WEBVTT 00:00:06.137 --> 00:00:07.970 SARAH HANSEN: Could you tell us a little bit 00:00:07.970 --> 00:00:12.320 about the history and development of 18.065, 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:13.070 this new course? 00:00:13.070 --> 00:00:14.400 GILBERT STRANG: Yes, OK. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:21.540 So this was my adventure into the subject of deep learning. 00:00:21.540 --> 00:00:24.785 So that's a special part of machine learning, 00:00:24.785 --> 00:00:26.380 a highly important part. 00:00:26.380 --> 00:00:29.780 It's in the newspaper all the time. 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:37.800 And students are graduating knowing about the deep learning 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:39.810 and getting good jobs. 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:43.110 And it's really amazing. 00:00:43.110 --> 00:00:46.110 So and then the other beautiful part 00:00:46.110 --> 00:00:50.420 is that it depends so heavily on linear algebra. 00:00:50.420 --> 00:00:52.920 SARAH HANSEN: You've been known to say, "I certainly learned 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:55.920 that projects are far better than exams. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.580 Students ask their own questions and write their own programs. 00:00:59.580 --> 00:01:01.972 From now on, projects." 00:01:01.972 --> 00:01:03.180 GILBERT STRANG: That's right. 00:01:03.180 --> 00:01:03.880 Yeah. 00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:09.090 Sort of late to learn this because with the 18.06 00:01:09.090 --> 00:01:12.300 linear algebra, totally conventional course 00:01:12.300 --> 00:01:18.280 with maybe three exams during the semester and a final exam. 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.370 And maybe that's appropriate. 00:01:20.370 --> 00:01:22.260 But it's changing. 00:01:22.260 --> 00:01:26.070 And then with this new course, where the computer's involved, 00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:26.880 and you-- 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:30.200 for example, so I ask everybody to do a project. 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:31.960 There is no final exam. 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:33.580 Actually, there's no exam at all. 00:01:33.580 --> 00:01:35.310 I shouldn't like to say this. 00:01:35.310 --> 00:01:41.670 But it's really what the subject is is having an idea of how-- 00:01:41.670 --> 00:01:45.987 OK, I'll use deep learning for something. 00:01:45.987 --> 00:01:47.820 SARAH HANSEN: What did that feel like to try 00:01:47.820 --> 00:01:50.302 something new pedagogically? 00:01:50.302 --> 00:01:51.510 GILBERT STRANG: Oh, it's fun. 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:53.670 You know, I like teaching. 00:01:53.670 --> 00:01:56.220 And this is a subject where students 00:01:56.220 --> 00:01:58.680 just come from everywhere. 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:01.050 Because they know what stuff to learn. 00:02:01.050 --> 00:02:02.550 And they've heard about it. 00:02:02.550 --> 00:02:05.040 And they-- some of them know more than me. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:09.680 And then those students write even better projects. 00:02:09.680 --> 00:02:18.910 Yeah, it's just-- so I do the lectures for the first three 00:02:18.910 --> 00:02:20.340 quarters of the course. 00:02:20.340 --> 00:02:23.850 And then I try to get them to present, 00:02:23.850 --> 00:02:26.250 which is a great experience for them, 00:02:26.250 --> 00:02:30.750 though it takes a little urging to get them. 00:02:30.750 --> 00:02:35.760 But, yeah, yeah, it's really just wonderful. 00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:37.260 SARAH HANSEN: What insights have you 00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:41.380 gained about having more of a student-led course 00:02:41.380 --> 00:02:42.990 and a project-based course? 00:02:42.990 --> 00:02:44.420 Anything that other-- 00:02:44.420 --> 00:02:47.490 GILBERT STRANG: You realize, slowly but finally, 00:02:47.490 --> 00:02:50.850 that that's how people learn, by doing. 00:02:50.850 --> 00:02:54.150 That you couldn't give them a better way 00:02:54.150 --> 00:02:57.530 to learn than to create a project. 00:02:57.530 --> 00:03:00.480 Usually, it's on some topic they know about 00:03:00.480 --> 00:03:04.710 or they're interested in, like, how do you 00:03:04.710 --> 00:03:07.800 find a criminal in a bunch of people? 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:17.740 Yeah, it's just a very effective way to learn. 00:03:17.740 --> 00:03:22.350 And it's something that gets remembered, where 00:03:22.350 --> 00:03:24.630 doing exam questions that I might make up, 00:03:24.630 --> 00:03:28.500 sort of mathy questions, I don't know if that's 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:30.150 remembered 10 years later. 00:03:30.150 --> 00:03:32.768 But I think people's projects are. 00:03:32.768 --> 00:03:34.560 SARAH HANSEN: Is there anything you learned 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:36.940 from teaching it this way? 00:03:36.940 --> 00:03:40.590 Like something that maybe went wrong in the logistics 00:03:40.590 --> 00:03:43.560 of facilitating these projects that next time you 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:44.770 want to do differently? 00:03:44.770 --> 00:03:45.895 GILBERT STRANG: Well, sure. 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:53.490 I didn't have any idea what to expect really. 