Learning reports, updated daily

The plan:

Finish 15-455 before 2/14[cancelled]

Finish 15-855 before 3/1 3/14

15-855 plan: learn 1 lecture every day till 2/28.

Learn “Computational Discrete Mathematics” parallel to the course

Also, learn “Approximation Algorithms” whenever possible.

Then learn bootcamp, beyond bootcamp and another course.

继续阅读“Learning reports, updated daily”

Self learning report, 2021/02/03

Today I was able to finish L4,L5,L6 of the 15-455 course. L5 and L6 slides can be understood effortlessly, perhaps the course isn’t that hard after all.

No homework is done today due to participation in algorithmic competition. I will not participate in algorithmic competition seriously anytime soon. Study comes first.

Best case scenario: 15-455 finished before next Wednesday, 15-855 finished before 3/1. Additional material and papers(?) are learned.

Worst case scenario: 15-455 finished before next Sunday, 15-855 finished 80% before 3/1. No additional materials learned.

Self learning reports will be posted every day before 24:00 to keep me on track.

Self learning report, 2021/02/02

Today I was only able to finish L03 and 2/3 of L04 of 15-455. No homework is done.

This is due to an algorithmic competition which I had to participate. Tomorrow I hope to:

  1. Finish L04
  2. Finish the homework.
  3. Finish L05
  4. Finish L06 (Not likely as I have to participate in algorithmic competition tomorrow too.)

“Make 1% progress every day for 100 days.” – Ryan O’Donnell

Self learning report, 2021/02/01

I decided to learn http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~15455/ first, before progressing to the graduate course by Ryan O’Donnell.

As I have learned most of the material before, I have plenty reason to believe that I will finish with 15455 soon.

Yet today I found the course to be more difficult than I imagined while doing the first assignment. The course by K. Sutner offers more material than the textbook offers and the course can probably provide me a deeper understanding of the material, so I decided to put effort in it to finish it soon.

I promise myself to never see the solution while attempting the homework. Only when I give up will I see the solution.

Today I learned the first two lectures and finished the first Assignment. I expect to learn more efficiently in the following days.

Zhikun Wang

I am a 2nd-year undergraduate student from China who is interested in theoretical computer science, especially in circuit lower bounds and pseudo-randomness.

I am currently self-learning computational complexity and other theoretical computer science topics actively.

I also participate in competitive programming, which is a great fun. I have won the 1st place in ICPC Shanghai 2020 and CCSP 2020.