Recognizing and Nurturing Technical IntuitionDr. Michael BarnathanSenior Software Engineer, Google

CS4HS 2012

Kean University

Who am I?0 Senior Software Engineer at Google, joined in 2010.

0 Ph. D. in Computer and Information Sciences from Temple University.

0 Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Monmouth University, 2008-09.

0 Data Structures! Algorithms! Java! Life?

0 K-nearest neighbor classification? Massively multithreaded servers?

Students independently coming up with their own projects? Sneaky.

0 Pretty radical teaching philosophy, but paid off. 4 year follow-up:

0 One student turned his course project into a publication, now a researcher.

0 K-nearest neighbor project inspired one student to go into machine learning.

0 Lunch with a student at Google on Friday; he’s in the final interview round.

0 Trying to start a school: http://www.projectpolymath.org

0 Started coding at 8!

0 First thing I did was corrupt my hard drive. Six times.

0 Fascinated by the atmosphere before that – didn’t want to go out “if

cumulonimbus clouds were outside”.

0 Published medical researcher.

michael@barnathan.name

Why so much passion?

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th Fr. Sph. Jr. Sr. MS PhD2.4

2.6

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GPA vs. Career

Started AI research

Started number the-ory research

Started programming

First CS course

First AI publi-cation

First technical job (web developer)

Technology education was my life!

Became a CS Adjunct, loved it!

Math + Peer Tutor

Why is this important?

3%

5%

13%

57%

20%

2%

500 STEM Majors: Age of First STEM Interest

"Always"

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

College

Unsure

Source: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/citizenship/docs/STEMPerceptionsReport.pdf

You are here

“Technical Intuition”

0 Technical intuition: an analogy-driven understanding of a technical problem through its relationship to what is already known.

“Are you pondering what I’m pondering, Pinky?”

“I think so, Brain, but where are we going to get string, monopoly money, and a flock of pigeons?”

Pigeonhole Sort?

Problem: Sorting money in ascending order of value.

How would you do it?

Intuition and Logic

0 You cannot describe what happens when you learn something, and you can’t control when it happens – it’s subconscious.

0 Learning is an intuitive process. Acquiring that intuition is the “click”, the “light switching on”.

0 Repetition is not intuition. Intuition is understanding one problem, not solving 50 by blindly applying rules.

0 Excessive formalism often interferes with acquiring intuition, but intuition assists in understanding formalism.

Intuition and Logic

Weinberger, K.Q., Saul, L.K. Unsupervised learning of image manifolds by semidefinite programming. CVPR 2004, Vol. 2, pp. 988-995.http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=cis_papers

0 You cannot describe what happens when you learn something, and you can’t control when it happens – it’s subconscious.

0 Learning is an intuitive process. Acquiring that intuition is the “click”, the “light switching on”.

0 Repetition is not intuition. Intuition is understanding one problem, not solving 50 by blindly applying rules.

0 Excessive formalism often interferes with acquiring intuition, but intuition assists in understanding formalism.

Swiss roll

Fruit rollup.

No

Thinking > Memorization

0 Real-world problem solving: CS305 Midterm, Spring 2009.Open book, open Internet.

1. Can an algorithm simultaneously be and ? Why or why not? 2. What is the complexity of the function ? 3. True/False: If algorithm A is and A runs in 4 seconds when , A will run in 9 seconds when . 4. What is the complexity of the following algorithm in terms of n?…5. What is the advantage of this type of test?

Average grade: 84%

Intuitively understand the problem

Create a hypothetical solution

Implement the solution

Did it work?

Test the solution

Yes

Peanut butter jelly time!

Look at Wikipedia a lot

Creativity in the Classroom

0 Hands-on creative learning is critical.

0 Autodidactic programming is almost always hands-on.

0 Make lifechanging experiences for your students:0 Playing with Capsela toys in 4th grade sparked interest in electronics and robotics.

0 Now creating brain-computer interfaces and trying to treat Parkinson’s disease.

public class SingingFrog extends Frog { public SingingFrog(Song frogSong) { … } @Override public void croak() { … }}

>“This is a constructor…”

“This is a destructor…”

“This is a method…”

How do you get 8-year olds to program, anyway?

0 Don’t assume they can’t do it. Kids can learn very fast and tend to be very creative.

0 Bring the concepts down to their level, present them intuitively, and connect them with the known.

0 Make it a game (and let them make games).

0 Show them role models who do it. Be one if possible.

0 As teachers, point students who are exhibiting proficiency at additional resources.

0 “College for kids” programs, interest groups, hackerspaces, competitions.

0 Companies at the forefront of the field.

0 In high school, actual college courses and faculty research.

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 875

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Prior Experience vs. Grade, 30 students

Years of prior experience

Gra

de

Recognizing a technical mindset0 Common traits of technical padawans:

0 Insatiable curiosity, asks “why?” a lot.

0 Desire to make, to build, to improve, to customize (“takes things/ideas apart”). “Makers”

0 Perfectionism, tries to “optimize” everything.

0 Deep focus, sometimes to the exclusion of more mundane schoolwork (possibly “underperformers”).

0 “Geeky”, makes references to geek jargon (e.g. “grok”) and culture. Reads xkcd.

0 More general signs of developmental potential:0 Overexcitabilities (Dabrowski):

0 Early learning in areas outside of the curriculum (with or without engagement inside of it).

0 Leadership/sense of purpose at an early age.

Randall Munroe, xkcd: xkcd.com/519

Anakin Skywalker, technical padawan.--Star Wars, Episode 1

OE Manifestation

Psychomotor “Can’t sit still”, high energy, may be misdiagnosed as ADHD.

Sensory Deep connection to music, art, food, the outdoors, etc.

Intellectual Highly curious, builds a large knowledge base at an early age.

Imaginational “In the clouds”, thinks about possibilities more than actualities.

Emotional Deep sense of justice, compassion, right/wrong.

Obvious: Make Learning Fun

The Problem of Retention

Se-ries1

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1000000

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The loss of STEM students

Why the attrition?0 STEM is hard.

0 STEM students need to be very motivated to survive.

0 There are few support structures in place among peers, mentors, or faculty.

0 Certain short-term motivators are “dangerous”: they don’t sustain a strong passion:

1. Parental forcing: this generally doesn’t work in any field.

Big difference between forcing and inspiring: is the desire on the part of the parent or the student?

2. Top-down educational incentives: scholarships and grants aren’t cited among strong motivators for students.

3. Peer pressure: high school and college peer groups are different, have different values. If one group values STEM and a new group does not, the desire may collapse.

Effective Motivators

0 Surprisingly, the promise of a high salary is an effective motivator.

0 (That doesn’t mean that they survive the college major)

0 Passion and hard work were ranked the strongest factors to success.

Summary

0 Intuition is a powerful tool for understanding complex scientific and technological phenomena.0 Presented properly, it can transcend age and

background.

0 Analogy with the known is a useful technique for accessing this intuition.

0Hands-on creative work is vital to effective STEM education.

0 It is necessary to find strong support networks for students in order to raise STEM retention rates.

Questions?