Life, the Universe, and Everything

A Course Blog for GET1029/GEK1067

Tag: 2010 (page 1 of 7)

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish!

You would have gotten your results by now. The student feedback has also been released to us. In the interest of transparency, I’ve left a copy of the Module Report and Teacher Report (for myself) in Luminus Files, if you want to see them. The overall impressions are consistent with previous semesters–as you can see in the chart below (click through to see).

Note that A/P Mike Pelczar and I normally take turns to run the module–I do Semester 1, he does Semester 2. Since some students have written in to inquire, you can help pass the word if a friend asks. Prof Pelczar’s version of the module will be largely similar but is not identical in topics and readings, and we don’t organize all aspects of the module in the same way. You will need to look at the Luminus page for details.

For the coming academic year’s Semester 1, however, I will (almost certainly) not be teaching GET1029, as I will be working on creating and implementing a large new module for the College of Humanities and Sciences.

All the best and see you around NUS! Don’t forget to watch our closing podcast,

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Podcast Episode #08 Closing Thoughts

Recommendations for readings, movies, etc., your instructor’s sharing about best/worst moments, advice for aspiring philosophy majors, parting words from your instructors, and some more…

Final Exam Brief Explanations (AY2020-21, Semester 1) (MCQ/MRQs only)

This is only for the MCQ/MRQs for now. We are still in the process of scoring the SAQs and will update at the end of this post when that’s done. There are 460 of you so this will take a while…

I will be brief for most of the questions. You will be able to see your submitted quiz in Luminus, but not a gradebook entry. Question 20 updated. The 75th, 50th, and 25th percentile scores, mean and standard deviation are provided, with the most recent AY Semester 1s also listed for comparison:

  • AY2020-2021, Sem 1: quartiles 20, 17, 13; mean 16.76; SD 4.750
  • AY2019-2020, Sem 1: quartiles 17, 15, 12; mean 14.89; SD 4.158
  • AY2018-2019, Sem 1: quartiles 21, 18, 15; mean 17.65; SD 4.638

Update: Note that Question 25 has been voided and everyone will get a mark for it. The summary statistics reflects the new scoring.

Click through to see…

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Some Group Discussion Summaries

I asked the tutors to send me some of their favorite “Group Discussion Summaries” (GDS). You will see them below. Keep in mind that some (but not all) of these go above and beyond what we were looking for. But before that, let me say something about the genesis and rationale for the component.

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Quiz 10 Debrief

Ok, here goes the last of the lot. Click through to see…

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W12 Q/A

The below are my notes for each of the questions submitted beforehand, with some brief expansions. Those actually touched on in the recording are marked “#”. The questions we didn’t get to come after the break (* * * * *). Questions added in chat are marked “%”.

Update: More questions that came in via email added to the end (search for “Questions that came later by email”).

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Quiz 09 Debrief

Good work! Click through to see…

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Quiz 08 Debrief

Ok, not bad, though the averages dropped a bit from the last one mainly because of Questions 4 and 6. Click through to see…

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Other Reads in Preparation for the Last Topic (sort of)

The long-held notion that the processing power of computers increases exponentially every couple of years has hit its limit, according to Jensen Huang (CEO, Nvidia). But not everyone agrees.

This isn’t the first time Huang has declared Moore’s Law to be over. He’s made similar comments over the past couple of years.

Intel, for its part, doesn’t think Moore’s Law is dead. Companies are just finding new ways to keep it going, like Intel’s new 3D chip stacking. The manufacturing technology it calls Foveros stacks different chip elements directly on top of each other, a move that should dramatically increase performance and the range of chips Intel can profitably sell.

“Elements of this debate have been going on since the early 2000s,” Intel Chief Technology Officer Michael Mayberry said in an EETimes post in August. “Meanwhile, technologists ignore the debate and keep making progress.”

A piece from Robert Chau of Intel, suitably titled “A bright future for Moore’s Law”.

Could Apple’s 5 Nanometer Chip Is Another Signpost That Moore’s Law Is Running Out?

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Videos vaguely “In Preparation” for the final Topic…

What is a super computer? (Or making American super computing great again…)

A super computer that mimics the human brain:

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