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DAVID MALAN: This is CS50's office
hours with, today, David and Brian.

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If unfamiliar, office
hours are an opportunity

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at Harvard on campus for students
to visit professors' offices,

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literally, and ask questions
about the courses they're

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taking, about computer
science, more generally,

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or life after courses like CS50.

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So we thought we would try to do
the same here on the internet,

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especially while everyone is home.

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We do hope that everyone is
doing well and is feeling

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healthy, and family and friends, too.

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And the goal of today really is just
to have a chat about topics of interest

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to you.

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Ramon has brought some questions that
classmates have asked in advance, too,

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in case we need to call upon those.

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And let me just give you a quick
tour of Zoom, if unfamiliar.

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In the bottom left-hand
corner of your Zoom window,

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there should be a Mute or Unmute button.

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If you do ask a question today, do
be sure to Mute or Unmute yourself

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accordingly.

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Next to that should be a
Start or Stop Video button.

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Do, if you have a webcam
or camera of some sort,

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keep it on during
office hours so that we

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get a sense of who were chatting with.

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In the middle of your Zoom
window is probably a chat icon

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so that you can chat textually
on your keyboard with classmates

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who are in the room,
as well, or see links

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that we might paste during the chat.

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And then last but not
least, let me go ahead

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and ask you, everyone, to do this.

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Click on the Chat button
and click on Participants

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so that you see the names of
everyone else in the chat room.

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And below the list of
participants on your screen,

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you should see a hand icon.

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That represents raising your hand.

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If everyone could click that button
just once so that we know who's here.

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Wonderful.

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So if you have a question
at any point, please

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feel free to raise your
digital hand that way and Brian

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and I will do our best to call on you.

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And please forgive if
there are simply too many

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questions to ask during this hour.

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We do hope to do more
of these in the future.

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[BACKGROUND TV NOISE]

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Just to begin.

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And we're going to also try to
keep everyone's microphones muted,

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generally, so we don't hear
background noise or TVs or traffic,

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but allow us to start right away here.

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Prenab, can we start with your
first question for Brian or myself?

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PRENAB: Yeah.

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Hi, am I audible?

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DAVID MALAN: Yes, we can hear you.

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PRENAB: Hi.

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So a quick introduction of myself.

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I'm Prenab Sabla.

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I am a 14-year-old student
from India, Bengali, India.

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And firstly, I'd just like to thank
both of you, professor David and Brian,

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especially because I took
the CS50 course last year,

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the CS50 introduction one.

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I'm doing the mobile
development one, and so

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[INAUDIBLE] the content
is very accessible,

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especially the way both of you explains.

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Thanks a lot.

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DAVID MALAN: I'm really glad to hear.

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PRENAB: Yeah.

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And secondly, my question is--

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so I have a few questions.

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And firstly, the first
question I had was

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that every year, this
year's 50 introduction cause

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has so many different problems.

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However, there's one problem, mainly,
that's been going on for years,

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and that's speller.

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And so how come speller's being that one
constant problem that's been going on?

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I mean, I've noticed
that it's one of the most

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hardest problems in the course.

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And my second question
is that this year, so I

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was trying to help some
students here and I

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was looking at the week 8 problem sets.

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And so unlike last year, where you
had only one problem that was finance,

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this year you had a whole rock barrage
of problems, encompassing web, iOS,

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Android, and games.

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And so what was the idea behind
the complete addition of problems?

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Because it's been so much
more interesting, and I myself

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really want to retake
the course just to see,

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because there were so many changes
this year, especially that one.

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So what was the idea behind changing
that and keeping the speller

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problem, however, in there?

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DAVID MALAN: Sure.

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Why don't I try to
answer the first question

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and then turn to Brian
for the second question.

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So speller has indeed been with the
course I think since 2007, when I first

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started teaching CS50.

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It has, indeed, always
been a good challenge,

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but it's really meant to be a very
climactic problem for students

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to solve in the very last week that we
spend on C, the programming language.

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I think it's incredibly
empowering for students in a class

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to actually implement their
own hash table, specifically.

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Or in the past, students had the choice
of implementing a try, alternatively.

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And I think the
competitive part of it has

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been appealing to a lot of students.

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If unfamiliar, this problem set allows
you to implement your very own spell

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checker, for which we give you a big
dictionary of 140,000 plus English

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words, and you have to implement the
fastest spell checker that you can

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and the one that uses the
least amount of memory.

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And then we have a competition of
sorts, a big board, a leaderboard,

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where students are ranked, if they
opt into this, based on how little RAM

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or how little time their code has used.

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And that seems to be a fun way of
not making the course competitive,

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but making one small piece of it so.

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And Brian could perhaps speak best
to piece set 8 and how and why it

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changed so much this year.

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BRIAN YU: Yeah, sure.

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So this past year in
CS50, we've introduced

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at the end of the class what we
call our various different tracks.

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It used to be that at
the end of CS50, everyone

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would learn a little bit
of web programming, which

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was a lot of fun for many students
and let them build some really

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interesting and exciting projects.

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But one of our goals this
past year was to experiment

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with the idea of students
building other tools

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and other applications that
are interesting to them.

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And especially nowadays, where so
much of where programming is happening

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and development is happening in mobile
apps, like iOS and Android apps,

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for example, we thought it would be
nice to give students an opportunity

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to learn to do that,
too, if they wanted to.

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So students now have an option
at the end of the semester

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to choose between web programming or
iOS app development or Android app

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development, or even
game development, too,

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since new tools and graphics libraries
that have been developed over the years

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are really making possible
some really exciting game tools

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and technologies that can be used to
build games that you can actually play.

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So these various
different tracks we hope

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are an opportunity for
students to really see

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the wide variety of
applications of the skills

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you learn in CS50, to be able
to apply them to mobile context

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and through web context,
and more beyond that, too.

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DAVID MALAN: Allow me to ask
a question now of everyone.

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If you open up your Chat window, I've
just pasted the URL of a Google form.

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We would love to know where everyone
is from and what courses of CS50

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you have taken or are taking.

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So if you're comfortable, taking
a moment to submit that form.

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We'd love to take a
look at the data after.

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And if you do give us
your email address, what

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we'll do is when there's a future
office hours with me, myself,

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or any other members
of CS50's team, we'll

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send you a quick email, like
I did for folks yesterday,

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to remind you of the day and time.

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Let's go over next to Asif.

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And let me just ask, just so that
we can field as many questions

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as possible today, do start
by asking just one question

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and we'll do our best to come back
around or keep in touch over email,

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or the like.

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Asif?

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ASIF: Asif [INAUDIBLE] here.

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DAVID MALAN: Yes.

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Can you say again.

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Your mic is a little close
to your mouth, I think.

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ASIF: Yeah, OK.

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So my question is related
to artificial intelligence.

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Can you hear me?

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DAVID MALAN: Say again?

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ASIF: My question is related
to artificial intelligence.

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DAVID MALAN: OK.

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Let's turn to Brian for this, who,
as you may know, his course on AI

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just launched yesterday.

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ASIF: Yes.

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Have you seen that movie Matrix?

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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DAVID MALAN: I have, yeah.

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ASIF: Yeah.

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In that movie, the humans are
being plugged into a machine.

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That machine is kind of a virtual role.

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DAVID MALAN: Correct.

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ASIF: Yeah.

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And so my question is that
is it possible to create

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such a virtual world, with
its own population of people?

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In that movie, we are actually
plugging in the real people--

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I mean, creating virtual people
with their own behaviors,

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their own characters, a whole world
with your own programming skills.

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Is it really possible?

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BRIAN YU: OK.

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I think I misheard your
question the first time.

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I actually have seen that
movie, now that you mention it.

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So the question is
about simulating people.

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In short, a lot of what--

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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ASIF: I did not mean simulating.

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I mean actually creating people.

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Characters created in that world
believe that they are really living.

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They have no idea that they
are being created by a program.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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BRIAN YU: Oh, real people
in a simulated world?

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ASIF: Yes.

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BRIAN YU: Well, OK.

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I guess that's gets a little bit
less about artificial intelligence

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and more into the world
of like virtual reality,

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is probably the closest thing we
have to that now, in terms of you

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have the ability to put yourself
into a virtual space and experience--

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[INTERPOSING VOICES]

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ASIF: That was the thing I was saying.

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The fact is that we cannot go-- we
cannot actually interact with that

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world.

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I mean, that world is virtual.

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The people inside is also virtual.

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We are just playing God.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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BRIAN YU: Yeah.

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So you want to just really just
recreate an entire virtual world

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that you can actually interact with?

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At the moment, I think that's more
in the realm of science fiction,

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but you never know what happens
with technology in the future.

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DAVID MALAN: Thank you for the question.

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Can we go over next to Ziad?

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I'm sorry if I'm not
pronouncing your name right.

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Malik?

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ZIAD: All right.

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It's OK.

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It's OK.

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DAVID MALAN: And if you don't
mind, when asking your question,

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can you also pronounce your name for us
and tell us what country you're from.

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ZIAD: All right.

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My name is Ziad Malik.

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I am from Austria.

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And yeah, I participated in CS50
because I want to be a leading computer

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scientist one day, hopefully.

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And now the first question is,
I started with CS50 last week,

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and I'm working pretty good with it.

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But the problem is that when
I work with a problem set

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and when I try to solve a
problem, sometimes on the more

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comfortable problems, I struggle.

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For example, the credit problem on week
1, I sat two days in front of that.

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And I was really confused
at the end, so I ended up

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submitting only the cash problem.

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And I wanted to ask, is there a
way to improve my problem solving,

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or can I learn it?

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DAVID MALAN: Yeah, that's a really
good question and not uncommon.

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And don't get discouraged.

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The more comfortable problems in
the course's homework assignments

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are, indeed, meant to be
more challenging by design.

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I think the best strategy,
especially if you're

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finding yourself hitting a wall,
so to speak, where you're just not

245
00:11:19,540 --> 00:11:22,330
sure how to solve it and
you have tried reaching out

246
00:11:22,330 --> 00:11:27,010
to anyone you might know locally or
online for help, come back to it later.

247
00:11:27,010 --> 00:11:29,110
Honestly, I think a
very good strategy is

248
00:11:29,110 --> 00:11:33,020
to do all of the less comfortable
problems throughout the semester,

249
00:11:33,020 --> 00:11:35,980
and then once you get to the middle
of the semester, or maybe even end,

250
00:11:35,980 --> 00:11:39,070
then go back and do the
more comfortable problems.

251
00:11:39,070 --> 00:11:43,480
And I bet you will feel yourself much
more capable of doing those problems

252
00:11:43,480 --> 00:11:45,410
and they will come much more easily.

253
00:11:45,410 --> 00:11:48,520
But I think if you do them only
within the individual week,

254
00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:51,940
it's hard to solve some of them because
you're not yet more comfortable,

255
00:11:51,940 --> 00:11:54,980
but you will be after
more weeks of practice.

256
00:11:54,980 --> 00:11:55,720
ASIF: Thank you.

257
00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:56,470
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

258
00:11:56,470 --> 00:11:57,700
Good question.

259
00:11:57,700 --> 00:12:01,180
Can we go over next to Shokiz.

260
00:12:01,180 --> 00:12:01,722
I'm so sorry.

261
00:12:01,722 --> 00:12:03,930
I'm not going to be able to
pronounce this correctly,

262
00:12:03,930 --> 00:12:05,560
but I think you see me going there.

263
00:12:05,560 --> 00:12:08,620
Do you want to pronounce your
name for us, [INAUDIBLE]??

264
00:12:08,620 --> 00:12:11,435


265
00:12:11,435 --> 00:12:12,810
Just remember to unmute yourself.

