HOPE Scholarship Cuts and its Effects in the Classroom

In the wake of the Great Recession, governments everywhere have tried to slash spending. Unfortunately, education has not been spared from these cuts. In the past four years alone, the state contribution to Georgia Tech has been reduced by 90 million dollars or approximately 31%.^[1] Colleges across Georgia have had to cope with shrinking funds, which have led to pay freezes, reduction in faculty, decrease in admissions, fewer degree programs and course offerings, and even a controversial maneuver to merge eight colleges in the University System of Georgia into four. In addition to these measures, universities turn to their students to help make up for lost funds by raising the cost of tuition and adding new mandatory fees.

The inflation of tuition and extra fees has placed increased pressure on the HOPE scholarship, Georgia’s state scholarship program, which until recently has covered full tuition and fees for students who maintain a 3.0 GPA. About 30% of students in the University System of Georgia receive this scholarship.^[2] From its inception in 1993, HOPE has awarded $6.4 billion dollars to help almost 1.5 million Georgians pay for college^[3] without requiring any public funds. A portion of the revenue from the Georgia Lottery has fully sustained the program to this point but now risks falling short of the needed expenses for its continuation. The state legislature’s latest response to this problem was the passage of HB 326, a bill that dramatically cuts the coverage of the HOPE scholarship.

HB 326, which was signed into law one year ago, broke HOPE into a two-tiered system. In order to receive the same benefits as before, students now must maintain a 3.7 GPA throughout high school and a 3.3 GPA in college. This has been renamed the Zell Miller Scholarship. What is still known as the HOPE scholarship no longer covers full tuition, mandatory fees, or book stipends. To receive this, students still must maintain a 3.0 GPA, and in addition, they must score a 1200 or higher on the math and reading sections of the SAT. This requirement represents a significant barrier to entry, considering that 1200 is two standard deviations above the average score of Georgia high school graduates: 978.^[4] The changes to the HOPE scholarship program introduce new problems for students and campuses throughout Georgia.

Continue reading on the Learner’s Voice…

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I am thinking CS 3451 should be pretty fun. You get to play with math to make stuff that looks cool.

Before I took this class, I knew that computers ran on 1′s and 0′s, but I was pretty embarrassed as a CS major because I had absolutely no idea how this was possible. Using programs like photoshop and programming in high level languages, I was utterly perplexed about how these things could ever simplify down to binary. After taking CS 2110, I could probably write programs in 1′s and 0′s. Obviously this would be miserable, but I think it’s pretty cool that I could do it if I had to.

Another great thing about this class is that towards the end of the semester we get to write Game Boy games! I enjoyed this a lot. It is rare to get the chance to do things in a college class that your 8 year-old self would also think is cool. Here are the games that I made for my homework:

This class teaches you how computers work. You start out with just transistors and build on that until you get to C. So when you finally get to C, you know how it does all of its magic… you know what pointers are because you know what its doing in assembly, you know how to smash a stack because you understand the calling convention, etc. Here’s a basic outline of the course:

Outline

1. Datatypes
   • Binary/octal/hex conversions, 2′s complement numbers, floating-point numbers
2. Digital Logic
   • AND gates, OR gates, decoders, multiplexors, etc
   • We use logisimto draw out the circuits.
     

     1-Bit full adder in Logisim

3. State Machines
   • Memory, Karnaugh maps
4. LC3 Datapath/Assembly
   • IO, stacks, recursion
   • This is where the class starts speeding up, so try not to get behind here.
   • This is also the point in the class where Linux is required. Any distro will do. If you don’t have it yet, I suggest setting it up early so you can get used to it before you have to use it in class.
5. C Programming
   • Game Boy development, DMA, linked lists, stack smashing

Grading

You will have a total of 6700 points in this class. This includes:

• 8 quizzes worth 200 points
• 20 labs worth 10 points
  • These are done in the lab period and are not worth much, but you should do them because it helps you learn the new material and the TA’s are there to answer questions.
• 6 timed labs worth 250 points
  • Timed labs are worth a lot. You are given a project that you have to code during the lab period. People stress out about these more than quizzes, but in my experience, they are much easier. Think of it as a quiz where you can test everything to make sure it is right.
• 13 homework assignments worth 100 points (except the last one is 200 points)
  • Homework is not worth that much considering how long they take. You may be tempted to skimp on the homework, but this will most likely bring your grade down in quizzes/labs as well. You learn how to program by coding stuff, not reading books, so do your homework. Plus, homework is the fun part, although it might not seem that way in the moment.
• Final exam worth 2000 points

