Two-Fifty-One

Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science, better known as 15-251, is one of the most challenging classes offered by the CMU CS department. It is also a required class, taken by most people the spring semester of their freshman year. It is in many ways a wake up call - that CS is not just programming, and also that stuff can be hard.

Many of you know about it, because I spent a good deal of time trying to solve the problems, a good deal of time asking people for help, and perhaps the largest portion of time complaining about how hard I think the problems are. To that end, I'd like to thank Brian, Arvind, and Renjie, who all gave me extensive help at many points during the course.

Because help was certainly needed. Far and away the most challenging class I've ever taken, I have never devoted half as much time to a course as I did to 251. And after all that, I can say that it wasn't enough. I haven't mastered the concepts. I couldn't solve every problem that was given to me.

But while that might have been the long term goal of the class, it wasn't what was expected. It's really just the first step in my long and arduous journey of becoming a competent computer scientist. The class had more than its fair share of people who thought the problems were blatantly trivial. So I'm not at their level yet. I'm working to get there. Of course, the point of 251 is to guide you in the correct direction, so that you're not blundering around in the dark.

Next year, I think there will be about 6 TJ SCS freshmen, who will presumably take the class in the spring semester. I might not know them that well, but I hope they will not hesitate to ask me for help should they need it. I couldn't solve all the problems the first time around. Hopefully I will improve the second time. I might still have to ask you people for help, so be on the lookout.

Of course, you knew this part was coming. In my pain and complaints and headaches, I had a great time working with other people. Sometimes we had far too much fun with Detexify ...

I tried my hardest to use \Faxmachine in a homework, but did not succeed

Apparently Detexify is not a huge fan of my handwriting

Sometimes in the random googling of stuff we thought was cool (the Halting Problem, go read the Wikipedia article if you don't know about it), we found stuff that was somehow even cooler. Example: How Dr. Seuss Would Solve the Halting Problem

I'll be the first to admit that I could have been learned more. That's always the case. But in the end you get as much out of that class as you put into it, and I am content with how much effort I put forth.

... for now.