266
00:12:12,810 --> 00:12:17,530


267
00:12:17,530 --> 00:12:18,100
Still muted.

268
00:12:18,100 --> 00:12:24,590


269
00:12:24,590 --> 00:12:25,480
STUDENT: Hello.

270
00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:26,800
DAVID MALAN: Actually
someone-- oh, there we go.

271
00:12:26,800 --> 00:12:27,520
Go ahead.

272
00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:28,240
Yes.

273
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:29,140
STUDENT: Hello.

274
00:12:29,140 --> 00:12:31,000
My name is Shaqi Jaquan.

275
00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,532
Shaqi Jaquan.

276
00:12:33,532 --> 00:12:34,240
DAVID MALAN: Yes.

277
00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:35,198
And where are you from?

278
00:12:35,198 --> 00:12:36,073
STUDENT: Shaqi Jaqan.

279
00:12:36,073 --> 00:12:37,180
DAVID MALAN: Jaquan.

280
00:12:37,180 --> 00:12:39,000
Where are you from?

281
00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:40,290
STUDENT: I am from Uzbekistan.

282
00:12:40,290 --> 00:12:43,632
That's central Asia.

283
00:12:43,632 --> 00:12:44,590
DAVID MALAN: Wonderful.

284
00:12:44,590 --> 00:12:46,240
What's your question?

285
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:52,560
STUDENT: My question related
to, also again, improvement,

286
00:12:52,560 --> 00:12:58,170
That is lacking of ideal or
logical thinking in my mind

287
00:12:58,170 --> 00:13:01,690
to when I'm solving
any problems, relative

288
00:13:01,690 --> 00:13:06,730
to maybe algorithmic equations.

289
00:13:06,730 --> 00:13:10,150


290
00:13:10,150 --> 00:13:19,240
I am going to solve any problems related
to maybe sorting or such kind of arrays

291
00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:20,205
and graphs.

292
00:13:20,205 --> 00:13:22,890


293
00:13:22,890 --> 00:13:32,520
I want to solve any problems
related to algorithmic.

294
00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:38,850
It doesn't matter what kind
of resources you recommend

295
00:13:38,850 --> 00:13:42,715
me to improve my logical thinking.

296
00:13:42,715 --> 00:13:43,340
BRIAN YU: Sure.

297
00:13:43,340 --> 00:13:46,132
That's a very good question and
very broadly applicable to computer

298
00:13:46,132 --> 00:13:47,250
science, in general.

299
00:13:47,250 --> 00:13:49,680
I think I have two pieces
of advice to give there.

300
00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:51,510
Piece of advice number
one is when you're

301
00:13:51,510 --> 00:13:54,450
tackling a big algorithmic
challenge, it's

302
00:13:54,450 --> 00:13:57,450
often easiest to start
by thinking about, what

303
00:13:57,450 --> 00:14:00,730
are the smaller stepping
stones I can try and get

304
00:14:00,730 --> 00:14:02,530
through first along the way?

305
00:14:02,530 --> 00:14:06,025
In other words, try and break down a
bigger problem into smaller problems.

306
00:14:06,025 --> 00:14:08,760
Ziad, for instance, was
earlier talking about problems

307
00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:13,110
at one credit, where
you're trying to figure out

308
00:14:13,110 --> 00:14:16,200
what credit card company produced
a particular credit card number.

309
00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,750
And that's a bigger challenge,
but a smaller challenge

310
00:14:18,750 --> 00:14:21,870
you might start with is, OK,
given a credit card number,

311
00:14:21,870 --> 00:14:25,050
figure out what the first two digits
of the credit card number are,

312
00:14:25,050 --> 00:14:25,890
for example.

313
00:14:25,890 --> 00:14:29,070
That might be a smaller problem
that's a little bit easier to tackle,

314
00:14:29,070 --> 00:14:30,700
a little bit easier to reason about.

315
00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:33,450
And by breaking the bigger problem
down into smaller problems that

316
00:14:33,450 --> 00:14:36,540
are easier to tackle, you can
hopefully build your way up

317
00:14:36,540 --> 00:14:38,275
to the answer to the bigger problem.

318
00:14:38,275 --> 00:14:41,370
And the other strategy, I
think, is just more longer term,

319
00:14:41,370 --> 00:14:44,470
and it's about just getting
practice with solving more problems.

320
00:14:44,470 --> 00:14:46,668
The more problems you
try and practice solving,

321
00:14:46,668 --> 00:14:49,710
the better equipped you'll feel to
deal with more problems in the future,

322
00:14:49,710 --> 00:14:51,180
because you'll start to notice patterns.

323
00:14:51,180 --> 00:14:54,013
You'll start to realize that this
problem you're trying to solve now

324
00:14:54,013 --> 00:14:57,240
is very similar, or has some things in
common with a problem you've already

325
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,480
solved before, and that might
guide you towards figuring out what

326
00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,240
tools or algorithms and
strategies you might use

327
00:15:03,240 --> 00:15:05,520
for solving your current problem now.

328
00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:09,000
DAVID MALAN: And I imagine you mean
the computing problems specifically,

329
00:15:09,000 --> 00:15:13,110
but it's perhaps timely to us today,
I've just pasted into the chat window

330
00:15:13,110 --> 00:15:17,010
the URL of CS50's annual
CS50 X puzzle day.

331
00:15:17,010 --> 00:15:20,760
Honestly, the entire design of
that event is to empower students

332
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:23,100
to just solve problems
more collaboratively.

333
00:15:23,100 --> 00:15:25,740
So if you haven't seen
that yet, you might enjoy

334
00:15:25,740 --> 00:15:28,500
solving some problems this weekend.

335
00:15:28,500 --> 00:15:29,910
Thank you for that question, too.

336
00:15:29,910 --> 00:15:31,800
Can we go next to Christine?

337
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:38,810


338
00:15:38,810 --> 00:15:40,233
STUDENT: Next question?

339
00:15:40,233 --> 00:15:41,650
DAVID MALAN: Yeah, from Christine.

340
00:15:41,650 --> 00:15:43,960
I think she's unmuting her mic.

341
00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:44,460
Yes.

342
00:15:44,460 --> 00:15:46,760
CHRISTINE: Hi, everyone.

343
00:15:46,760 --> 00:15:50,420
Yes, I'm Christine and I'm from Dubai.

344
00:15:50,420 --> 00:15:56,840
So my question is so I took
communication in university,

345
00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,570
back in the university, but
I had my minor elective,

346
00:16:00,570 --> 00:16:05,540
and I was supposed to go through
the computer science route.

347
00:16:05,540 --> 00:16:13,610
So is there a reason why any computer
science courses has to start with C?

348
00:16:13,610 --> 00:16:16,220
Because that's always been my struggle.

349
00:16:16,220 --> 00:16:21,650
So after C, I think I was
supposed to take JavaScript

350
00:16:21,650 --> 00:16:27,320
after and then web development, but
then C has always been my struggle.

351
00:16:27,320 --> 00:16:30,350
I always struggle with it,
so it kind of discouraged me.

352
00:16:30,350 --> 00:16:36,740
So I ended up changing my elective,
my minor elective after that.

353
00:16:36,740 --> 00:16:42,020
Because my worry right now is if I
am struggling right now with the C

354
00:16:42,020 --> 00:16:46,070
part of the course, so my
worry is, can I actually

355
00:16:46,070 --> 00:16:51,040
take on the other languages
that's in the syllabus?

356
00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:54,080
So I'm quite scared about that.

357
00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:54,830
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

358
00:16:54,830 --> 00:16:56,510
It's certainly understandable.

359
00:16:56,510 --> 00:16:57,750
I would try not to be scared.

360
00:16:57,750 --> 00:17:00,950
I would take comfort in the fact that
many, many, many students at Harvard

361
00:17:00,950 --> 00:17:03,530
and beyond have that same emotion.

362
00:17:03,530 --> 00:17:07,460
I've just pasted into the chat window
an answer I wrote on Quora, actually,

363
00:17:07,460 --> 00:17:10,579
some time ago about why CS50 uses C.

364
00:17:10,579 --> 00:17:14,645
Most intro courses these
days don't, to my knowledge.

365
00:17:14,645 --> 00:17:16,520
And in fact, it's much
more common these days

366
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,790
for introductory courses to
use Java or Python, which

367
00:17:19,790 --> 00:17:22,550
I do admit can be more
accessible, a little easier

368
00:17:22,550 --> 00:17:25,040
to pick up, because they
don't have pointers.

369
00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:29,540
They don't have as many of the same
pitfalls as a language that C has.

370
00:17:29,540 --> 00:17:33,050
And they also have more features
that make a few things more easy,

371
00:17:33,050 --> 00:17:35,330
more easily done in code.

372
00:17:35,330 --> 00:17:36,620
So I wouldn't get discouraged.

373
00:17:36,620 --> 00:17:39,290
I think if you can take
some other course first,

374
00:17:39,290 --> 00:17:42,350
maybe in some other language, that's
totally fine, if your school allows,

375
00:17:42,350 --> 00:17:45,800
and then come back to a course
in C. What many universities do

376
00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,820
is they don't start with C, but if you
are interested in what's called systems

377
00:17:49,820 --> 00:17:53,180
programming, low level
programming, then you will learn C

378
00:17:53,180 --> 00:17:56,130
as your second or maybe third language.

379
00:17:56,130 --> 00:17:58,250
So it really depends on the institution.

380
00:17:58,250 --> 00:17:59,750
So certainly, don't get discouraged.

381
00:17:59,750 --> 00:18:04,600
Certainly don't equate C with computer
science, or even CS50 for that matter.

382
00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:06,350
But if we come full
circle to the question

383
00:18:06,350 --> 00:18:10,420
earlier about pset5, our
spell checking problem sets,

384
00:18:10,420 --> 00:18:12,920
it's pretty rare for students,
I think, in an intro class

385
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,850
to be implementing their own
hash table only mid semester.

386
00:18:16,850 --> 00:18:18,600
And that's indeed meant
to be a challenge.

387
00:18:18,600 --> 00:18:21,290
So if and when you're
ready to get to that point,

388
00:18:21,290 --> 00:18:24,530
I think you'll find C very
enlightening and empowering,

389
00:18:24,530 --> 00:18:27,243
but definitely challenging at first.

390
00:18:27,243 --> 00:18:28,160
Don't get discouraged.

391
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:31,340
It just takes time and practice.

392
00:18:31,340 --> 00:18:35,720
Can we go next to how about Ron W.?

393
00:18:35,720 --> 00:18:38,920
If you'd like to say your name
and where you're from, too.

394
00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:40,010
RON: Yeah, it's Ron.

395
00:18:40,010 --> 00:18:40,760
I'm from Germany.

396
00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:43,130
I'm the flight nurse.

397
00:18:43,130 --> 00:18:47,180
So I'd like to know why and how
did you become a programmer,

398
00:18:47,180 --> 00:18:50,423
and what tips do you
have to stay motivated?

399
00:18:50,423 --> 00:18:51,840
DAVID MALAN: It's a good question.

400
00:18:51,840 --> 00:18:54,048
I think we can possibly each
answer this differently.

401
00:18:54,048 --> 00:18:57,990
I don't think of myself as a programmer,
per se, even though I enjoy doing it.

402
00:18:57,990 --> 00:19:01,610
I will admit, I don't think I personally
would enjoy doing it full-time

403
00:19:01,610 --> 00:19:03,140
as a software development job.

404
00:19:03,140 --> 00:19:05,450
I've never really had that interest.

405
00:19:05,450 --> 00:19:07,910
What's most gratifying
for me about programming

406
00:19:07,910 --> 00:19:12,440
is being able to literally solve
problems that are of interest to me

407
00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:14,405
personally or professionally.