Tips

• Start on homework early – You may have gotten through 1331 and 1332 by starting homework the night that it’s due, but you will probably have to break that habit to do well in 2110. You might be able to get by the first couple of weeks, but the homework in 2110 is not a strait forward and laid out for you as it was in 1331 and 1332. You will most likely have questions, and if you wait until the minute, it is harder to find people to answer them. Trust me, this class is so much less stressful if you don’t procrastinate.
• Talk to your TA’s – (before the day that your homework is due). The TA’s are really smart and have office hours where they can transfer some of their smartness to you. Brandon Whitehead has been a TA for this class for eons, has a photographic memory, and knows everything you could ever want to know. People think he is intimidating, and yes, he could probably pick you up and throw you through a window with little effort, but he is not going to do that. He is actually very nice and has negotiated with the professors on behalf of the students about extending due dates when necessary. So be nice to him.
• Work with people in your class – Just like the TA’s, your classmates can help you a lot. There are usually a couple people working on 2110 at any given time in the coc. Just don’t be that person that is always behind asking for help. You should know what you are doing enough of the time to help other people too.
•  Go to class – class is actually really helpful, and if you take it with Bill Leahy it will be fun. From what I gather, Bill also does improv comedy. He is super funny and always comes up with the craziest stories to describe the concepts that we are learning. If you cannot get the class with Bill, I have also heard good things about Tom Conte who taught the other section.

Syllabus

CS 2110 Fall 2011 Syllabus

Other Class Reviews

• ECON 2101 – The Global Economy
• CS 4400 – Intro to Database Systems

Christine Ries, guest speaker for CPAC Cruise

Fall 2011, I took econ 2101, the Global Economy, with Dr. Christine Ries. I signed up for this class on a whim becuase of the interesting intersection of computer science and economics (e-commerce, e-currency, bitcoin, etc.). Later I changed by mind, but by that time the other classes that I wanted to take were full at all of the decent times. While I have mixed feeling about dominant economic thought, I figured that the class would be interesting and was not eager to drop it for a morning class; however, if I knew the following things, I probably would have changed my mind…

Attendance Policy

IF YOU MISS MORE THAN 2 CLASSES YOU GET AN AUTOMATIC C! IF YOU MISS MORE THAN 4 CLASSES YOU GET AN AUTOMATIC F!

Subscriptions

You are required to purchase two subscriptions for the course: a subscription to the Wall Street Journal and a subscription to Aplia, a website with homework assessments over material in the book.

[RANT: With the cost of tuition and required fees rising every semester, I hate it when we are required to purchase extra subscriptions for classes! Students can get by without buying a textbook if they need to, but it's different when it's a service that you have to use to turn in your assignments. Sites like Aplia benefit the teachers more than the students by reducing the time it takes to create and grade assignments, yet the students are the ones that have to pay. One guy in my class said that this was his fourth class this semester to require subscriptions, and there were no overlaps in products. We already pay a "technology fee" as one of the required fees, which covers sites like t-square, which we already use take online quizzes and turn in homework. I wish professors would recognize the already strained financial situation of students and try to utilize free tools.]

Busy Work

You have to write a report on a Wall Street Journal article every week, and you also have about two or three Aplia assessments to do each week. The WSJ reports are simple and quick, but the Aplia assignments take time.

What??

All of these things seem absurd to me, but then again, I am used to computer science classes where they never take attendance, the required software is all free and open source, and there is never busy work. In other words, I’m used to classes where your grade reflects how much you have learned rather than how many hoops you can jump through. In my experience, social science classes at Georgia Tech tend to take the later approach, but Dr. Ries takes it to a whole new level.

Some more things that you should know…

Grading

Actual grades don’t matter. Top 25% of the class get A’s, next 50% of the class get B’s, remaining 25% get C’s and below. I’m not sure if this is determined before or after attendance policy is accounted for.

**Hint for next year’s students.** Technically, this means if the students in the class were to organize, they could collectively agree that no one would buy into the subscriptions and therefore it would not effect anyone’s grade! This would be marvelous.

Unfortunately, this grading structure gives little transparency in the way that final grades are assigned. The grades listed on t-square tell you nothing about your actual grade in the class because it is all relative to how everyone else is doing. In the middle of the semester, Dr. Ries tallied up our points that we got in the semester and told us the point ranges for each letter grade, so we could see how we were doing. I was expecting her to do the same thing for the end of the semester, but all I know is the letter grade that I was assigned. We were never informed of our total points in the class, or what letter grade was assigned to what point range. In fact, grades that account for 40% of our final grade were not even listed on t-square. In the middle of the semester I had an A, but my final grade report for this semester informed me that I made a B in the class. While this is not completely surprising, considering that I stopped keeping up with the Aplia and WSJ assignments, I thought that my high test grades, extra credit points, and presumably high project grade might make up for that. It is impossible to tell how close I came to an A or if any mistakes were made calculating the grade, but if I were more concerned with my grade in this class, I could e-mail Dr. Ries and ask about it.

