Xi From China: University

Writing Blog In 3rd Floor

Tue, 06 May 2008 20:46:36 GMT

I wish my office was in the 3th floor.

The Ethernet in our lab doesn't work. It's ironic. We are the network group, but we don't have Ethernet. Anyway, there is still wireless network.

There are 2 wireless providers in this building. One is UvicOpen, which can be connected all over the campus. But in ECS, the signal is only strong enough below the 3rd floor. Another one is EngineeringNet, which is available through this building, but ... you cannot use Bit Torrent.

So, whenever I want to download, I have to bring my laptop to the lobby in the 3rd floor. Oops, my battery is dying ...

My Research Goes Well

Sat, 03 May 2008 03:17:29 GMT

You know, I constantly feel jealous about my supervisor, cuz he has such a smart student like me.

Just kidding.

"Being the one is just like being in love", says the oracle in the movie "The Matrix". And so is research. Sometimes, the feeling is right, everything goes so well, so you think you are invincible. Unfortunately, that feeling usually doesn't last too long.

Another thing. I went to my labmate's master's thesis defense today. It was a great job he did, very very strong thesis. I heard someone murmured it could be a Ph.D thesis. However, the committee still gave him a tough time. A guy from Computer Engineering department asked many difficult questions, most of which shouldn't be asked in a defence of Computer Science degree. Anyway, he is brilliant. No problem for him.

Oh, by the way, he is too my supervisor's student. Doubly jealous. :)

How Good Is Uvic?

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:48:15 GMT

AWRU, The Academic Ranking of World Universities, is considered as one of the most credible ranking of higher learning, having been cided by the journal Economist. The methodology takes many aspects into account, which is believed to be unbiased. Other rankings have similar results. Since AWRU is one of the most famous ones, we use it as our reference.

In AWRU, Uvic is ranked 203-304 in the world, 99-138 in North America and 8-17 in Canada.

Seems fair to me.

However, I still cannot tell how good Uvic is from the ranking, because I don't have any instinctive sense about the relative ranking in the world. Well, I know Chinese universities a lot. So why don't I just compare Uvic to them?

There are 14 Mainland Chinese universites on the list out of top 500 in the world:

1 of them has higher ranking than Uvic, 151-202 in the world. It's Tsinghua University.

5 of them have the same ranking as Uvic, 203-304 in the world. They are Nanjing University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Science & Technology of China, Zhejiang University.

Other 8 have lower ranking. They are Fudan University, Jilin University, China Agriculture University, Lanzhou University, Nankai University, Shandong University, Tianjin University and Zhongshan University.

Still seems fair to me.

Notice that the effect of size is already under consideration, so large population of students and staff doesn't benifits in AWRU. Furthermore, if you ask, I want to say that Chinese universities are underestimated. By looking into the criterian, we can see that the accomplishment of alumnus weights much. For Chinese universities are newly rising power, they don't have gorgeous past but splendid future.

In this sense, European universties are falling.

I don't think Uvic is as good as the Chinese universities with the same ranking, say Peking University. One of my friend, Jason, is going to have courses in Peking Universty, due to some exchange project. He said he is a bit afraid, because he heard that students there are really smart. Yes, compared to those in Uvic, they really are. Sometimes the rumor is true.

It makes perfect sense. Suppose all races are equally intelligent. Assume Uvic is of top 13 universities in Canada, and Peking U is the top 5 out of 500 universities in China. Canada has population of 30 million? Maybe Uvic gets the top 20% students. On the other hand, China has 1.3 billion population. Peking U takes 1% the most qualified kids in China. Top 1% in 1.3 billion, which means geniuses.

This goes to a long controversial question that the factor makes people great is innate or postnatal. Frankly, I suggest both, 50 to 50. Uvic, comparing to my previous university in China, does have better management and courses. That helps for some extent but not for all. Speaking for the truth, some people are more talented than others in this world. If you are as tall as Yao Ming, you can be a good basketball player. It's not that obvious in intelligence, but it does exist. I'm tutoring students in Uvic. Sometimes I think, gosh, if these kids were in China, they would never make it to a university like Peking U.