408
00:19:14,405 --> 00:19:17,030
A lot of the code that I've
written, certainly in recent years,

409
00:19:17,030 --> 00:19:21,140
is all related to CS50 in some way,
either creating tools or adding

410
00:19:21,140 --> 00:19:25,580
to tools that our students use or that
our teaching fellows or staff use.

411
00:19:25,580 --> 00:19:28,490
And so for me, I just get a real
kick out of writing software

412
00:19:28,490 --> 00:19:30,118
that other people use.

413
00:19:30,118 --> 00:19:31,910
But I don't think,
personally, I would want

414
00:19:31,910 --> 00:19:36,530
to do it all day long, even though I
have many friends who do exactly that.

415
00:19:36,530 --> 00:19:37,495
Brian?

416
00:19:37,495 --> 00:19:38,120
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

417
00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,037
I mean I also don't
consider myself-- like I'm

418
00:19:40,037 --> 00:19:41,660
not a programmer professionally.

419
00:19:41,660 --> 00:19:46,400
I do write some programs, but most of
my job is in the education setting.

420
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,390
But I first really
stumbled across programming

421
00:19:50,390 --> 00:19:53,090
just by taking my first class in it.

422
00:19:53,090 --> 00:19:55,430
In high school I took my
first computer science class.

423
00:19:55,430 --> 00:19:59,270
And just found it very empowering,
in terms of the problems

424
00:19:59,270 --> 00:20:00,710
it enabled me to solve.

425
00:20:00,710 --> 00:20:04,730
I remember very early on just building
some very simple programs that

426
00:20:04,730 --> 00:20:07,800
were able to be useful to
me and to other people.

427
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:09,870
And I think that was the
motivating thing for me,

428
00:20:09,870 --> 00:20:13,190
is the power that
programming has to enable

429
00:20:13,190 --> 00:20:16,040
you, with just a couple
lines of code, to be

430
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:17,750
able to build something
that was actually

431
00:20:17,750 --> 00:20:21,802
impactful or useful or
meaningful in some way.

432
00:20:21,802 --> 00:20:23,510
DAVID MALAN: And as
for practice, I think

433
00:20:23,510 --> 00:20:26,460
I would just solve as many
problems in code as you can.

434
00:20:26,460 --> 00:20:30,140
If you're not taking courses, keep
an eye on open source communities.

435
00:20:30,140 --> 00:20:33,130
That is freely available code on
GitHub and GitLab, and the like.

436
00:20:33,130 --> 00:20:36,380
And those are good ways to practice, is
by contributing to other people's code

437
00:20:36,380 --> 00:20:40,280
bases and getting feedback
from them as well.

438
00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:41,740
Can we go next to Jacob?

439
00:20:41,740 --> 00:20:44,060
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

440
00:20:44,060 --> 00:20:46,940


441
00:20:46,940 --> 00:20:48,900
Still muted, though.

442
00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:49,400
JACOB: OK.

443
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:51,120
Hi, everybody.

444
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:53,780
I'm from Nigeria.

445
00:20:53,780 --> 00:20:58,010
So I've not had any prior
experience in coding.

446
00:20:58,010 --> 00:20:59,870
I took CS50.

447
00:20:59,870 --> 00:21:02,840
I did a bit of Python.

448
00:21:02,840 --> 00:21:07,550
And C has been a bit
tough for me as a newbie.

449
00:21:07,550 --> 00:21:12,080
And I find it very difficult to
solve most of the set problems.

450
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,470
I'm just talking pset2.

451
00:21:15,470 --> 00:21:17,460
I've not been able to move past one.

452
00:21:17,460 --> 00:21:21,870
And I don't know how long it
took me to solve those problems.

453
00:21:21,870 --> 00:21:28,775
And secondly, I'm thinking if I should
go into web development or AI machine

454
00:21:28,775 --> 00:21:30,400
and data science, but I'm not too sure.

455
00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,190
So how do I decide on what to do?

456
00:21:34,190 --> 00:21:37,020
Is it best to figure
out what to do or just

457
00:21:37,020 --> 00:21:40,130
keep learning and then, I don't know.

458
00:21:40,130 --> 00:21:40,880
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

459
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,880
I think my short answer
is that you should really

460
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:46,310
pursue courses that are
of genuine interest to you

461
00:21:46,310 --> 00:21:48,810
and not simply do them
because you think you should.

462
00:21:48,810 --> 00:21:49,310
JACOB: OK.

463
00:21:49,310 --> 00:21:52,580
DAVID MALAN: Generally speaking, the
advice we give students here, at least,

464
00:21:52,580 --> 00:21:57,260
is that once you've taken two rigorous
courses in software-- whether it's

465
00:21:57,260 --> 00:22:00,050
CS50 and some other class
or two different courses

466
00:22:00,050 --> 00:22:02,600
altogether-- generally
speaking, after learning

467
00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,390
a bit of procedural
programming, which CS50 teaches,

468
00:22:05,390 --> 00:22:08,570
and functional programming,
which other classes teach,

469
00:22:08,570 --> 00:22:12,260
or object-oriented programming, once
you have a breadth of background,

470
00:22:12,260 --> 00:22:16,220
you really are able to then start
taking on part-time opportunities

471
00:22:16,220 --> 00:22:19,820
in programming, maybe even
full-time entry level positions.

472
00:22:19,820 --> 00:22:24,230
But a common next step, too, is
data structures and algorithms.

473
00:22:24,230 --> 00:22:26,750
As for web and AI, let me
turn to Brian because he

474
00:22:26,750 --> 00:22:30,460
happens to teach CS50's own
versions of those two options.

475
00:22:30,460 --> 00:22:31,520
JACOB: OK, thank you.

476
00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:32,330
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

477
00:22:32,330 --> 00:22:35,270
So certainly, if you're
interested in web programming

478
00:22:35,270 --> 00:22:38,270
artificial intelligence, we do
offer courses about that, too.

479
00:22:38,270 --> 00:22:41,870
I'll go ahead and paste the links
for both of those in the chat,

480
00:22:41,870 --> 00:22:44,420
for anyone who is interested in those.

481
00:22:44,420 --> 00:22:47,805
There's the AI class and the
web programming class as well.

482
00:22:47,805 --> 00:22:50,180
And those are really just
meant to serve as introductions

483
00:22:50,180 --> 00:22:53,030
to the field of artificial
intelligence and web programming.

484
00:22:53,030 --> 00:22:54,947
So if you'd like, you
can take a look at those

485
00:22:54,947 --> 00:22:57,530
lectures there to get a sense
for what AI is all about

486
00:22:57,530 --> 00:23:01,432
and to get an opportunity to write
some AI programs of your own.

487
00:23:01,432 --> 00:23:03,140
The goal of both of
the classes is really

488
00:23:03,140 --> 00:23:05,570
to provide that sort of
introduction so that if you

489
00:23:05,570 --> 00:23:08,410
are interested in pursuing
either of them in the future,

490
00:23:08,410 --> 00:23:10,160
you'll have some
projects under your belt.

491
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,370
You'll have some foundational
knowledge to then go forth and work

492
00:23:13,370 --> 00:23:15,510
on your own projects as well.

493
00:23:15,510 --> 00:23:18,085
DAVID MALAN: And this is such
a common question, honestly.

494
00:23:18,085 --> 00:23:20,960
I mean, there's an infinite number
of courses out there you can take,

495
00:23:20,960 --> 00:23:24,650
either in universities or for free these
days, and it's not clear at what point

496
00:23:24,650 --> 00:23:25,400
you should stop.

497
00:23:25,400 --> 00:23:28,970
But honestly, I think once
you've taken a few courses,

498
00:23:28,970 --> 00:23:34,060
it really is time to leave the nest, so
to speak, just like a baby bird would,

499
00:23:34,060 --> 00:23:37,190
and start to fend for yourself
and say yes to some project

500
00:23:37,190 --> 00:23:40,275
or say yes to some opportunity
that scares you a little bit.

501
00:23:40,275 --> 00:23:42,650
And you might not even be sure
how you're going to do it,

502
00:23:42,650 --> 00:23:45,770
but once you then get your
footing and get your confidence,

503
00:23:45,770 --> 00:23:48,170
I think you'll find that
you can start taking courses

504
00:23:48,170 --> 00:23:50,360
to fill in gaps in
your knowledge, but not

505
00:23:50,360 --> 00:23:54,230
necessarily to prepare you for
opportunities that you don't yet

506
00:23:54,230 --> 00:23:56,323
know about.

507
00:23:56,323 --> 00:23:57,490
Thank you for that question.

508
00:23:57,490 --> 00:23:58,825
Can we go next to Nadia?

509
00:23:58,825 --> 00:24:01,962


510
00:24:01,962 --> 00:24:02,670
NADIA: Thank you.

511
00:24:02,670 --> 00:24:03,637
Thank you.

512
00:24:03,637 --> 00:24:04,470
So my name is Nadia.

513
00:24:04,470 --> 00:24:06,140
I am from Ukraine, from Kiev.

514
00:24:06,140 --> 00:24:08,278
And thank you for the
upcoming puzzle day.

515
00:24:08,278 --> 00:24:09,070
I'm really excited.

516
00:24:09,070 --> 00:24:10,980
It's the second year of mine.

517
00:24:10,980 --> 00:24:13,230
And I was really bad last year.

518
00:24:13,230 --> 00:24:15,300
Hoping for something better.

519
00:24:15,300 --> 00:24:18,120
So I just actually found myself--

520
00:24:18,120 --> 00:24:22,850
I completed the CS50 first
introductory course last year,

521
00:24:22,850 --> 00:24:26,130
and I was really excited about
it, and I found myself really

522
00:24:26,130 --> 00:24:28,540
worried that I lacked some theory.

523
00:24:28,540 --> 00:24:31,860
And what I did, I bought some
theory books, downloaded them,

524
00:24:31,860 --> 00:24:36,300
started reading, and I did
not really find a lot of value

525
00:24:36,300 --> 00:24:40,720
in those because I could not fit
all the information into my brain.

526
00:24:40,720 --> 00:24:45,930
So how do you think that after
completing the CS50 course, what

527
00:24:45,930 --> 00:24:50,618
would be the best way for the student--
who I'm not from the computer science.

528
00:24:50,618 --> 00:24:52,410
I did not have the
computer science degree.

529
00:24:52,410 --> 00:24:54,670
I'm a teacher.

530
00:24:54,670 --> 00:24:59,940
So what it would be the best thing,
to start different other courses

531
00:24:59,940 --> 00:25:06,060
on computer science, maybe to do some
logic tasks, or go to the leak code,

532
00:25:06,060 --> 00:25:10,200
or actually fill in the gaps
with the books on the theory?

533
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:12,150
So how can I move after that?

534
00:25:12,150 --> 00:25:12,900
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

535
00:25:12,900 --> 00:25:16,350
Let me paste one link
that I often recommend.

536
00:25:16,350 --> 00:25:21,150
Some friends at Princeton teach this
course here, which is freely available.

537
00:25:21,150 --> 00:25:24,090
I just pasted it into the
chat window on Coursera.

538
00:25:24,090 --> 00:25:26,580
It's Princeton's introduction
to algorithms part 1,

539
00:25:26,580 --> 00:25:28,017
and there's also a part 2.

540
00:25:28,017 --> 00:25:29,850
That's a very common
next step when you want

541
00:25:29,850 --> 00:25:33,480
to learn a bit more computing theory
after taking one or more programming

542
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:34,710
classes.

543
00:25:34,710 --> 00:25:38,670
More fundamental than that to
computer science itself is this one.