Word Count

Everything you write will have a strict word count limit, even essay and short answer test questions. You must write a word count beside each response and scratch out any words that go above the word count limit. The limit is usually something pretty small for all of the things you have to explain in the question, like between 20 and 80 words each. For short answers, think twitter post size. This means that when you write your responses you have to constantly go back and count the amount of words that you have written so far. It is sort of annoying, especially when you are running low on time.

Possible Biases

It is important to note that Dr. Ries sits ideologically on the far right. I find that it is helpful to recognize potential biases of who you are trying to learn from or get a good grade from.

• FACT: During the semester Dr. Ries missed class to go on CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Alaskan cruise and was a speaker along with Donal Rumsfeld.
• FACT: During the semester she was also interviewed in a film produced by Americans for Prosperity.
• WARNING: If you might get tired of reading articles that denigrate student movements and the occupy movement, don’t take this class! Here are some examples of articles that we had to read in this class.
  • Harvard Walkout Students Misunderstand Economy
  • Remedial Economics: The ‘Occupy’ folks learn the limits of wealth redistribution
• WARNING: If you are a person that may be uncomfortable writing about how income inequality is good on an essay exam question, don’t take this class!
  • Exam 4 Essay Question (55/60 points, not bad. This sort of stuff tends to flow from me easily as a former Ayn Rand Objectivist type, but if I was not thinking about my grade, I would have written about how income inequality leads to social inequality.)

Still considering taking this class?

If none of the things I have mentioned so far are deal breakers for you, you should enjoy the class. Dr. Ries is genuinely enthusiastic about what she teaches and it shows.

Syllabus

2101 Fall 2011 Syllabus

Other Class Reviews

• CS 2110 – Computer Organization & Programming
• CS 4400 – Intro to Database Systems

If you are a computer science major, this is an InfoInternetworks thread pick under the “Introduction to Information Management” category. If one of your threads is InfoInternetworks, then you will have to take 2/3 of the classes in this category. I figured that all classes in this category (Databases, Information Security, and Networking) seemed important, so I planned to take all three. I now realize that CS 4400 would be the class to skip.

I’m not implying that you should skip this class because databases are not important. They are very important to application development, and I strongly encourage every CS major to become comfortable with them. At the same time, there is a lot to learn as a CS major, and you need to decide what is worth learning on your own and what is worth paying tuition to learn in a class. I found this class to be extremely dry and a bad use of 3 credit hours. CS 4400 is geared towards Industrial Engineering majors since it is a required class for them and optional for CS. Maybe the class could be more useful if they had a class specifically for CS majors that was more focused on building things. For the time being, my recommendation for any CS major would be to get a good book on database theory and SQL and practice by making your own database driven applications. I bet you can get more from 2 weeks of this than a whole semester of CS 4400.

If I have not scared you off yet, I will go into detail about the class itself. One perk is that it is a pretty easy class. Your only grades are 4 quizzes and a group project (broken up into 3 phases). Before you sign up for it as a GPA boost, beware that it is also insanely boring. If you are anything like me, the boring factor will always outweigh how easy the class is as an indication of how well you will do (interesting/hard classes = A, boring/easy classes = B).

Quizzes

You will take 4 multiple choice quizzes with an optional 5th quiz that can replace your lowest grade.

• Quiz 1: DB Concepts & ER/EER  Model
  

  Example Question: The three schema architecture supports which important characteristic of the database approach?
  (a)  Natural language interfaces
  (b)  A single view of data
  (c)  Online transaction processing
  (d)  Program data independence

• Quiz 2: Relational Algebra & Calculus, and QBE
  

  Example Question: Which of the relational algebra queries is equivalent to the following: σCustID = 11(σUnitPrice < 10 (σQty > 2 (Order * Item * OrderItem)))?
  (a) σCustID = 11(Order) * σUnitPrice < 10 (Item) * σQty > 2 (OrderItem)
  (b) σCustID = 11 AND UnitPrice < 10 AND Qty > 2 (Order * Item * OrderItem)
  (c) Both (a) and (b)
  (d) None of the above