00:03:53.490 --> 00:03:55.290 And maybe the students didn't either. 00:03:55.290 --> 00:03:56.790 They said, what's a project? 00:03:56.790 --> 00:04:00.300 Well, one student had said unwisely, 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:03.870 when are the projects due? 00:04:03.870 --> 00:04:05.380 I thought, what's that? 00:04:05.380 --> 00:04:07.740 I mean, I hadn't even thought about projects. 00:04:07.740 --> 00:04:09.193 So I was like, OK. 00:04:09.193 --> 00:04:09.900 All right. 00:04:09.900 --> 00:04:11.220 You asked for it. 00:04:11.220 --> 00:04:15.210 So we decided that the last-- 00:04:15.210 --> 00:04:17.329 the end of the semester, the final day 00:04:17.329 --> 00:04:21.959 of class, which is two weeks away, 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:24.270 projects are due to come in. 00:04:24.270 --> 00:04:27.570 And then some of the class is able, has a chance, 00:04:27.570 --> 00:04:32.640 to present their project in the last weeks, but not everybody 00:04:32.640 --> 00:04:34.560 because it's a big class. 00:04:34.560 --> 00:04:37.710 So it starts with each student or each group-- 00:04:37.710 --> 00:04:41.580 it could be two or three students together-- 00:04:41.580 --> 00:04:44.880 sends me an email about their plan. 00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:46.470 And I respond. 00:04:46.470 --> 00:04:48.480 I usually respond, wonderful. 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:52.260 And maybe I have an idea of a reference or two 00:04:52.260 --> 00:04:54.630 that they could look at. 00:04:54.630 --> 00:04:58.270 But and then they just do it. 00:04:58.270 --> 00:05:02.070 Yeah, it's really very nice. 00:05:02.070 --> 00:05:04.772 SARAH HANSEN: Do you give them any feedback along the way? 00:05:04.772 --> 00:05:06.480 GILBERT STRANG: If they ask for it, yeah. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:08.100 And if I-- you know, usually they'll 00:05:08.100 --> 00:05:11.530 know more about their subject than me. 00:05:11.530 --> 00:05:16.500 But maybe what they learn also is presenting. 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:19.570 That's an important thing. 00:05:19.570 --> 00:05:24.140 So it's really just more-- 00:05:24.140 --> 00:05:29.880 it's richer than taking an exam. 00:05:29.880 --> 00:05:33.240 Well, the viewer may think, OK, Professor Strang 00:05:33.240 --> 00:05:34.680 says no more exams. 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:35.720 I don't know if-- 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:37.770 so don't quote me on that, please. 00:05:37.770 --> 00:05:39.840 SARAH HANSEN: OK. 00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:44.400 In 18.065, in one of the videos, you 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:47.750 talk about grading students' work. 00:05:47.750 --> 00:05:50.880 And you tell them that, although this 00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:53.080 is important to grade their work, 00:05:53.080 --> 00:05:55.170 it's not your main concern. 00:05:55.170 --> 00:05:58.013 That your main concern is actually learning with them. 00:05:58.013 --> 00:05:58.930 GILBERT STRANG: Right. 00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:01.340 This is what I want to say the most. 00:06:01.340 --> 00:06:04.560 And I say it to every class I teach 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:08.490 near the start of the semester. 00:06:08.490 --> 00:06:12.840 My feeling about what my job is is to teach you things 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:17.340 or to join with you in learning things, as has happened today. 00:06:17.340 --> 00:06:18.930 It's not to grade you. 00:06:18.930 --> 00:06:23.390 So typically, the first few days of class, these guys 00:06:23.390 --> 00:06:27.070 ask, you know, what's the class average going to be? 00:06:27.070 --> 00:06:28.770 How are we going to be graded? 00:06:28.770 --> 00:06:31.260 I don't have any answers for that stuff. 00:06:31.260 --> 00:06:35.130 So I say what is totally true, that I'm not-- 00:06:35.130 --> 00:06:37.470 I don't feel my main job is to grade them. 00:06:40.050 --> 00:06:45.510 That my job is to teach them or learn with them. 00:06:45.510 --> 00:06:48.810 And that's what I continue to do. 00:06:48.810 --> 00:06:52.080 And gradually, they begin to believe. 00:06:52.080 --> 00:06:56.940 You know, at the beginning, they still think, OK, but he's 00:06:56.940 --> 00:07:01.050 got to give me a B, or a C, or an A. 00:07:01.050 --> 00:07:09.010 But really, that's not what 18.065 is about, a grade. 00:07:09.010 --> 00:07:09.690 It's just not. 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:16.090 SARAH HANSEN: What advice do you have for new professors 00:07:16.090 --> 00:07:17.590 starting out in teaching? 00:07:20.110 --> 00:07:25.210 GILBERT STRANG: Well, probably this interview 00:07:25.210 --> 00:07:27.670 has expressed most of the thoughts 00:07:27.670 --> 00:07:31.870 I have about in the class. 00:07:31.870 --> 00:07:33.670 Yeah, yeah. 00:07:33.670 --> 00:07:39.670 Use big chalk, especially if it's a large class. 00:07:39.670 --> 00:07:42.010 It helps your writing get-- 00:07:42.010 --> 00:07:44.530 your writing looks impressively level, even, 00:07:44.530 --> 00:07:46.590 because of the chalk. 00:07:46.590 --> 00:07:49.180 And don't rush. 00:07:49.180 --> 00:07:52.420 And don't think you have to cover everything. 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:55.550 Just stay with the class. 00:07:55.550 --> 00:07:58.200 Yeah. 00:07:58.200 --> 00:07:58.950 Yeah. 00:07:58.950 --> 00:08:04.590 Well, so again, it's the best job possible.