544
00:25:38,670 --> 00:25:41,300
I'm going to go ahead and paste
the link of a book on Amazon.

545
00:25:41,300 --> 00:25:43,050
This link might not
work in all countries,

546
00:25:43,050 --> 00:25:46,440
but you should still be able to see the
title there, by Michael Sipser, who's

547
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:47,850
a professor at MIT.

548
00:25:47,850 --> 00:25:52,350
And the book is called Introduction
to the Theory of Computation.

549
00:25:52,350 --> 00:25:54,870
This, for those unfamiliar,
really gets to the heart

550
00:25:54,870 --> 00:25:58,470
of what computer science is and
what is possible with computers.

551
00:25:58,470 --> 00:26:01,890
And I actually used that book when
I was a student some time ago,

552
00:26:01,890 --> 00:26:04,440
and Harvard uses it now in
their introductory course,

553
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:05,880
or has over the years.

554
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,515
And that's a good,
pretty accessible book,

555
00:26:08,515 --> 00:26:11,640
but you would benefit certainly from
doing some of the problems in the book

556
00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:13,390
or from a course.

557
00:26:13,390 --> 00:26:16,080
And Brian has taken more courses
more recently, who can perhaps

558
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:17,952
speak even better to these options.

559
00:26:17,952 --> 00:26:20,160
BRIAN YU: You actually stole
my recommendation there.

560
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:24,510
I was also about to paste the Theory
of Computation book by Michael Sipser.

561
00:26:24,510 --> 00:26:27,450
If theory of computation is something
interesting to you, in terms

562
00:26:27,450 --> 00:26:30,288
of what computers can
do and what and how

563
00:26:30,288 --> 00:26:33,330
you think about computers, a little
more theoretically, a little bit more

564
00:26:33,330 --> 00:26:37,147
mathematically, that's a great book
that I would definitely recommend.

565
00:26:37,147 --> 00:26:37,980
NADIA: Thanks a lot.

566
00:26:37,980 --> 00:26:38,480
Thank you.

567
00:26:38,480 --> 00:26:42,120
I unfortunately have to go back to work,
but it was a pleasure to talk to you.

568
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:45,132
And thank you for your course and
the upcoming puzzle day, once again.

569
00:26:45,132 --> 00:26:45,840
DAVID MALAN: Yes.

570
00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:46,830
Good luck on the puzzles.

571
00:26:46,830 --> 00:26:47,570
Practice makes perfect.

572
00:26:47,570 --> 00:26:48,270
NADIA: Thanks.

573
00:26:48,270 --> 00:26:49,710
Thank you.

574
00:26:49,710 --> 00:26:52,570
DAVID MALAN: Can we
go next to Guillermo?

575
00:26:52,570 --> 00:26:55,477
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

576
00:26:55,477 --> 00:26:56,310
GUILLERMO: Well, hi.

577
00:26:56,310 --> 00:26:58,500
I'm from Uruguay.

578
00:26:58,500 --> 00:27:00,565
You said my name right, I'm surprised.

579
00:27:00,565 --> 00:27:03,270
DAVID MALAN: Thank you.

580
00:27:03,270 --> 00:27:08,690
GUILLERMO: So basically, my question
is to you, David, I was thinking,

581
00:27:08,690 --> 00:27:13,610
you know how many people admire
the way you explain your classes?

582
00:27:13,610 --> 00:27:16,500


583
00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:19,860
Basically what I'm trying
to say is that when

584
00:27:19,860 --> 00:27:23,310
you have to teach all
these people, you have

585
00:27:23,310 --> 00:27:26,850
to teach us, people without
experience, or maybe

586
00:27:26,850 --> 00:27:30,870
you like very experienced
people, how do you

587
00:27:30,870 --> 00:27:36,810
find a balance to explain something
like computer science to all of us?

588
00:27:36,810 --> 00:27:40,890
What's the key element in teaching?

589
00:27:40,890 --> 00:27:42,480
I don't know if I can--

590
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:43,980
do you get what--

591
00:27:43,980 --> 00:27:44,730
DAVID MALAN: I do.

592
00:27:44,730 --> 00:27:46,380
I do.

593
00:27:46,380 --> 00:27:48,360
No, thank you for the kind words.

594
00:27:48,360 --> 00:27:51,970
It's not easy, and I don't know
if we do a great job all the time.

595
00:27:51,970 --> 00:27:56,700
But I think the simple answer
is empathy and remembering

596
00:27:56,700 --> 00:28:01,290
what it was like to not
understand material yourself,

597
00:28:01,290 --> 00:28:04,530
and remembering what it was like to
feel like everyone else in the room

598
00:28:04,530 --> 00:28:08,640
or in the class was smarter than
you or knew better the material.

599
00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:12,660
And to try to put yourself into the
shoes, so to speak, of that student,

600
00:28:12,660 --> 00:28:16,770
to help them with a narrative,
both verbally and in the course's

601
00:28:16,770 --> 00:28:21,120
homework assignments and slides, and
so forth, get from the starting line,

602
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:25,530
so to speak, to the finish line
without letting go of their hand

603
00:28:25,530 --> 00:28:26,790
during that process.

604
00:28:26,790 --> 00:28:28,690
And I think it takes practice.

605
00:28:28,690 --> 00:28:31,200
I think it takes sensitization.

606
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,600
For instance, even
though this course, CS50,

607
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:37,830
happens to be taught to our
college undergraduates at Harvard,

608
00:28:37,830 --> 00:28:41,490
I first got my start for teaching in a
lectureship role at Harvard's extension

609
00:28:41,490 --> 00:28:44,580
school, which is a much broader
demographic of students--

610
00:28:44,580 --> 00:28:48,300
young students, old students,
everyone in between, who have gone

611
00:28:48,300 --> 00:28:49,930
or who have not gone to college.

612
00:28:49,930 --> 00:28:53,040
And so it was a much more
diverse audience of students,

613
00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:55,390
both in Cambridge and online.

614
00:28:55,390 --> 00:28:58,830
And I think that, too, helped sensitize
me to different learning styles.

615
00:28:58,830 --> 00:28:59,830
I think we have always--

616
00:28:59,830 --> 00:29:04,500
I have always-- had students who
are of different backgrounds,

617
00:29:04,500 --> 00:29:08,350
geographically,
socioeconomically, academically.

618
00:29:08,350 --> 00:29:11,160
And I think that helps,
too, not assuming

619
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:15,660
that your student body is all of the
same type or of the same mindset.

620
00:29:15,660 --> 00:29:18,040
So in short, empathy.

621
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:18,852
STUDENT: Hi, David.

622
00:29:18,852 --> 00:29:19,560
DAVID MALAN: Yes.

623
00:29:19,560 --> 00:29:22,320
STUDENT: And Brian.

624
00:29:22,320 --> 00:29:23,840
I'm from India.

625
00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:25,020
I had a couple of questions.

626
00:29:25,020 --> 00:29:28,650
I am [INAUDIBLE] for the CS50
course and it was amazing.

627
00:29:28,650 --> 00:29:30,780
I had an amazing experience.

628
00:29:30,780 --> 00:29:36,200
I haven't had any experience with the
other courses, as compared to this one.

629
00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:41,270
And I was pretty much interested
in the Harvard courses,

630
00:29:41,270 --> 00:29:47,470
so I searched on the Google and got
some Harvard courses related to CS50.

631
00:29:47,470 --> 00:29:54,210
That was CS20 and CS124, for
[INAUDIBLE] mathematics and BSA.

632
00:29:54,210 --> 00:29:58,883
Have you any plans for
showcasing them in the edX?

633
00:29:58,883 --> 00:30:00,300
DAVID MALAN: Really good question.

634
00:30:00,300 --> 00:30:02,660
Let me turn to Brian, too,
in part, because we've

635
00:30:02,660 --> 00:30:05,225
been talking about this quite a bit.

636
00:30:05,225 --> 00:30:05,850
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

637
00:30:05,850 --> 00:30:08,670
So CS20 and CS124 are the
courses you mentioned,

638
00:30:08,670 --> 00:30:12,380
are theory of computation classes
that are taught at Harvard.

639
00:30:12,380 --> 00:30:17,250
CS20 is more of an introduction to
the mathematics of computer science,

640
00:30:17,250 --> 00:30:21,270
and then CS124 takes that a little bit
further into the analysis of algorithms

641
00:30:21,270 --> 00:30:25,390
and the efficiency of those algorithms
in studying data structures.

642
00:30:25,390 --> 00:30:30,510
So CS50 itself does not have a specific
course that is about algorithms,

643
00:30:30,510 --> 00:30:34,080
but if you are looking to take similar
courses, David, earlier in the chat,

644
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:36,750
pasted a link to the
Princeton Coursera algorithms

645
00:30:36,750 --> 00:30:41,898
class, which covers many of the
same topics, and CS124 does as well.

646
00:30:41,898 --> 00:30:44,190
And so that I would suggest,
as a class, to potentially

647
00:30:44,190 --> 00:30:48,080
look at, if you're interested in
continuing to study algorithms as well.

648
00:30:48,080 --> 00:30:49,830
If you're also interested
in algorithms, I

649
00:30:49,830 --> 00:30:54,430
can tell you the textbook
that is used for CS124,

650
00:30:54,430 --> 00:30:58,590
the algorithms classes at Harvard,
as well as other algorithms classes.

651
00:30:58,590 --> 00:31:03,300
It's this one that I just pasted here,
Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen,

652
00:31:03,300 --> 00:31:06,180
Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein,
often abbreviated to just

653
00:31:06,180 --> 00:31:09,480
CLRS for the initials of the authors.

654
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:12,270
That's quite a popular and
famous book about algorithms

655
00:31:12,270 --> 00:31:13,540
and it's very comprehensive.

656
00:31:13,540 --> 00:31:16,980
So if you're interested in studying
and learning more about algorithms,

657
00:31:16,980 --> 00:31:20,520
I would definitely
suggest that book as well.

658
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,310
STUDENT: One more question.

659
00:31:23,310 --> 00:31:24,310
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

660
00:31:24,310 --> 00:31:25,090
Go ahead.

661
00:31:25,090 --> 00:31:27,480
Go ahead, [INAUDIBLE].

662
00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:32,090
STUDENT: Are there any extra
problem sets related to the CS50?

663
00:31:32,090 --> 00:31:35,480


664
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:37,440
DAVID MALAN: Problems
sets related to CS50?

665
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:42,050
STUDENT: Yeah, apart from
the CS50 problem sets?

666
00:31:42,050 --> 00:31:42,980
DAVID MALAN: Oh.

667
00:31:42,980 --> 00:31:46,190
Not per se, but if you
go to this URL, which

668
00:31:46,190 --> 00:31:48,410
I will paste into the
chat window, we have

669
00:31:48,410 --> 00:31:50,415
previous years of homework assignments.

670
00:31:50,415 --> 00:31:53,540
The problem sets have changed over
time, and if you look at previous years,

671
00:31:53,540 --> 00:31:55,192
you'll see some older problem sets.

672
00:31:55,192 --> 00:31:56,900
They're not maintained,
as well, anymore,

673
00:31:56,900 --> 00:32:00,955
though, so things like check 50 might
not work anymore, but they're there.

674
00:32:00,955 --> 00:32:02,080
STUDENT: All right, thanks.

675
00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:02,520
Thank you.

676
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:03,270
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

677
00:32:03,270 --> 00:32:07,826
Can we next go to Sabir, if you'd like
to say hello and where you're from.

678
00:32:07,826 --> 00:32:10,860
STUDENT: I have a question.

679
00:32:10,860 --> 00:32:14,597
DAVID MALAN: Let's go to
Sabir first, if we could.

680
00:32:14,597 --> 00:32:15,430
Still muted, though.