If you believe that people are born differently intelligent, then it's no denying that Chinese universities have the best. And now the rising China has the economy can back them up. More and more scientists select to go back China not only because patriotism, but also profit. In the years to come, Chinese universities will be going up dramatically.

Study, Research, The Beginning Of The End

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:49:52 GMT

The last exam is over. There is one whole month before the next semester. I didn't know I would have such a long break. I should take the advantage for homecoming.

Well. First, I didn't plan for this trip, so I don't wanna hustle. Second, other things are coming, so China can wait. Anyway, I didn't expect I can actually rest during "break". My response is more like the 3rd year student below.

It's only one course left now, and it doesn't matter. "Take the easiest course," My professor said. "now you should focus on your research." He gave me a bunch of fancy gadgets as well as tasks during break.

They are programmable sensors I should work on. I think it's cool. I'm looking forward. And It's something practical that helps in career. I'm tired doing research only on my labtop. The world is bigger than that.

My former research, the shortest path problem assigned by my supervisor, was too theoretical that nobody would never pay me to do. We have theory group in our department. They do math. So why don't we just leave those Big O Notations and Inequalities to them?

When I first came to this grad school, I wanted to do something with AI. Now I don't take it serious anymore. Survey shows that AI is the field that most scientists want to work on. AI is cool but it doesn't pay that much in career. We can draw this conclusion from I couldn't get any fund when I applied to study AI as a grad student, so I had to change it to my current supervisor.

Let's be realistic. I don't even register the course "Artificial Intelligence" this summer.

One Slide Of My Coming Presentation

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:39:41 GMT

This is from one of my a presentation of a course project. I don't even bother to add a background to the slide. About the figure, I drew it in MS Paint within 3 minutes.

As illustrated in the phd comics: I'm not lazy. I'm an effort minimalist. Course is just the least important thing to a grad student once you are not planning for another degree anymore. In that case, you need good grade for fellowship.

At least it's easier to get A here than that in my Chinese grad school.

Graduates Like Marriage

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:12:52 GMT

1. In Engineering, only 12.3% are female.

You don't say.

2. In Earning, male PhD $82,619 outperforms MSc $64,533

I don't understand, because I don't think education makes people better. Educated people are more qualified because you need to be qualified to get education, like you've to be richer and smarter to go to better university. So, conversely, the rich family and intelligence are the real reason supports you in future career market, not the courses taken in university. Schools teach nothing.

Whatever, I'm still hang in there with my MSc. $64,533 times the exchange rate, that is... much better than what I can get in China. Although it must be much lesser in Canada.

3. In Marriage, Grads 24.7% single rate outperforms 28.7% general population.

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, more likely to have normal family.

But I suppose those extra 4% people are too bored so that they get married in grad school.

Am I Tired?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:34:05 GMT

Today, a German guy told me I looked tired.

Did I?

I feel OK though. But, it's hard to say. Maybe I'm just too anxious to feel tired. If so, that's not a good news. Pressure makes you running faster, but also burns you out. And I don't wanna be burned out. Diligence is harmful when frantic, is not when organized. I should be like Winston Churchill said:

"In difficult moments, behave like a duck. Keep calm and unruffled on the surface, but keep paddling away underneath."

Anyway, I do need a mirror in my office.

When I Have Time ...

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:13:54 GMT

Clubs

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:11:28 GMT

Literally, I'm in 5 clubs. I didn't know that.

When I just came here last term, a Chinese girl, a 19 years old freshman, told me she was in 10 clubs. Her tone was pround. I think she was excited about her new life in Canada. But I thought: 10 clubs! That's too many! I mean, if she spends 2 hours on each club per week, that's 20 of all. I only work 12 hours per week. 20 hours seem lots of work to me. It amazed me that she still have time to sleep.

