>
> mwgutier@asu.edu
>
>  
>
>  
>
>  
>
> From: SUBBARAO.KAMBHAMPATI@asu.edu [mailto:SUBBARAO.KAMBHAMPATI@asu.edu] On Behalf Of Subbarao Kambhampati
> Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 5:10 PM
> To: Rao Kambhampati
> Subject: The class of 10/14 will be a proficiency profile exam in class
>
>  
>
> Folks:
>
>  
>
>  During the whole period of the class of Oct 14th, you will have a proficiency profile examination 
>
> (the details are in the blurb below). Please note that if  you miss the exam, they will require you to take it 
>
> during some make-up session (which may not be a feasible option since they apparently have to complete
>
> all exams by Oct 15th).
>
>  
>
>  (Note that while your participation is required, your performance on this exam *will not* affect your grade. as the
>
> blurb below says, you will get the results for your own consumption, and they will also give you 10 sun dollars). 
>
>  
>
> Rao
>
>  
>
>  
>
>  
>
> ==========
>
>  
>
> ETS Proficiency Profile
>
>  
>
> As part of ASU's efforts to understand our contributions to student learning, this class
>
> was selected to participate in the ETS Proficiency Profile this fall. This is a 40-minute
>
> test that measures your proficiency in critical thinking, reading, writing and mathematics.
>
>  
>
> You will take this exam as a part of this course on Oct 14th. On the day of the exam,
>
> you will bring your ASU Sun Card and a No.2 pencil. I, along with test proctors,
>
> will administer the exam as part of our class period. It is expected that all students
>
> complete the exam as part of this course on the identified date. If for any reason you
>
> do not take the exam on the identified date, you will participate in a make-up session.
>
> However, make-up sessions are very limited and students are expected to complete the
>
> exam during our course's scheduled time.
>
>  
>
> There are several benefits to taking this exam for you and for our college. First, you will
>
> receive a score report with feedback on your performance in these important skill areas.
>
> Second, you will receive a $10 incentive loaded onto your Sun Card in October/early
>
> November. You will represent our college and help us understand our impact on your
>
> learning. You will take this exam two more times during your undergraduate experience
>
> at ASU-in the spring of your second year and the spring of your fourth year. You will be
>
> able to see your growth during this time and will help ASU determine to what extent we
>
> have taught students the skills they need to be successful after graduation.
>
>  
>
> We appreciate your participation and your efforts to represent our college in this
>
> important initiative.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

The class of 10/14 will be a proficiency profile exam in class

Folks:

 During the whole period of the class of Oct 14th, you will have a proficiency profile examination 
(the details are in the blurb below). Please note that if  you miss the exam, they will require you to take it 
during some make-up session (which may not be a feasible option since they apparently have to complete
all exams by Oct 15th).

 (Note that while your participation is required, your performance on this exam *will not* affect your grade. as the
blurb below says, you will get the results for your own consumption, and they will also give you 10 sun dollars). 

Rao



==========

ETS Proficiency Profile

As part of ASU's efforts to understand our contributions to student learning, this class
was selected to participate in the ETS Proficiency Profile this fall. This is a 40-minute
test that measures your proficiency in critical thinking, reading, writing and mathematics.

You will take this exam as a part of this course on Oct 14th. On the day of the exam,
you will bring your ASU Sun Card and a No.2 pencil. I, along with test proctors,
will administer the exam as part of our class period. It is expected that all students
complete the exam as part of this course on the identified date. If for any reason you
do not take the exam on the identified date, you will participate in a make-up session.
However, make-up sessions are very limited and students are expected to complete the
exam during our course's scheduled time.

There are several benefits to taking this exam for you and for our college. First, you will
receive a score report with feedback on your performance in these important skill areas.
Second, you will receive a $10 incentive loaded onto your Sun Card in October/early
November. You will represent our college and help us understand our impact on your
learning. You will take this exam two more times during your undergraduate experience
at ASU-in the spring of your second year and the spring of your fourth year. You will be
able to see your growth during this time and will help ASU determine to what extent we
have taught students the skills they need to be successful after graduation.

We appreciate your participation and your efforts to represent our college in this
important initiative.