681
00:32:15,430 --> 00:32:15,950
There we go.

682
00:32:15,950 --> 00:32:18,563
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

683
00:32:18,563 --> 00:32:19,230
SABIR: Hi David.

684
00:32:19,230 --> 00:32:20,710
Hi, Brian.

685
00:32:20,710 --> 00:32:21,460
Nice to meet you.

686
00:32:21,460 --> 00:32:23,160
DAVID MALAN: Hello.

687
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:24,150
SABIR: OK.

688
00:32:24,150 --> 00:32:25,230
I am Sabir.

689
00:32:25,230 --> 00:32:29,430
Currently in Turkey,
but I'm from Nigeria.

690
00:32:29,430 --> 00:32:33,780
I'm studying in Turkey
[INAUDIBLE] studying masters

691
00:32:33,780 --> 00:32:35,270
in software engineering.

692
00:32:35,270 --> 00:32:36,310
DAVID MALAN: Wonderful.

693
00:32:36,310 --> 00:32:36,810
SABIR: OK.

694
00:32:36,810 --> 00:32:43,150
My question is, currently I'm doing a
research on artificial intelligence.

695
00:32:43,150 --> 00:32:49,450
But actually some of the lectures
here, they [INAUDIBLE] language.

696
00:32:49,450 --> 00:32:51,900
So [INAUDIBLE] not good in English.

697
00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:55,860
So what kind of book do
you recommend me for me

698
00:32:55,860 --> 00:32:58,590
to learn artificial intelligence?

699
00:32:58,590 --> 00:33:04,380
And again, see, I kind of have
interest in C programming language.

700
00:33:04,380 --> 00:33:09,630
And what increased that interest is
you and Brian and the way you teach.

701
00:33:09,630 --> 00:33:10,950
It's wonderful.

702
00:33:10,950 --> 00:33:14,090
I almost lost that passion, but
when I saw the way you teach,

703
00:33:14,090 --> 00:33:16,520
it's kind of encouraging.

704
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:24,590
So what book can you recommend me, in
terms of this C programming language,

705
00:33:24,590 --> 00:33:25,920
to learn more of it.

706
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,970
[INAUDIBLE] C programming
language, and so on.

707
00:33:28,970 --> 00:33:30,300
Thank you.

708
00:33:30,300 --> 00:33:31,050
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

709
00:33:31,050 --> 00:33:32,527
Brian, do you want to start?

710
00:33:32,527 --> 00:33:33,610
BRIAN YU: Yeah, certainly.

711
00:33:33,610 --> 00:33:34,650
So thank you.

712
00:33:34,650 --> 00:33:37,350
I'm glad you're interested
in artificial intelligence.

713
00:33:37,350 --> 00:33:40,980
Again, I think I posted this already,
but yesterday we just launched

714
00:33:40,980 --> 00:33:42,615
a course about artificial intelligence.

715
00:33:42,615 --> 00:33:45,150
So if you're interested
in an introduction

716
00:33:45,150 --> 00:33:48,030
to some of the ideas in artificial
intelligence, that course

717
00:33:48,030 --> 00:33:52,770
we cover topics ranging from how you
would solve various types and search

718
00:33:52,770 --> 00:33:57,930
problems to how AI can play games to
you how AI can understand human language

719
00:33:57,930 --> 00:34:00,420
and translate languages,
for example, as well as

720
00:34:00,420 --> 00:34:03,570
topics in machine learning, like neural
networks and other popular topics

721
00:34:03,570 --> 00:34:04,153
there, too.

722
00:34:04,153 --> 00:34:06,070
So that's something that
you're interested in,

723
00:34:06,070 --> 00:34:07,660
that course is available as well.

724
00:34:07,660 --> 00:34:09,960
And I think you also
asked about textbooks.

725
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,440
The artificial intelligence textbook
that I happen to really like,

726
00:34:13,440 --> 00:34:17,460
and the one that shares a lot in
common with the course that we teach,

727
00:34:17,460 --> 00:34:20,040
is called Artificial
Intelligence-- a Modern

728
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,590
Approach by Stuart
Russell and Peter Norvig,

729
00:34:22,590 --> 00:34:24,826
and I've pasted the link
to that book as well.

730
00:34:24,826 --> 00:34:27,659
So if you're interested in a textbook
about artificial intelligence,

731
00:34:27,659 --> 00:34:29,252
that book is quite good.

732
00:34:29,252 --> 00:34:30,960
And if you're looking
for more videos, we

733
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:34,469
have videos and problems on the course
on edX about artificial intelligence

734
00:34:34,469 --> 00:34:35,360
as well.

735
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:37,610
DAVID MALAN: And I'm not
sure if you mentioned C also.

736
00:34:37,610 --> 00:34:39,980
I've just pasted into the
chat window a link to a book

737
00:34:39,980 --> 00:34:43,310
called Hackers Delight, which
is a fun book on learning

738
00:34:43,310 --> 00:34:48,460
C and all the lower of a level, as
well as algorithms, more generally.

739
00:34:48,460 --> 00:34:49,730
Thank you for that question.

740
00:34:49,730 --> 00:34:52,788
Can we go next to Cabon, if
I'm pronouncing it right?

741
00:34:52,788 --> 00:34:54,830
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

742
00:34:54,830 --> 00:34:55,550
CABON: Hi.

743
00:34:55,550 --> 00:34:58,160
I'm from the US.

744
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:00,930
Wow, I did not expect that.

745
00:35:00,930 --> 00:35:04,160
First of all, I'd like
to thank David and Brian.

746
00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:07,270
I finished CS50 recently.

747
00:35:07,270 --> 00:35:10,740
It was the best course I've ever taken.

748
00:35:10,740 --> 00:35:14,360
I noticed Brian released
CS50 AI yesterday.

749
00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:16,220
I looked at the first lecture.

750
00:35:16,220 --> 00:35:18,080
And I tried to prom set.

751
00:35:18,080 --> 00:35:23,050
However, I noticed that when you tried
to download the distribution code,

752
00:35:23,050 --> 00:35:26,990
the code doesn't actually
function on CS50 IDE.

753
00:35:26,990 --> 00:35:31,550
So I was wondering, after
you finish CS50, what IDEs

754
00:35:31,550 --> 00:35:35,970
or what terminals do you
recommend to move on?

755
00:35:35,970 --> 00:35:36,720
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

756
00:35:36,720 --> 00:35:38,270
Brian, do you want to field that one?

757
00:35:38,270 --> 00:35:38,570
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

758
00:35:38,570 --> 00:35:41,900
So I'll start by just pointing out that
for that very first problem in the AI

759
00:35:41,900 --> 00:35:44,690
course, you should be
able to run the program.

760
00:35:44,690 --> 00:35:47,400
We distributed two data sets
with that problem, a smaller data

761
00:35:47,400 --> 00:35:48,620
set and a bigger one.

762
00:35:48,620 --> 00:35:51,350
You should be able to get the
smaller one working on the IDE,

763
00:35:51,350 --> 00:35:55,275
but for the big data set, a lot of
AI now is about analyzing big data.

764
00:35:55,275 --> 00:35:57,650
You're unfortunately a little
bit constrained by the fact

765
00:35:57,650 --> 00:36:00,770
that the IDE is running in the internet
and has a limited amount of memory

766
00:36:00,770 --> 00:36:02,130
available to you.

767
00:36:02,130 --> 00:36:06,110
So the big data set actually is too much
memory than will actually fit the IDE.

768
00:36:06,110 --> 00:36:08,540
And for that reason, it might
be a good idea to start--

769
00:36:08,540 --> 00:36:11,780
we want to encourage students to start
programming on their own computers

770
00:36:11,780 --> 00:36:12,440
as well.

771
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,690
And so the way to get started
with that is really just

772
00:36:14,690 --> 00:36:17,210
to start with a code text
editor, and there are

773
00:36:17,210 --> 00:36:19,220
a whole bunch that are quite popular.

774
00:36:19,220 --> 00:36:22,880
Probably the most popular are the three
that I'll paste into the chat now.

775
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:27,440
There's Visual Studio code,
developed by Microsoft.

776
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:33,500
And then there is Atom,
which is developed by GitHub.

777
00:36:33,500 --> 00:36:37,430
And then there is Sublime Text,
which is also quite popular.

778
00:36:37,430 --> 00:36:39,530
They used to be a
little bit more popular.

779
00:36:39,530 --> 00:36:41,450
Any of the those three
editors, which will

780
00:36:41,450 --> 00:36:45,140
work on Macs or on PCs are on Linux,
are probably good text editors

781
00:36:45,140 --> 00:36:45,855
to get started.

782
00:36:45,855 --> 00:36:48,980
They have all the syntax, highlighting,
and the managing of different files

783
00:36:48,980 --> 00:36:51,405
and terminals that you can run code in.

784
00:36:51,405 --> 00:36:54,530
And so those might be a good place to
get started, in terms of editing code

785
00:36:54,530 --> 00:36:57,930
on your own computer
instead of on the IDE.

786
00:36:57,930 --> 00:36:58,430
Yeah.

787
00:36:58,430 --> 00:36:59,930
Someone else also mentioned PyCharm.

788
00:36:59,930 --> 00:37:03,697
That's another popular one, in terms
of an IDE for Python specifically.

789
00:37:03,697 --> 00:37:06,780
There are definitely others other than
the ones we've just mentioned, too.

790
00:37:06,780 --> 00:37:09,447
There are many different choices
that you have available to you.

791
00:37:09,447 --> 00:37:13,228
Here are just a couple of the
popular ones that I happen to like.

792
00:37:13,228 --> 00:37:15,770
DAVID MALAN: And I also just
pasted the URL of Python itself.

793
00:37:15,770 --> 00:37:18,110
Sometimes computers do come
with versions of Python,

794
00:37:18,110 --> 00:37:19,500
but it might be older.

795
00:37:19,500 --> 00:37:23,180
So you can also download and install
Python from their website directly.

796
00:37:23,180 --> 00:37:24,900
Can we go next to Lori?

797
00:37:24,900 --> 00:37:27,230
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

798
00:37:27,230 --> 00:37:28,130
LORI: Hi.

799
00:37:28,130 --> 00:37:29,000
I'm Lori.

800
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,850
I'm originally from
the Dominican Republic,

801
00:37:31,850 --> 00:37:35,370
living here in the States
for a couple of years.

802
00:37:35,370 --> 00:37:40,690
My question is in regards
to just resources.

803
00:37:40,690 --> 00:37:44,560
For example, it's hard to be
a college student, especially

804
00:37:44,560 --> 00:37:46,490
first generation college students.

805
00:37:46,490 --> 00:37:49,780
So as professors, what are
some, for example, communities

806
00:37:49,780 --> 00:37:55,030
that you guys would recommend us to join
or look into, just so that we have kind

807
00:37:55,030 --> 00:37:58,910
of that camaraderie or that help,
especially now that we're quarantined,

808
00:37:58,910 --> 00:38:01,810
we can't have face to face.

809
00:38:01,810 --> 00:38:02,560
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

810
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:04,930
It's a really good question.

811
00:38:04,930 --> 00:38:08,140
I have been following on Reddit a
number of communities, which are nice.

812
00:38:08,140 --> 00:38:12,160
I don't know if they are
strictly university-oriented.

813
00:38:12,160 --> 00:38:14,350
Odds are it's a broader
demographic than that.

814
00:38:14,350 --> 00:38:20,230
But let me see if I can paste the
URL of at least one subReddit here.

815
00:38:20,230 --> 00:38:23,085
If unfamiliar, Reddit is a
popular site for discussion.

816
00:38:23,085 --> 00:38:25,210
So Learn Programming is
actually a really nice one.