However, recently, I realized that I was wrong. I'm in 5 clubs as well.

1. Chinese Students and Scholars Association

I joined this club before I came to Canada. It must be the only ethical club with the most number of members and the least amount of activities. It has exactly 2 events each year, on Spring Festival and Mid Autumn respectively.

So let's say it takes 10 minutes per week to me.

2. CSC Couses Club

Once you select computer science courses, you are automaticly in this club. Frankly speaking, I have no idea about how it works. It exists in name only.

It takes me no time per week.

3. International Friendship Group

If I have time, I go to the priest's place at Tursday night to practise my English. I also go to activities it holds once a while.

It's 3 hours per week.

4. Association of International and Canadian Students

I go to the coffee meeting to look on how Canadian boys hit on International girls. And practise English if I can.

It's 2 hours per week.

5. Smashing (Uvic Badminton Club)

This is actually the only club interest me. I spent 6 hours play badminton in the club each week. Now, I'm considering to get a state of arts racket to improve my performance.

To sum up, that's over 11 hours per week, which is almost all the off work time I have right now.

Spring Festival

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:56:52 GMT

Today is Spring Festival Eve, the most important holiday in China. However, I don't even have time to do it. Things are crazy recently.

There is my schedule today. I have to work until 8:30pm. If anything makes me feel better, that is the guy works with me in consultant offcie is a Chinese too. We can celebrate this by speaking Chinese.

And my to-do list is about a hundred miles long, including an assignment due tomorrow and preparing for a presentation tomorrow. For the latter one, I haven't even started it yet. And I just wasted 10 minutes to write this blog.

You see, the university is thoughtful. They make us busy to forget the Spring Festival.

TA Conference

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:11:12 GMT

I went to a TA Conference today.

My name card.

A door prize I won. They are movie tickets in downtown.

I seems that my new year resolution is performed very well.

Illusion

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 04:09:19 GMT

People are slaves of sentiment. Seeing is not necessarily believing. Sometimes you think you can see the truth, however, they are just illusions. Only the preciseness of rationalism unveils the hidden rule of the world.

I used to think that the number of Canadian in Computer Science department is limited. Recently, I find out that there are still many of them.

I drew my conclusion by observing in the senimar course. Unlike other courses, senimar course is the the only one that is mandatory to all grad students. Other courses could be biased. For instance, math courses have more Chinese. Senimar course is the only unbiased data source I can get.

In the course, there are 18 students of all. Among them, there are: 7 Chinese, 2 Indian, 2 German and 1 Iranian.

That's 12 of all. Rest of them are either native speakers or European I cannot distinguish. Let's suppose they are all native speakers. One of them whose accent is too strong as well as he is too arrogant to be a Canadian. I guess this guy is from USA. So there are 5 left.

There could be up to 5 Canadian, which is almost as many as Chinese. That's a lot. I didn't see this coming.

Teaching

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:17:11 GMT

Fate is ironic.

I teach the same lab this term, as well as another one.

1 session for CSC100 Lab

2 sessions for SENG130 Lab

Until now, I haven't got in touch with the professor of SENG130. I know this guy. He is not actually that kind of responsible person.

I tought a CSC100 Lab this morning. Teaching is exhausting. You have to shout to them for 50 minutes during each session. I think my teaching skill is better. Last term, I considered myself as the worst teacher in the world history. I can only speak for 20 minutes for each session. Thank god it was a lab, otherwise it would be really awkard. However, this term, I can teach wall to wall in 50 minutes fluently with proper timing.

I have learnt from my previous failure that confidence and determination is really important in public speaking. Just pretend to be a good speaker, and make your students to believe so. They will act back.

Instructor is not a good job. The light side is, it is helpful to my speaking English nonetheless. If everything goes well, I will try to teach senior courses in the future.

