CS Center. Impressions
Good day, dear habravchane.
Today you have the opportunity to read the impressions of a Computer Science Center student following the results of the first year of study.
I am a student of the 3rd year at St. Petersburg State University ITU , I study at the department of Higher Mathematics. I went there because I was interested in mathematics, computer science and everything connected with them. But, as is often the case in the education system in Russia, I was somewhat disappointed in my expectations: I thought that I would go where I would be told a lot of theory and taught how to apply it in practice for solving specific problems. The theory is taught very well: the teachers are really experts in their fields and have a good command not only of the material, but also of its teaching technique; but there are a number of subjects that, it seems to me, should have been “by choice,” but were mandatory, which somewhat reduced the general attitude towards learning. But with the application in practice it turned out to be a bummer: practically no interesting projects that would include actual issues in practice were found. And, honestly, until recently, I didn’t quite understand what I would do when I left the institute: I didn’t want to be a “pure” programmer, but I didn’t understand how to do mathematics at all.
The first and most important question to which you need to answer, before you start learning anything anywhere, is the question: “Why do I need it?”.
')
Starting from the second course I began to attend open courses of the St. Petersburg CS club , where the theory was told with its application in practice. From there I took out that mathematics is really applicable (sometimes in quite unexpected areas) and everything that I studied at the institute is applied. But still, CS Club is a place where you can rather come and listen to some interesting topics, and not a place where you could learn all the time.
This is where the CS Center appeared on the horizon. After reviewing the information on the site, I saw that there were three areas: SE (software development), DM (data analysis, under the auspices of Yandex) and CS (theoretical computer science). The choice fell on CS, as it was interesting to program only for the implementation of specific tasks, and what is DM I generally represented poorly =)
According to the program , entering CS Center, you could get the necessary theoretical knowledge and learn how to put it into practice in various projects (on SE and DM it is practice , while on CS it is R & D ). Well, I thought, just what you need is left to go.
The admission process itself was fairly simple: pass the test on the site, which included a number of tasks on the mat. analysis, combinatorics and programming, and according to the results of the test, be interviewed with the curator of the chosen direction. Everything seems to be quite simple, but in my case there was a snag with the interview: for the summer period I was leaving for America on the w & t program, and it turned out that I would not be able to personally attend the interview. But the question turned out to be easy to solve: alexanderskulikov , who conducted the interview with me, took into account my situation and allowed me to have an interview on Skype, knowing full well that the person himself is more important than the absolute adherence to the rules. This in no way means that you can do what you like, and all the time you should “get into your position,” but there are exceptions, and this is pleasant.
The interview was successfully completed, and I was enrolled in the CS Center in the direction of theoretical informatics (Applications subclass).
In September, the process began directly learning. The classroom is the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum # 239 and the CS Club at POMI RAS. Training is conducted in the evenings of weekdays from 6:30 to 9:30 (each course is read once a week.) Each semester a student must pass 3 courses, some of which are compulsory, and some of them are optional. By the way, the very principle of learning, when there is an obligatory skeleton, to which the student himself can choose additional disciplines, was for me one of the most attractive factors.
Usually a lesson in a particular course is held in the form of a lecture for 1 pair, then a break, then practice in the same discipline. The teachers in the CS Center are all highly qualified specialists in their fields who want and like to teach interested people. On their enthusiasm this educational institution keeps on, for which many thanks to them!
I especially want to mention two teachers: Alexander Kulikov and Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin . They teach the course "Algorithms and Data Structures (1 and 2)". Both are excellent specialists in their field, they know how to approach almost all students, and their enthusiasm and efficiency are extremely infectious =)
For each course, homework assignments are given, which need to be taken on a specific timeframe, and it also happens that control tests and tests are conducted during the course. The complexity depends both on the course and on the preparation of the student, but there is nothing too heavy.
At the end of the first semester, a holiday was held, where students from all directions together with all the teachers gathered, and celebrated the end of the first stage of education in a relaxed atmosphere.
I would also like to note the interesting fact that in addition to the lectures and practices themselves, their videos are also available. So if on some day you just do not have time to attend classes - this is not a reason for refusing to learn, you can always watch the video of the lesson and understand everything that was read there. Again, this is a “feature” that should not be abused: such an opportunity is aimed at helping a student who, due to other circumstances, does not have time for some occupation, and not a student who does not want to go anywhere, but wants to take the tasks.
As I study the direction of Theoretical Informatics, one of the required tasks to perform is research work in the direction chosen by the student. My choice fell on a very interesting and promising area of ​​bioinformatics. Under the guidance of Maxim Alexeev, a scientist from the University of South Carolina, I am engaged in one of the tasks of combinatorial biology, or rather, setting the upper estimate of the value of the median genome for the three cyclic genomes.
The research itself gives a lot:
Now I understand that the decision to take up NIR in this particular direction most likely helped me answer the most important question I had before joining the CS Center: “What will I do when I leave the institute?”. Now I am going to enroll in the magistracy of the Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the direction of Algorithmic Bioinformatics and continue to deal with issues from this field.
Summing up, we can say that entering and studying at the CS Center is probably the most important event in the whole period of study in the field of higher education that I have ever taken. They say that change is always for the better, well, well, this change certainly will not bring anything bad!
Today you have the opportunity to read the impressions of a Computer Science Center student following the results of the first year of study.