817
00:38:25,210 --> 00:38:28,690
I've found the discussions there to
be pretty healthy and very supportive

818
00:38:28,690 --> 00:38:29,800
of students.

819
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:33,580
There's another one-- let me see
if I can find it real quick--

820
00:38:33,580 --> 00:38:38,770
about computer science
education more generally.

821
00:38:38,770 --> 00:38:40,872
I'll see if I can find that soon.

822
00:38:40,872 --> 00:38:43,330
Brian, do you want to chime
in, though, with some thoughts,

823
00:38:43,330 --> 00:38:44,800
too, while I look for that?

824
00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:45,040
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

825
00:38:45,040 --> 00:38:47,540
The other thing I'll mention
is just CS50's own communities,

826
00:38:47,540 --> 00:38:51,010
if you're interested in interacting with
other CS50 students who are currently

827
00:38:51,010 --> 00:38:53,580
taking or have taken any of our courses.

828
00:38:53,580 --> 00:38:56,310
And there is a link to all of our
various different communities.

829
00:38:56,310 --> 00:38:58,832
It is definitely a very
active group of students

830
00:38:58,832 --> 00:39:01,540
that are on Facebook that are
communicating and forming community

831
00:39:01,540 --> 00:39:04,180
together, as well as on
Discord that are always

832
00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:08,440
chatting about CS50 or programming
or any of the specific problems.

833
00:39:08,440 --> 00:39:11,320
And so that can be a place where
a lot of our own students online

834
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:12,897
have been able to find community.

835
00:39:12,897 --> 00:39:15,730
And we've noticed that these has
been even more active now that more

836
00:39:15,730 --> 00:39:18,040
and more people are staying indoors.

837
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:21,000
So definitely other people there.

838
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:22,030
LORI: Yeah.

839
00:39:22,030 --> 00:39:26,680
I have the Discord chat, and it's
been really helpful, especially

840
00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:28,330
like I said now that we're indoors.

841
00:39:28,330 --> 00:39:31,637
So it's nice to have
that camaraderie again.

842
00:39:31,637 --> 00:39:32,470
DAVID MALAN: Indeed.

843
00:39:32,470 --> 00:39:35,590
And I can paste the link of
all of CS50's communities,

844
00:39:35,590 --> 00:39:38,680
which should appear in the
chat room in just a moment.

845
00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:40,930
That's a link to all of
our own specific ones.

846
00:39:40,930 --> 00:39:43,030
And then the other
subReddit I was thinking

847
00:39:43,030 --> 00:39:47,110
of, which talks about life after college
in computer science is this one here,

848
00:39:47,110 --> 00:39:48,738
CS Career Questions on Reddit.

849
00:39:48,738 --> 00:39:49,780
You might like that, too.

850
00:39:49,780 --> 00:39:52,690
Both those communities seem
very supportive of people

851
00:39:52,690 --> 00:39:54,122
asking questions of each other.

852
00:39:54,122 --> 00:39:55,330
STUDENT: I am from Hong Kong.

853
00:39:55,330 --> 00:40:00,920
Right now I am in Taipei due to
various reasons, political unrest

854
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:03,970
in [INAUDIBLE], or whatever.

855
00:40:03,970 --> 00:40:07,340
I have some questions.

856
00:40:07,340 --> 00:40:09,590
I have a couple of questions
about the recent project,

857
00:40:09,590 --> 00:40:12,490
and also a personal project,
if it's OK if I ask.

858
00:40:12,490 --> 00:40:15,550
The personal question is really short.

859
00:40:15,550 --> 00:40:20,930
I'll just start with
the technical question.

860
00:40:20,930 --> 00:40:26,330
I always work around web
developers in coffee shops

861
00:40:26,330 --> 00:40:32,000
when I try to code in Python,
and doing more of analytic works,

862
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:39,312
or even also a bit of financial
derivative predictions with my client,

863
00:40:39,312 --> 00:40:40,520
because my client knows math.

864
00:40:40,520 --> 00:40:41,720
I don't know math.

865
00:40:41,720 --> 00:40:45,710
But I find it very difficult to
communicate with my web developers,

866
00:40:45,710 --> 00:40:48,860
in the sense that recently,
I was trying to use

867
00:40:48,860 --> 00:40:53,480
fast API to build a server
interaction to automate

868
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:56,420
some Excel spreadsheets via GUI.

869
00:40:56,420 --> 00:41:01,280
And then I built an
authentication endpoint,

870
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:06,470
where I locked myself out during
the development of my API.

871
00:41:06,470 --> 00:41:11,720
And then the web developers were
like, may I look at your cookies?

872
00:41:11,720 --> 00:41:17,640
And I was like, are those
cookies gluten free?

873
00:41:17,640 --> 00:41:22,210
So it gets to the point
where it starts, as a Python,

874
00:41:22,210 --> 00:41:27,065
it's very hard to communicate with
JavaScript developers or other people

875
00:41:27,065 --> 00:41:27,940
of different domains.

876
00:41:27,940 --> 00:41:30,640


877
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,157
Is Python just to obstruct?

878
00:41:32,157 --> 00:41:35,490
Python, you might as well think of it as
English, and you can just search Google

879
00:41:35,490 --> 00:41:38,490
and there would be a documentation
for every single thing.

880
00:41:38,490 --> 00:41:42,926
And it's just a different structure
and way of thinking in Python.

881
00:41:42,926 --> 00:41:45,560
That's my first question.

882
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,000
DAVID MALAN: Not really, honestly.

883
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,240
I think you won't have that
same impression of the language

884
00:41:50,240 --> 00:41:53,120
once, I think, you have more
familiarity with other languages.

885
00:41:53,120 --> 00:41:56,630
There are so many similarities among
a lot of these more popular languages

886
00:41:56,630 --> 00:41:57,440
today.

887
00:41:57,440 --> 00:41:59,120
Python can be used procedurally.

888
00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:01,040
It can also be used partly functionally.

889
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:03,750
Those are terms that I
used earlier as well.

890
00:42:03,750 --> 00:42:06,530
And I think you'll find
that each of these languages

891
00:42:06,530 --> 00:42:10,580
or environments or frameworks
just has different ways of solving

892
00:42:10,580 --> 00:42:11,343
the same problems.

893
00:42:11,343 --> 00:42:14,510
Something like cookies has nothing to
do with programming languages, per se.

894
00:42:14,510 --> 00:42:18,563
It has only to do with HTTP, which is
used by web browsers and web servers.

895
00:42:18,563 --> 00:42:21,230
So if you're feeling that way, I
would try to just give yourself

896
00:42:21,230 --> 00:42:23,090
more exposure to other languages.

897
00:42:23,090 --> 00:42:29,000
Take a very short course or read
one or more tutorials on JavaScript.

898
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,513
Read a little bit about C++ or C#.

899
00:42:31,513 --> 00:42:33,680
Just give yourself a little
more breadth of exposure

900
00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:36,170
and I don't think you'll
put as much weight on Python

901
00:42:36,170 --> 00:42:40,400
as being a standout, which
I don't think it really is.

902
00:42:40,400 --> 00:42:42,320
STUDENT: Yeah.

903
00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:44,760
DAVID MALAN: Can we go next to Rashab?

904
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:47,376
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

905
00:42:47,376 --> 00:42:48,220
RASHAB: Hey, David.

906
00:42:48,220 --> 00:42:50,530
I'm Rashab from India.

907
00:42:50,530 --> 00:42:55,653
So I took CS50 a couple of
years ago, and after that I've

908
00:42:55,653 --> 00:42:58,320
taken various courses, but every
year I keep coming back to CS50

909
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,625
to look at the new problems
and the new content.

910
00:43:00,625 --> 00:43:03,310
And this year I think
it was really amazing.

911
00:43:03,310 --> 00:43:07,760
My question to you is I have
moved on to doing research,

912
00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:10,810
and I see a lot of
undergraduate students

913
00:43:10,810 --> 00:43:14,430
who are interested, but just
started out in computer science, who

914
00:43:14,430 --> 00:43:16,420
are interested in research.

915
00:43:16,420 --> 00:43:19,750
So I started a community, so
where we did like small projects

916
00:43:19,750 --> 00:43:22,330
and contribute to open source,
or [INAUDIBLE] students

917
00:43:22,330 --> 00:43:24,250
to see [INAUDIBLE].

918
00:43:24,250 --> 00:43:28,510
So what do you recommend,
or are there students

919
00:43:28,510 --> 00:43:31,460
at Harvard, graduate students,
who are participating in research,

920
00:43:31,460 --> 00:43:34,390
or would you recommend I do [INAUDIBLE]?

921
00:43:34,390 --> 00:43:35,140
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

922
00:43:35,140 --> 00:43:37,348
Let me turn to Brian for
this, because he's done this

923
00:43:37,348 --> 00:43:39,310
more recently and more personally, too.

924
00:43:39,310 --> 00:43:41,352
BRIAN YU: I didn't catch
the end of the question.

925
00:43:41,352 --> 00:43:44,830
So I heard how do undergraduates
doing research do what?

926
00:43:44,830 --> 00:43:46,665
Can you repeat the end?

927
00:43:46,665 --> 00:43:48,040
DAVID MALAN: Still muted, Rashab.

928
00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:51,708


929
00:43:51,708 --> 00:43:52,250
RASHAB: Yeah.

930
00:43:52,250 --> 00:43:53,230
Hello?

931
00:43:53,230 --> 00:43:53,940
Yes.

932
00:43:53,940 --> 00:43:56,340
How can I encourage
undergraduate students

933
00:43:56,340 --> 00:43:59,250
to participate in research,
where they started out

934
00:43:59,250 --> 00:44:02,970
starting with computer
science, or get them

935
00:44:02,970 --> 00:44:06,040
in a community where small
projects are [INAUDIBLE]..

936
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:08,548


937
00:44:08,548 --> 00:44:09,340
BRIAN YU: Oh, yeah.

938
00:44:09,340 --> 00:44:11,730
That's a great question about
encouraging undergraduates

939
00:44:11,730 --> 00:44:13,650
to do research.

940
00:44:13,650 --> 00:44:17,220
Just a second.

941
00:44:17,220 --> 00:44:20,850
Yeah, about encouraging undergraduates
to do computer science research.

942
00:44:20,850 --> 00:44:24,060
I think one of the
challenges with starting

943
00:44:24,060 --> 00:44:27,090
to do computer science research
just after taking one or two

944
00:44:27,090 --> 00:44:30,780
classes in computer science is
that there's a big learning curve

945
00:44:30,780 --> 00:44:32,970
to be able to get up
to speed on everything

946
00:44:32,970 --> 00:44:35,970
you need to know about the research
project and all the background

947
00:44:35,970 --> 00:44:40,240
information for whatever the
field of research happens to be.

948
00:44:40,240 --> 00:44:42,240
And so if you want to
encourage undergraduates

949
00:44:42,240 --> 00:44:45,180
to be able to work with a
particular research project,

950
00:44:45,180 --> 00:44:49,110
I think trying to come up
with smaller tasks that

951
00:44:49,110 --> 00:44:53,850
are more easily graspable
by someone who may not

952
00:44:53,850 --> 00:44:57,210
have much experience in that
particular domain of research

953
00:44:57,210 --> 00:44:58,470
can be quite helpful.

954
00:44:58,470 --> 00:45:01,170
I know that definitely when I was
just starting computer science

955
00:45:01,170 --> 00:45:04,230
and starting to do a little bit of
research, that's what a lot of faculty

956
00:45:04,230 --> 00:45:07,110
helped to do for me, was
not require me to understand

957
00:45:07,110 --> 00:45:09,480
the entirety of the project,
but give me some smaller

958
00:45:09,480 --> 00:45:11,880
piece of that project
where I could focus just

959
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:14,892
on understanding that and
tackling that, and then over time,

960
00:45:14,892 --> 00:45:17,350
start to get a better sense
for what the larger project is.