• Quiz 3: SQL and ER to Relational Mapping
  

  Example Question: How many tuples will be returned by the following SQL query: SELECT * FROM (CustomerAccount NATURAL RIGHT OUTER JOIN TransactionHistory)?
  (a) 7
  (b) 8
  (c) 9
  (d) 49

• Quiz 4: Normalization and Physical Design
  

  Example Question: Relation R(A, B, C, D) with functional dependencies ABC → D, D → A has candidate keys ABC and BCD. The decomposition into R1(A, D) and R2(B, C, D) cannot preserve the dependency ABC → D. So there is no dependency preserving and lossless BCNF decomposition possible for R.
  (a) TRUE
  (b) FALSE

• Quiz 5: Cumulative (Optional)

Project

You are given a specification of a database driven application that you work on throughout the semester, turning something in for each phase.

• Phase I: Analysis & Specification (Information Flow Diagram, EER Diagram, Additional Constraints)
• Phase II: Design (Updates, Relational Model Diagram, SQL create table statements, SQL statements for each task)
• Phase III: Implementation and Testing (choice between lightweight and heavyweight option)

This semester we were asked to build an Emergency Management Resource System. I have attatched the project description pdf. You work in groups of up to 4 people or individually on the project. Most of the IE majors will try to recruit CS majors to their group to help with the coding. Most CS majors that do this end up coding the front-end of the heavyweight project while the rest of the group does the database stuff. You can get away with doing less work this way, but you don’t really learn anything new. Overall, I think the workload is small enough for a CS major to do the whole project individually. I would not recommend working in a group unless you know you have dependable group members (otherwise, you are just making more work for yourself).

For phase III, you have the choice between a lightweight and heavyweight option. All you have to do for the lightweight option is demonstrate to your TA that you have working SQL statements for each task in the application (with something like phpMyAdmin). The heavyweight project includes a full implementation of the application, front-end and back-end. You can build your application using any language. If you do the heavyweight project, you do not have to take the final exam. I chose to do the heavyweight option (probably along with every other CS major). I have to admit that coding the final project in the last weekend of the semester was the only time that I felt like like I was really learning in this class. I find that it is much easier to learn the information when you are actually building something rather than reading a text book to study for a multiple choice quiz.

Looking back, there are many worthwhile CS classes at tech that I wish I took instead of CS 4400, but this class was not a horrible experience either. Obviously if you want to specialize in databases and prefer learning by reading from a text book, you may actually enjoy this class. I hope that I have included enough detail so you can make a more informed decision whether or not you want to take it.

TL;DR CS 4400 is not hard but very dry. You probably shouldn’t take it if you don’t have to. You may be better off learning it on your own.

Other Class Reviews

• CS 2110 – Computer Organization & Programming
• ECON 2101 – The Global Economy

My original post was:

“Going into the banking industry has to be one of the worst uses of a computer science degree. Don’t use your knowledge to let the rich get richer.”

Minutes after I posted that, I received a message from the creator of the event saying that he was being pressured to take the post down by someone who worked at JPMorgan Chase. He said that he did not feel comfortable censoring, so he left it up to me to take it down or not. I apologized for putting him in a weird situation, and told him that anyone is free to post a rebuttal, and I thought that would be a better solution than removing the comment all together. The post has generated lots of comments. It’s a pretty neat discussion. Check it out: screen shot of facebook thread

NATO missile used in airstrike that killed Gaddafi's son and three grandchildren during a family gathering

We have a government that can turn every problem into its own war (War on Poverty, War On Drugs, War on Terrorism, etc.) and at the same time, evade the label for real combat situations when convenient, namely, to dodge obtaining consent from even the most petty representation of the American people.  We see this happening now with the military operations in Libya.

The constitution assigns congress the power to declare war; however, since World War II, the succeeding presidents have used the position as Commander in Chief to wage war without any congressional approval.  In Korea and Vietnam, despite the spending of a trillion dollars and 94,000 American casualties, ^[1] war was never officially declared. In response these catastrophes, congress passed the War Powers Resolution over the veto of President Nixon in 1973. The War Powers Resolution states that the President must withdrawal troops if congress has not given authorization within 60 days of military commencement. ^[2] It has been more than 5 months since Obama commenced military forces in Libya, and congress has taken notice. On June 3^rd, the House of Representatives passed a resolution that explicitly states that military units shall not be deployed in Libya. ^[3] Two weeks later, a group of ten bipartisan members of congress filed a lawsuit against president Obama on the operations in Libya. ^[4] Obama’s response: he does not believe that he needs the approval of congress.

