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  • SARAH HANSEN: Could you tell us a little bit

  • about the history and development of 18.065,

  • this new course?

  • GILBERT STRANG: Yes, OK.

  • So this was my adventure into the subject of deep learning.

  • So that's a special part of machine learning,

  • a highly important part.

  • It's in the newspaper all the time.

  • And students are graduating knowing about the deep learning

  • and getting good jobs.

  • And it's really amazing.

  • So and then the other beautiful part

  • is that it depends so heavily on linear algebra.

  • SARAH HANSEN: You've been known to say, "I certainly learned

  • that projects are far better than exams.

  • Students ask their own questions and write their own programs.

  • From now on, projects."

  • GILBERT STRANG: That's right.

  • Yeah.

  • Sort of late to learn this because with the 18.06

  • linear algebra, totally conventional course

  • with maybe three exams during the semester and a final exam.

  • And maybe that's appropriate.

  • But it's changing.

  • And then with this new course, where the computer's involved,

  • and you--

  • for example, so I ask everybody to do a project.

  • There is no final exam.

  • Actually, there's no exam at all.

  • I shouldn't like to say this.

  • But it's really what the subject is is having an idea of how--

  • OK, I'll use deep learning for something.

  • SARAH HANSEN: What did that feel like to try

  • something new pedagogically?

  • GILBERT STRANG: Oh, it's fun.

  • You know, I like teaching.

  • And this is a subject where students

  • just come from everywhere.

  • Because they know what stuff to learn.

  • And they've heard about it.

  • And they-- some of them know more than me.

  • And then those students write even better projects.

  • Yeah, it's just-- so I do the lectures for the first three

  • quarters of the course.

  • And then I try to get them to present,

  • which is a great experience for them,

  • though it takes a little urging to get them.

  • But, yeah, yeah, it's really just wonderful.

  • SARAH HANSEN: What insights have you

  • gained about having more of a student-led course

  • and a project-based course?

  • Anything that other--

  • GILBERT STRANG: You realize, slowly but finally,

  • that that's how people learn, by doing.

  • That you couldn't give them a better way

  • to learn than to create a project.

  • Usually, it's on some topic they know about

  • or they're interested in, like, how do you

  • find a criminal in a bunch of people?

  • Yeah, it's just a very effective way to learn.

  • And it's something that gets remembered, where

  • doing exam questions that I might make up,

  • sort of mathy questions, I don't know if that's

  • remembered 10 years later.

  • But I think people's projects are.

  • SARAH HANSEN: Is there anything you learned

  • from teaching it this way?

  • Like something that maybe went wrong in the logistics

  • of facilitating these projects that next time you

  • want to do differently?

  • GILBERT STRANG: Well, sure.

  • I didn't have any idea what to expect really.

  • And maybe the students didn't either.

  • They said, what's a project?

  • Well, one student had said unwisely,

  • when are the projects due?

  • I thought, what's that?

  • I mean, I hadn't even thought about projects.

  • So I was like, OK.

  • All right.

  • You asked for it.

  • So we decided that the last--

  • the end of the semester, the final day

  • of class, which is two weeks away,

  • projects are due to come in.

  • And then some of the class is able, has a chance,

  • to present their project in the last weeks, but not everybody

  • because it's a big class.

  • So it starts with each student or each group--

  • it could be two or three students together--

  • sends me an email about their plan.

  • And I respond.

  • I usually respond, wonderful.

  • And maybe I have an idea of a reference or two

  • that they could look at.

  • But and then they just do it.

  • Yeah, it's really very nice.

  • SARAH HANSEN: Do you give them any feedback along the way?

  • GILBERT STRANG: If they ask for it, yeah.

  • And if I-- you know, usually they'll

  • know more about their subject than me.

  • But maybe what they learn also is presenting.

  • That's an important thing.

  • So it's really just more--

  • it's richer than taking an exam.

  • Well, the viewer may think, OK, Professor Strang

  • says no more exams.

  • I don't know if--

  • so don't quote me on that, please.

  • SARAH HANSEN: OK.

  • In 18.065, in one of the videos, you

  • talk about grading students' work.

  • And you tell them that, although this

  • is important to grade their work,

  • it's not your main concern.

  • That your main concern is actually learning with them.

  • GILBERT STRANG: Right.

  • This is what I want to say the most.

  • And I say it to every class I teach

  • near the start of the semester.

  • My feeling about what my job is is to teach you things

  • or to join with you in learning things, as has happened today.

  • It's not to grade you.

  • So typically, the first few days of class, these guys

  • ask, you know, what's the class average going to be?

  • How are we going to be graded?

  • I don't have any answers for that stuff.

  • So I say what is totally true, that I'm not--

  • I don't feel my main job is to grade them.

  • That my job is to teach them or learn with them.

  • And that's what I continue to do.

  • And gradually, they begin to believe.

  • You know, at the beginning, they still think, OK, but he's

  • got to give me a B, or a C, or an A.

  • But really, that's not what 18.065 is about, a grade.

  • It's just not.

  • SARAH HANSEN: What advice do you have for new professors

  • starting out in teaching?

  • GILBERT STRANG: Well, probably this interview

  • has expressed most of the thoughts

  • I have about in the class.

  • Yeah, yeah.

  • Use big chalk, especially if it's a large class.

  • It helps your writing get--

  • your writing looks impressively level, even,

  • because of the chalk.

  • And don't rush.

  • And don't think you have to cover everything.

  • Just stay with the class.

  • Yeah.

  • Yeah.

  • Well, so again, it's the best job possible.

SARAH HANSEN: Could you tell us a little bit

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