When Canadian Meets Each Other

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:19:51 GMT

I went to orientation today, a orientation for new students. During the orientation, two people found out they are both Canadian.

"You're Canadian. I knew it!"

"I'm the only one in the lab!"

"Me too!"

They were excited. If they were Communists, they would call each other "comrade" by then. The scene was heart-warming and convivial. I loved it. I'm sorry I didn't bring my camera, but I have a analogy here. It's pretty much like this one below:

April 25th, 1945, during World War Two, US and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany's defenses.[1]

Compared with that, it's not really exciting for me to meet my ubiquitous countrymen.

[1] http://dkgz.ggjy.net/yingyu/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=429

My Grade

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:52:54 GMT

Grade means nothing. There is a article on my supervisor's homepage, "How to ruin your graduate life." One thing it says is "always try to get good grade." In the author's opinion, he believes that a grade of B on average is enough. He suggests students focus on research not courses.

Theoretically, I agree. I hate courses too. However, practically, I must work on it as much as I can. Due to the policy, to us, A- is the passing line. If you fail, your money is gone. Pack your stuff and go home. That's why I am so nervous about this. It's the sword of Damocles hanging on my head.

I had 2 courses last term, and I just got the grade today. Lucky me, they are all passed.

CSC 482b/523 Randomized Algorithm

Grade: A-

It is said to be one of the most difficult courses on campus, purely math. I worked really hard on it, and I believed I should get a A. The reason of I didn't get one is that I made a rookie's mistake. I was too lazy to write my proving in detail. Time to time, I just proved the lemma in my head and write down: "It is obviously that ...". One day, the professor changed her marker, and the new marker is very strict about this. So I fail the following assignment because of imprecision. Otherwise, I can get >5 more points in my final grade.

Actually, I have more complaint about this... but anyway, since A- could be also considered as acceptable, so why don't I just save my bitter words as well as troubles. After all, it is a valuable lesson. Math should be prudent. My proving is indeed a problem. Sometimes when I read my writing, I don't even understand myself.

Learning from mistakes, that is the true meaning of taking courses, isn't it?

CSC 450/550 Computer Networking

Grade: A+

Comparing to the first one, this course is much easier. Basically, in Computer Science, the difficulty of a course depends on how much mathematics and programming it has. Good news, this course has barely no math. You just need to memorize those protocols and jargons.

As for programming, frankly speaking, it scared me at the first time. It requires programming in C/Unix/Socket/Pthread, which I've never used them before except a little experience on C language when I was a freshman. (That is, 6 years ago.) I thought I would be dead.

Actually, I shouldn't worry about it. Once I got to know it, it became easy in no time. So after a few weeks, although Canadian kids were still complaining "the lab is too hard", it didn't bother me anymore.

To sum up, it is A on average, not too good, not too bad. One have to take 6 courses to get a master degree. So for me, that's 2 down, 4 to go. I'm coming!

Being A White Mouse

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:30:27 GMT

I took a part in a psychological experiment today. I don't know why I did this. It's the end of the term, time is limited and everything goes crazy. Well, it's me. I always do things don't make any sense. Sometimes weird thoughts just come off the top of my head, then I say: OK, why don't I just ... (some stupid ideas).

For this time, I think it's because I am always curious about the psychological studies in Scientific American. Plus, I can get 10$ easy money for 1 hour work.

The psychology lab is in a basement. When I came, another volunteer was already there. We exchanged some words:

"What's your major?"

"Computer science"

"I'm general science." (....What's general science?)

"Are you a resident?"

"No, I've been here only 3 month. And you?"

"I live here for 20 years."

...

blah, blah, blah.

It turns out that they are taking some classes, so they do the experiment for bonus marks. I wish I could do experiments for marks. Let me think, what kind of computer science experiments need volunteers ....

Before I got an answer, a researcher came to us. "Pick a number from 1 to 10." She said.

Another guy said: "7."

I said: "Is it a part of the experiment?"