During the first day of U.S. military force in Libya, U.S. warships fired 110 Tomahawk missiles ($569,000 each ^[5]), and B-2 stealth bombers dropped 40 bombs. ^[6] The U.S. claims to only play a supporting role in military involvement and on April 4^th transitioned full command to NATO. CIA agents remain stationed on the ground helping organize the rebels and collecting intelligence. The U.S. provides fuel, ammunition, and intelligence to the allies, ^[7] but allows them to press the buttons. Of course, the U.S. does not surrender all button pressing to the allies: on April 21st, the U.S. began the use of predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles in Libya. According to General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Join Chiefs of Staff, two patrols of drones will fly above Libya at all times.^[8] As of June 19^th, NATO has carried out 11,500 missions including 4,500 missile attacks ^[9] killing numerous civilians ^[10] along the way, including three grandchildren of Gaddafi during a family gathering. ^[11]

The “limited involvement” of the U.S. military in Libya is the basis of President Obama’s argument for the legality of his actions under the War Powers Act. Part of the Obama administration’s single paragraph support for his stance states that the operations in Libya are “distinct from the kind of ‘hostilities’ contemplated by the [War Powers] Resolution” because:

“U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve the presence of U.S. ground troops, U.S. casualties or a serious threat thereof…” ^[7]

In other words: if it were a real war, then our forces would be under attack, but in this case, we are just attacking them. Opposing forces cannot shoot back at the robots in the air that we use to shoot them. The destruction is one way. We don’t see the war, so it must not be there.

Military technology allows us to distance ourselves from our actions and ignore the destruction that we cause. The damage caused by Tomahawk missiles and drone attacks can hardly be described as limited.  While I have no sympathy for Gaddafi or his forces, the actions of the U.S. in Libya represent a dangerous direction for the use of military power and abuse of executive authority. For an executive to single-handedly order these unilateral attacks and treat the resulting bloodshed and devastation as too minor to even bring to congress is indefensible.

Oddly, it seems that Obama agreed with this sentiment before his presidency. For those of you who are delusional enough to believe that Obama will follow through with what you had projected onto his promises of “hope” and “change” during his next term in office, you are probably beyond the point of reasoning, but just in case, I bring you yet another reason to abandon hope in this administration. Here are some quotes concerning executive power to use military force by members of the current administration while they were still senators:

“The president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” – Barrack Obama ^[4,12]

“The Constitution is clear: Except in response to an attack or the imminent threat of attack, only Congress may authorize war and the use of force.” – Joe Biden ^[4]

“I do not believe that the President can take military action—including any kind of strategic bombing—against Iran without congressional authorization.” – Hillary Clinton ^[4]

These quotes along with the 2008 campaign may have led you to believe that Obama would be a departure from Bush Doctrine policies. Do not be fooled again.

References

1. Casualties in the Vietnam War: http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.html#year
   Casualties in the Korean War: http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45275
   Cost of war: www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf
2. War Powers Resolution (full text): http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sup_01_50_10_33.html
3. Boehner Resolution on Libya: http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/112/house/1/411
4. Libya Complaint for Injunctive and Declaratory Relief: http://kucinich.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Libya_Complaint_Master.pdf
5. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=2200&tid=1300&ct=2
6. http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=63232
7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/united-states-activities-libya.html
8. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/21/nato-wants-drones-target-misrata
9. http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=16639
10. It’s hard to get an objective number of the civilian deaths caused by NATO intervention. The Libyan Ministry of Health claims that more than 1,100 civilians have been killed and 4,500 injured: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/libya-nato-dismisses-claims-of-civilian-casualties-2313893.html. There are many reports of civilian deaths by other news sources, but I’ve found very few instances where NATO admits to killing civilians. Here is one: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/news_75639.htm
11. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/01/gaddadi-family-deaths-reinforce-doubts
12. http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/CandidateQA/ObamaQA/

This is a project that I made for my Calculus III class at Georgia Tech (Fall 2010). The assignment was to make a program using vector calculus to display a particle bouncing around disks formed on the vertices of an equilateral triangle. I used Flash and ActionScript 3 for this project. We were also asked to find a launch angle that would maximize the number of bounces. Through randomized simulations, the best angle that I found was 95.53703633252331 degrees which yields 18 bounces. I dare you to beat that.

My Old Website (anybeth.com)

I am finally taking down my old flash website. Flash makes it really easy to do cool things and scale to every screen size, but unfortunately it is not very accessible or easy to manage. Instead of focusing on my design portfolio, this website is going to be focused on my blog. I find that the best way to digest what’s going on is to write about it. The plan is to write in this regularly. We’ll see how that goes.