961
00:45:17,350 --> 00:45:20,010
But diving into a big
project all at once

962
00:45:20,010 --> 00:45:21,960
can definitely be a
little bit intimidating.

963
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:23,252
DAVID MALAN: Can we go to Roan?

964
00:45:23,252 --> 00:45:26,334


965
00:45:26,334 --> 00:45:28,120
ROAN: Hello, David.

966
00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:30,670
I want to thank you all
for-- can you hear me?

967
00:45:30,670 --> 00:45:32,050
DAVID MALAN: Yes, we can.

968
00:45:32,050 --> 00:45:32,770
ROAN: OK.

969
00:45:32,770 --> 00:45:36,370
I want to thank you all for you
and your team, for your effort,

970
00:45:36,370 --> 00:45:39,280
and I really appreciate that.

971
00:45:39,280 --> 00:45:40,210
I'm from Egypt.

972
00:45:40,210 --> 00:45:42,790
My name is Roan.

973
00:45:42,790 --> 00:45:49,210
My question is, do you recommend
a specific website for training?

974
00:45:49,210 --> 00:45:51,280
I know there are a lot of websites.

975
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:55,348
I want to know what you
recommend the best ones are.

976
00:45:55,348 --> 00:45:58,390
DAVID MALAN: For learning computer
science and programming, specifically?

977
00:45:58,390 --> 00:46:00,240
ROAN: For practicing.

978
00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:01,900
DAVID MALAN: Oh, for practicing.

979
00:46:01,900 --> 00:46:02,860
It's a good question.

980
00:46:02,860 --> 00:46:06,910
A couple come to mind, and
everyone else who's on the call

981
00:46:06,910 --> 00:46:11,280
should feel free to paste
your links in to the website.

982
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:15,220
Sometime ago, we started playing with
HackerRank, which, despite its name,

983
00:46:15,220 --> 00:46:18,370
as has a nice collection of
introductory problems and more

984
00:46:18,370 --> 00:46:20,360
sophisticated problems alike.

985
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:24,838
Brian, do you know some
more recent options, too?

986
00:46:24,838 --> 00:46:27,130
BRIAN YU: HackerRank is
definitely quite a popular one.

987
00:46:27,130 --> 00:46:30,250
The other one I really like, just
because it has a big range of problems

988
00:46:30,250 --> 00:46:32,590
that you can solve in
any programming language,

989
00:46:32,590 --> 00:46:36,520
is Project Euler, so I'll go ahead
and paste that in there as well.

990
00:46:36,520 --> 00:46:40,202
Project Euler basically just asks
you a whole bunch of questions,

991
00:46:40,202 --> 00:46:42,160
and in order to answer
the question, it usually

992
00:46:42,160 --> 00:46:44,600
involves writing some code in
order to solve the problem.

993
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,600
And in that sense, you
can code in any language.

994
00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:49,558
You could write the solution in C or
in Python or any other programming

995
00:46:49,558 --> 00:46:52,070
language that helps you
get to the right answer.

996
00:46:52,070 --> 00:46:54,130
And so I find that to be
a pretty interesting way

997
00:46:54,130 --> 00:46:57,722
to find interesting
computational problems to solve,

998
00:46:57,722 --> 00:46:59,680
and after you solve it,
to then think about how

999
00:46:59,680 --> 00:47:01,597
you might go about solving
it more efficiently

1000
00:47:01,597 --> 00:47:03,690
or solving it in a different language.

1001
00:47:03,690 --> 00:47:06,238
And there's a nice community
around those problems as well.

1002
00:47:06,238 --> 00:47:08,530
And I see in the chat, there
are many other suggestions

1003
00:47:08,530 --> 00:47:10,988
that people have that might be
worth taking a look at, too,

1004
00:47:10,988 --> 00:47:13,450
for other sources of problems to solve.

1005
00:47:13,450 --> 00:47:15,290
DAVID MALAN: Simon,
can we go to you next?

1006
00:47:15,290 --> 00:47:15,790
SIMON: Hey.

1007
00:47:15,790 --> 00:47:17,410
Yes.

1008
00:47:17,410 --> 00:47:19,810
Thanks very much for your time.

1009
00:47:19,810 --> 00:47:20,380
I'm Simon.

1010
00:47:20,380 --> 00:47:22,390
I'm from London, England.

1011
00:47:22,390 --> 00:47:24,820
I'm currently in my third year
of an undergraduate degree

1012
00:47:24,820 --> 00:47:26,680
studying computer science.

1013
00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:29,170
And I'm doing my master's
next year, but I still

1014
00:47:29,170 --> 00:47:33,640
have no idea what part of computer
science I really want to go into.

1015
00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:35,740
It's something that
Jacob touched on earlier.

1016
00:47:35,740 --> 00:47:39,610
Do you have any tips for
exploring different areas,

1017
00:47:39,610 --> 00:47:43,450
whether it's systems or ML or logic?

1018
00:47:43,450 --> 00:47:45,520
Because I've done
modules in each of them,

1019
00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:48,930
but I'm struggling to
really pick a topic

1020
00:47:48,930 --> 00:47:52,003
to do my dissertation
on and further research.

1021
00:47:52,003 --> 00:47:54,420
DAVID MALAN: And is that because
you like too many of them

1022
00:47:54,420 --> 00:47:58,552
or you don't like enough of them?

1023
00:47:58,552 --> 00:48:01,760
SIMON: Well, I think it's because I like
them all neutrally, but none of them

1024
00:48:01,760 --> 00:48:04,190
I really like a lot.

1025
00:48:04,190 --> 00:48:04,940
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

1026
00:48:04,940 --> 00:48:09,260
I think when it comes to dissertations
or theses or capstone projects,

1027
00:48:09,260 --> 00:48:12,710
I think if you have the ability to
connect with one or more professors

1028
00:48:12,710 --> 00:48:15,860
and work more closely with them
or with their research group, that

1029
00:48:15,860 --> 00:48:18,650
can tend to help crystallize your idea.

1030
00:48:18,650 --> 00:48:21,680
I think talking with faculty, too,
about projects they're working on

1031
00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:24,950
is a nice way of you figuring
out if, oh, I would really

1032
00:48:24,950 --> 00:48:26,840
like to work on that
project, too, and you

1033
00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:29,590
can have a more visceral
reaction to the opportunity.

1034
00:48:29,590 --> 00:48:31,340
Barring that, Brian
just went through this

1035
00:48:31,340 --> 00:48:33,740
and published his own
dissertation about a year ago,

1036
00:48:33,740 --> 00:48:35,345
if you'd like to chime in as well.

1037
00:48:35,345 --> 00:48:35,970
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

1038
00:48:35,970 --> 00:48:39,020
I think my approach to this,
very similar in spirit,

1039
00:48:39,020 --> 00:48:42,050
was to look at what faculty
around me were working on.

1040
00:48:42,050 --> 00:48:45,740
So I was at Harvard, so I looked at like
Harvard faculty and MIT faculty, who

1041
00:48:45,740 --> 00:48:49,912
were nearby, just to see what types of
research projects they were working on.

1042
00:48:49,912 --> 00:48:52,370
And for those that I thought
they had interesting projects,

1043
00:48:52,370 --> 00:48:55,500
I just reached out to them by email,
just strike up a conversation.

1044
00:48:55,500 --> 00:48:58,072
And not all of them got back
to me, but some of them did.

1045
00:48:58,072 --> 00:49:00,530
And that was the beginning of
a conversation, some of which

1046
00:49:00,530 --> 00:49:03,960
led to some research opportunities
that I wouldn't have thought of.

1047
00:49:03,960 --> 00:49:07,192
And I think that can be an
interesting approach, as opposed

1048
00:49:07,192 --> 00:49:08,900
to just starting from
thinking about what

1049
00:49:08,900 --> 00:49:12,830
domain you want to work in, because the
faculty are usually actively working

1050
00:49:12,830 --> 00:49:17,100
on one or more different projects that
are at the cutting edge of research,

1051
00:49:17,100 --> 00:49:21,020
and so being able to hear from
them about what they think

1052
00:49:21,020 --> 00:49:25,240
is interesting and exciting can
often be a way to get inspired,

1053
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:26,990
as well, in terms of
the types of projects

1054
00:49:26,990 --> 00:49:29,236
that you might be interested
in working on, too.

1055
00:49:29,236 --> 00:49:30,470
DAVID MALAN: And I hope you'll forgive.

1056
00:49:30,470 --> 00:49:32,060
We have a few minutes
left here and we're

1057
00:49:32,060 --> 00:49:34,140
doing our best to get through
as many questions as we can.

1058
00:49:34,140 --> 00:49:35,848
We'll invariably do
another one of these.

1059
00:49:35,848 --> 00:49:38,968
So if you haven't already, please
do fill out the Google form

1060
00:49:38,968 --> 00:49:41,510
that I've pasted, again, into
the chat window with your email

1061
00:49:41,510 --> 00:49:45,452
address so that we can let you know in
a week or two when the next one will be.

1062
00:49:45,452 --> 00:49:47,660
But we have time for a couple
more questions I think.

1063
00:49:47,660 --> 00:49:48,890
Can we go to Joshua?

1064
00:49:48,890 --> 00:49:49,580
JOSHUA: Hello.

1065
00:49:49,580 --> 00:49:51,000
My name is Joshua.

1066
00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:53,180
I'm from a country called Rwanda.

1067
00:49:53,180 --> 00:49:56,990
My question is I just started
CS50 about two months ago.

1068
00:49:56,990 --> 00:49:58,563
I'm in like week 4.

1069
00:49:58,563 --> 00:49:59,230
DAVID MALAN: OK.

1070
00:49:59,230 --> 00:50:00,545
JOSHUA: I was wondering
if you could give me

1071
00:50:00,545 --> 00:50:02,400
some resources that
can help me understand

1072
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:07,040
coding better on like
websites or applications, that

1073
00:50:07,040 --> 00:50:09,420
can help me understand coding better.

1074
00:50:09,420 --> 00:50:11,550
DAVID MALAN: OK.

1075
00:50:11,550 --> 00:50:14,140
Are there websites to
understand coding better?

1076
00:50:14,140 --> 00:50:15,160
JOSHUA: Yeah.

1077
00:50:15,160 --> 00:50:15,430
DAVID MALAN: Yeah.

1078
00:50:15,430 --> 00:50:16,930
I would definitely
take a look at the chat

1079
00:50:16,930 --> 00:50:18,680
a moment ago with a
number of the practice

1080
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:21,250
websites, which are really good.

1081
00:50:21,250 --> 00:50:24,430
We certainly distribute CS50
and CS50's courses on edX,

1082
00:50:24,430 --> 00:50:28,090
where there are dozens, if not
hundreds, of free courses nowadays.

1083
00:50:28,090 --> 00:50:30,850
And I think taking a look at
some of the topics of interest

1084
00:50:30,850 --> 00:50:33,660
to you on those websites
is a good place.

1085
00:50:33,660 --> 00:50:36,550
Coursera.org is another
good one as well.

1086
00:50:36,550 --> 00:50:38,813
That's where the Princeton
class is as well.

1087
00:50:38,813 --> 00:50:40,480
I think it's an amazing thing right now.

1088
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:43,930
It is so hard to not find
something that's freely available

1089
00:50:43,930 --> 00:50:44,960
and of interest to you.

1090
00:50:44,960 --> 00:50:48,168
I would start with some of those URLs
that we've pasted into the chat window.

