Tonight, live, from Boston, in Technicolor™
Friday, February 3rd, 2006 by David XiaoHi everyone,
Welcome to COS 116. I’m one of the AI’s; my name is Dave (I’m from Boston as the title says) and I hope you’ll have a good time this semester learning about how computers, and in general the phenomenon of computation, affect our lives. Just a little blurb about me: I’m a second year grad student in theory, and my main interests are in complexity and cryptography. I’ve been interested in computers since high school, though what started out as a fun nerdy penchant for hacking has turned into a more mathematical interest. I always found computers to be exciting because basically even as students we are able to do with them what the most advanced programmers can do, as long as we have the patience and creativity. Later on in my academic career I discovered how we can do amazing, almost paradoxical things with computation, and this is why I became more interested in the theoretical aspects. Hopefully during the course of the semester you guys will get a taste of the fascinating and unexpected things computers and computation allow us to do.
I hope you enjoy this course, and always feel free to email and ask questions if anything is confusing or unclear.
Dave