The researcher and the volunteer: -_-|||.

Then I found out this's like a coin flipping. For example, the researcher keeps a number in her mind first, and whose number we tell her is closer to hers, wins. Then she can assign us to different groups in the experiment.

After this, the experiment began and it lasted for one hour. It's a role playing, quite fun. I'm sorry I can not reveal more details since it's secured. Anyway, it's an interesting experience and very neat ten dollars.

The Difficult Course

Sun, 25 Nov 2007 05:28:58 GMT

Randomized Algorithm, instructed by Valerie King, is considered as one of the most difficult courses in Uvic. Students keep dropping this course. They might cannot follow or they just simply think it doesn't worth it. In the latest course, we need to deliver our homework, so I assert all the students who suppose to attend were there.

Guess what?

There are one Bangladeshi, one Canadian cool guy and four Iranian. Besides, rest of the students are all Chinese.

Yeah, sometimes it does feel like home.

Poison Trial

Sat, 24 Nov 2007 01:11:55 GMT

I talked to a professor about math. I tried to say something about "Poisson Trials", but what I really said is "Poison Trials". (click here to listen to the real pronunciation) The professor is a New Yorker, and she was totally shocked:

"What?!"

After understood what I meant, she laughed out loudly. "Poison Trial... It's like a trial you never want to take." She said:" Well... Poisson... Poison, they look similar though."

One Hour Beyond My Life

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:10:47 GMT

Yesterday afternoon, it was Sunday. When I was working in the lab, I glimpsed my watch. It was 6 o'clock. I thought it's the time to have meal, so I went back to my office to eat.

Suddenly, I found something weird: It's only 5 o'clock in my laptop! I checked my watch again, and still, it's 6 o'clock. "Which one is right?" I got confused. That's the problem of having 2 clocks. When you have 1 clock, you always know the correct time; when you have 2 clocks, you got confused.

I thought: "Am I crazy already?" For a second, I thought I was crazy. I was even disappointed by myself. I used to consider myself as a tough guy. But now, only working 80 hours per week, this tiny little thing can drive me crazy? It can't be true.

Thank god, I have the third clock to help me out, my cellphone. My cellphone told me that the time is 5 o'clock too, the same as my laptop. Apparently, my watch lost 1 hour for some reasons.

So another question went off the top of my head is: Am I kidnapped by an UFO? People say if you kidnapped by aliens from another time-space you would lose hours of time. But as a well-educated and not crazy person, I vetoed this idea in the next minute as well.

Then I realized that it might be something to do with the daylight saving time. I checked it, and yes it was. I was relieved that I wasn't crazy or kidnapped. There is a synchronizing mechanism in my laptop and cellphone, so they adjusted the time automatically, but not my watch. And I was happy that I have an extra hour. It's interesting, just likes going back time.

Analyse of My Personal Economy

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:51:41 GMT

Analyse of My Personal Economy

Zhang Xi

Department of Engineering and Computer Science

University of Victoria,Canada

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss the income and expend of a typical engineering North American international grad student, which is, me. This study shed a light on the future life of studying aboard for Chinese students, which is, still me.

Introduction

I could win a Nobel Prize by this paper.

1.Expend

1.1 Food: ~150$ [1]

1.2 Health Insurance: ~50$ [1]

1.3 Rental: ~360$ [2]

1.4 Other Expend: up to 150$ per month so far (It's a loose upper-bound.) [3]

1.5 Tuition per month: ~6400$/12~533$ [1]

So the summation is: ~1243$

2.Income

2.1 Scholarship+TA: ????$ (protected by commercial reason) [4]

3.Advantage

3.1 Net income: x=????$ - 1243$=???$

3.2 My monthly income in China: y=???$ [3]

Subsequently, we have: x>y.

Conclusion

Not bad.

Reference

[1]Online banking record

[2]Rental contract

[3]My poor memory

[4]Cheques.