Bio: a small digression
I am a student of the 3rd year at St. Petersburg State University ITU , I study at the department of Higher Mathematics. I went there because I was interested in mathematics, computer science and everything connected with them. But, as is often the case in the education system in Russia, I was somewhat disappointed in my expectations: I thought that I would go where I would be told a lot of theory and taught how to apply it in practice for solving specific problems. The theory is taught very well: the teachers are really experts in their fields and have a good command not only of the material, but also of its teaching technique; but there are a number of subjects that, it seems to me, should have been “by choice,” but were mandatory, which somewhat reduced the general attitude towards learning. But with the application in practice it turned out to be a bummer: practically no interesting projects that would include actual issues in practice were found. And, honestly, until recently, I didn’t quite understand what I would do when I left the institute: I didn’t want to be a “pure” programmer, but I didn’t understand how to do mathematics at all.
Receipt
The first and most important question to which you need to answer, before you start learning anything anywhere, is the question: “Why do I need it?”.
')
Starting from the second course I began to attend open courses of the St. Petersburg CS club , where the theory was told with its application in practice. From there I took out that mathematics is really applicable (sometimes in quite unexpected areas) and everything that I studied at the institute is applied. But still, CS Club is a place where you can rather come and listen to some interesting topics, and not a place where you could learn all the time.
This is where the CS Center appeared on the horizon. After reviewing the information on the site, I saw that there were three areas: SE (software development), DM (data analysis, under the auspices of Yandex) and CS (theoretical computer science). The choice fell on CS, as it was interesting to program only for the implementation of specific tasks, and what is DM I generally represented poorly =)
According to the program , entering CS Center, you could get the necessary theoretical knowledge and learn how to put it into practice in various projects (on SE and DM it is practice , while on CS it is R & D ). Well, I thought, just what you need is left to go.
The admission process itself was fairly simple: pass the test on the site, which included a number of tasks on the mat. analysis, combinatorics and programming, and according to the results of the test, be interviewed with the curator of the chosen direction. Everything seems to be quite simple, but in my case there was a snag with the interview: for the summer period I was leaving for America on the w & t program, and it turned out that I would not be able to personally attend the interview. But the question turned out to be easy to solve: alexanderskulikov , who conducted the interview with me, took into account my situation and allowed me to have an interview on Skype, knowing full well that the person himself is more important than the absolute adherence to the rules. This in no way means that you can do what you like, and all the time you should “get into your position,” but there are exceptions, and this is pleasant.
The interview was successfully completed, and I was enrolled in the CS Center in the direction of theoretical informatics (Applications subclass).
Training
In September, the process began directly learning. The classroom is the Physics and Mathematics Lyceum # 239 and the CS Club at POMI RAS. Training is conducted in the evenings of weekdays from 6:30 to 9:30 (each course is read once a week.) Each semester a student must pass 3 courses, some of which are compulsory, and some of them are optional. By the way, the very principle of learning, when there is an obligatory skeleton, to which the student himself can choose additional disciplines, was for me one of the most attractive factors.
Usually a lesson in a particular course is held in the form of a lecture for 1 pair, then a break, then practice in the same discipline. The teachers in the CS Center are all highly qualified specialists in their fields who want and like to teach interested people. On their enthusiasm this educational institution keeps on, for which many thanks to them!
I especially want to mention two teachers: Alexander Kulikov and Mikhail Eduardovich Dvorkin . They teach the course "Algorithms and Data Structures (1 and 2)". Both are excellent specialists in their field, they know how to approach almost all students, and their enthusiasm and efficiency are extremely infectious =)
For each course, homework assignments are given, which need to be taken on a specific timeframe, and it also happens that control tests and tests are conducted during the course. The complexity depends both on the course and on the preparation of the student, but there is nothing too heavy.
At the end of the first semester, a holiday was held, where students from all directions together with all the teachers gathered, and celebrated the end of the first stage of education in a relaxed atmosphere.
Lecture videos
I would also like to note the interesting fact that in addition to the lectures and practices themselves, their videos are also available. So if on some day you just do not have time to attend classes - this is not a reason for refusing to learn, you can always watch the video of the lesson and understand everything that was read there. Again, this is a “feature” that should not be abused: such an opportunity is aimed at helping a student who, due to other circumstances, does not have time for some occupation, and not a student who does not want to go anywhere, but wants to take the tasks.
NIR
As I study the direction of Theoretical Informatics, one of the required tasks to perform is research work in the direction chosen by the student. My choice fell on a very interesting and promising area of ​​bioinformatics. Under the guidance of Maxim Alexeev, a scientist from the University of South Carolina, I am engaged in one of the tasks of combinatorial biology, or rather, setting the upper estimate of the value of the median genome for the three cyclic genomes.
The research itself gives a lot:
- Work with scientific articles of other scientists, without which no research in any field of study is possible
- The technique of marking up documents using LaTeX, which is extremely useful, since in the West all scientific publications are accepted only in PDF format with markup to it from LaTeX
- Opportunity to deal with the sought-after problem under the guidance of an experienced scientist who helps and guides along the whole study
- Awareness of exactly what you can answer a question that no one has answered before
- The study of tons of additional material that may be useful in the work. And new knowledge is always good, it's just an axiom
Now I understand that the decision to take up NIR in this particular direction most likely helped me answer the most important question I had before joining the CS Center: “What will I do when I leave the institute?”. Now I am going to enroll in the magistracy of the Academic University of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the direction of Algorithmic Bioinformatics and continue to deal with issues from this field.
Conclusion
Summing up, we can say that entering and studying at the CS Center is probably the most important event in the whole period of study in the field of higher education that I have ever taken. They say that change is always for the better, well, well, this change certainly will not bring anything bad!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/141466/
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