1091
00:50:48,168 --> 00:50:51,377
Just scroll back through and maybe copy
and paste it if you'd like to save it

1092
00:50:51,377 --> 00:50:52,143
today as well.

1093
00:50:52,143 --> 00:50:53,310
JOSHUA: Thank you very much.

1094
00:50:53,310 --> 00:50:53,950
DAVID MALAN: Sure.

1095
00:50:53,950 --> 00:50:55,220
STUDENT: I think it's my number.

1096
00:50:55,220 --> 00:50:56,762
DAVID MALAN: Can we go next to Asher?

1097
00:50:56,762 --> 00:50:59,900
If you'd like to say hello
and where you're from.

1098
00:50:59,900 --> 00:51:00,440
ASHER: Hi.

1099
00:51:00,440 --> 00:51:03,080
I'm from New York City.

1100
00:51:03,080 --> 00:51:04,250
I am 15.

1101
00:51:04,250 --> 00:51:10,160
And my question was, I've had some
experience with coding, about a year,

1102
00:51:10,160 --> 00:51:13,730
and I'm doing the tracks in CS50 now.

1103
00:51:13,730 --> 00:51:17,540
How would you recommend
getting started with projects?

1104
00:51:17,540 --> 00:51:20,960
Are there any good websites
where people put like offers out,

1105
00:51:20,960 --> 00:51:23,270
or how would you go about doing that?

1106
00:51:23,270 --> 00:51:27,320
DAVID MALAN: Projects, final projects
in particular of your own design?

1107
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:34,700
ASHER: Either that, or let's say once
we finish with CS50, as you said,

1108
00:51:34,700 --> 00:51:37,100
after you take a few courses,
you want to do projects

1109
00:51:37,100 --> 00:51:39,050
and then take courses
to fill in the gaps.

1110
00:51:39,050 --> 00:51:41,180
Where would you recommend
finding those projects

1111
00:51:41,180 --> 00:51:43,352
or finding people to do projects.

1112
00:51:43,352 --> 00:51:46,310
DAVID MALAN: I think there's certainly
the freely available courses you

1113
00:51:46,310 --> 00:51:49,250
can pursue and any number
of the practice problems

1114
00:51:49,250 --> 00:51:51,800
that people have been pasting
into the chat window today.

1115
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:55,190
But more than that, I would encourage
you to seek the open source projects.

1116
00:51:55,190 --> 00:51:59,368
For instance, in CS50, especially
in the Python portion of the class

1117
00:51:59,368 --> 00:52:01,160
and the web portion of
the class, you might

1118
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:04,390
recall that we used a number
of packages, or libraries, code

1119
00:52:04,390 --> 00:52:05,390
that other people wrote.

1120
00:52:05,390 --> 00:52:07,940
Flask is one of them, and
we used a number of others.

1121
00:52:07,940 --> 00:52:11,213
If you look in our
requirements.txt files

1122
00:52:11,213 --> 00:52:13,130
for a couple of the final
problem sets, you'll

1123
00:52:13,130 --> 00:52:16,400
see what other libraries we used
for those homework assignments.

1124
00:52:16,400 --> 00:52:20,030
And so that is to say you've been
using a number of free open source

1125
00:52:20,030 --> 00:52:22,600
libraries of code already.

1126
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:23,990
Seek those out on GitHub.

1127
00:52:23,990 --> 00:52:26,330
Google the name of the
library and the word

1128
00:52:26,330 --> 00:52:29,610
GitHub to find its repository
online to see if it's there.

1129
00:52:29,610 --> 00:52:33,540
And then look on the Issues tab on
GitHub and GitLab and other sites.

1130
00:52:33,540 --> 00:52:35,570
There's usually an Issues
tab or similar that

1131
00:52:35,570 --> 00:52:39,890
shows you all of the missing features
or bugs or problems with a library

1132
00:52:39,890 --> 00:52:40,973
or an open source project.

1133
00:52:40,973 --> 00:52:44,057
And one of the easiest ways to get
started is to look through those issues

1134
00:52:44,057 --> 00:52:45,830
and see if you can solve one of them.

1135
00:52:45,830 --> 00:52:49,310
GitHub, for instance, even has labels
that they use that will indicate,

1136
00:52:49,310 --> 00:52:54,230
for some repositories, good first
contribution or good first timer,

1137
00:52:54,230 --> 00:52:57,530
something like that, relatively easier
problems that you can figure out.

1138
00:52:57,530 --> 00:53:00,560
And the upside of this is you learn
how to read someone else's code.

1139
00:53:00,560 --> 00:53:02,810
You learn how to collaborate
with other people.

1140
00:53:02,810 --> 00:53:05,420
You get feedback for free
from really smart people

1141
00:53:05,420 --> 00:53:07,500
who are working on that project as well.

1142
00:53:07,500 --> 00:53:09,680
So try to find one or
more open source projects.

1143
00:53:09,680 --> 00:53:12,050
Even if it's just one line
of code to contribute,

1144
00:53:12,050 --> 00:53:13,755
I think you'll get a big kick out of it.

1145
00:53:13,755 --> 00:53:14,630
And I certainly have.

1146
00:53:14,630 --> 00:53:17,172
I think it's the coolest thing,
when some popular open source

1147
00:53:17,172 --> 00:53:21,140
tool has added even one line
of code that I've contributed.

1148
00:53:21,140 --> 00:53:22,790
ASHER: Thank you so much.

1149
00:53:22,790 --> 00:53:25,550
STUDENT: Hi, David and Brian.

1150
00:53:25,550 --> 00:53:29,180
First, I'd just like to thank you guys
for doing a wonderful job with CS50

1151
00:53:29,180 --> 00:53:34,820
and how all the students of being
able to benefit from your teachings.

1152
00:53:34,820 --> 00:53:36,870
So I have two questions.

1153
00:53:36,870 --> 00:53:38,090
One is a short one.

1154
00:53:38,090 --> 00:53:42,230
So my first one I'd like
to start out as a joke.

1155
00:53:42,230 --> 00:53:46,270
For your lectures 0, for
scratch, how many phone books

1156
00:53:46,270 --> 00:53:49,530
did you tear in total by now?

1157
00:53:49,530 --> 00:53:51,030
DAVID MALAN: That's a good question.

1158
00:53:51,030 --> 00:53:54,560
I've been teaching the class for 13
years now, so I've torn at least 13

1159
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:56,960
of them in the very first
lecture of the class.

1160
00:53:56,960 --> 00:54:00,690
But I tend to use that
demonstration elsewhere,

1161
00:54:00,690 --> 00:54:05,440
so let's say it's maybe
100 at this point.

1162
00:54:05,440 --> 00:54:08,582
Oh, still muted, if you'd
like to unmute yourself again.

1163
00:54:08,582 --> 00:54:09,940
Question?

1164
00:54:09,940 --> 00:54:11,010
STUDENT: OK.

1165
00:54:11,010 --> 00:54:15,240
And my next question is
for Brian, regarding AI.

1166
00:54:15,240 --> 00:54:19,720
So my question is, will
there ever be a limit for AI

1167
00:54:19,720 --> 00:54:24,970
to really understand the world?

1168
00:54:24,970 --> 00:54:25,950
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

1169
00:54:25,950 --> 00:54:30,240
This is a really good question, and one
that nobody has a definitive answer.

1170
00:54:30,240 --> 00:54:33,060
The question is about
how good could AI be,

1171
00:54:33,060 --> 00:54:35,190
potentially understanding the world?

1172
00:54:35,190 --> 00:54:37,680
And that starts to get
into what we generally call

1173
00:54:37,680 --> 00:54:42,060
artificial general intelligence, like
a generally intelligent being that

1174
00:54:42,060 --> 00:54:44,520
is comparable to human intelligence.

1175
00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:47,340
And the answer is that
people aren't really sure.

1176
00:54:47,340 --> 00:54:50,830
We've been able to create AI to
solve very small scale problems,

1177
00:54:50,830 --> 00:54:54,240
like understand how to translate
texts from one language to another

1178
00:54:54,240 --> 00:54:59,580
or understand how to play chess
better than any other chess player.

1179
00:54:59,580 --> 00:55:02,130
But the problem of a general
purpose intelligence,

1180
00:55:02,130 --> 00:55:05,700
that can learn the way humans do,
that can adapt to new problems,

1181
00:55:05,700 --> 00:55:08,100
that's something that
doesn't currently exist,

1182
00:55:08,100 --> 00:55:10,710
and people debate about what
would happen if it ever did.

1183
00:55:10,710 --> 00:55:14,040
A really good book, if you're
interested in this type of thing,

1184
00:55:14,040 --> 00:55:17,100
is a book called
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom.

1185
00:55:17,100 --> 00:55:19,650
It's a quite popular
book on the subject.

1186
00:55:19,650 --> 00:55:21,700
I've pasted the link
to that there as well.

1187
00:55:21,700 --> 00:55:24,030
And that really explores
the question of,

1188
00:55:24,030 --> 00:55:28,905
is it possible to create an artificial
being that is as intelligent as people?

1189
00:55:28,905 --> 00:55:30,780
And if so, what are the
implications of that?

1190
00:55:30,780 --> 00:55:34,170
Could it be more intelligent than
people potentially are, as well,

1191
00:55:34,170 --> 00:55:36,087
and what would happen
as a result of that.

1192
00:55:36,087 --> 00:55:37,920
So I don't have a
definitive answer on that.

1193
00:55:37,920 --> 00:55:40,545
I don't think anyone really does,
but it's definitely something

1194
00:55:40,545 --> 00:55:42,590
that people are discussing
and talking about.

1195
00:55:42,590 --> 00:55:45,090
DAVID MALAN: Well, we want to
be mindful of everyone's time.

1196
00:55:45,090 --> 00:55:46,950
And I know we haven't
gotten to all the questions,

1197
00:55:46,950 --> 00:55:48,810
but we'll definitely do
another one of these soon.

1198
00:55:48,810 --> 00:55:52,020
Do fill out the Google form that's in
the chat to give us your email address,

1199
00:55:52,020 --> 00:55:53,228
if you'd like to let us know.

1200
00:55:53,228 --> 00:55:55,595
I've also just repasted
the communities link.

1201
00:55:55,595 --> 00:55:58,470
If you have questions that Brian or
I might be able to answer online,

1202
00:55:58,470 --> 00:55:59,595
we're happy to do our best.

1203
00:55:59,595 --> 00:56:02,100
He and I are active on
all of those communities.

1204
00:56:02,100 --> 00:56:05,370
Please join us for CS50 X puzzle
day this weekend, if you would like.

1205
00:56:05,370 --> 00:56:09,450
And again, all of our best to you, your
family, and friends, especially now.

1206
00:56:09,450 --> 00:56:12,575
Let me turn things back over to
Brian to say a final goodbye.

1207
00:56:12,575 --> 00:56:13,200
BRIAN YU: Yeah.

1208
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:13,860
Thanks, everyone.

1209
00:56:13,860 --> 00:56:16,200
Sorry, again, we didn't manage to
make it to everyone's questions,

1210
00:56:16,200 --> 00:56:18,780
but we'll definitely try and
do something like this again.

1211
00:56:18,780 --> 00:56:20,863
So if you didn't get your
question answered today,

1212
00:56:20,863 --> 00:56:22,280
hopefully you can in the future.

1213
00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:25,030
But it was great to talk with all
of you and chat with all of you,

1214
00:56:25,030 --> 00:56:27,447
and looking forward to seeing
you at a future office hours

1215
00:56:27,447 --> 00:56:30,410
or in any of our online
communities as well.

1216
00:56:30,410 --> 00:56:32,000