Learning Opportunity
Long time readers of this blog know that, due to my domain name, I occasionally get requests for my code from students wishing to pass it off as their own for homework assignments. Usually I just ignore the requests, but once and awhile they get my goat.
Last fall, if some of you remember, I was so annoyed that I did a little googling to determine what university a requester was attending and contacted three of his professors.
I was expecting a least a “thank you for bring this to our attention,” but I got no response. At least not immediately. It turns out one of the professors did read my explanation of the Huffman algorithm I have on the website here. Professor Srinivasan liked it enough to make an interesting proposition.
At first I blew it off, but after mulling it over (while keeping my good friends in the dark), it really is an offer we couldn’t turn down.
I am going to take a sabbatical from my current employer once my current project completes and spend the 2006-2007 school year as a guest lecturer at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering in Tamilnadu, India. I’ll be teaching Introduction to Algorithms and a couple of database courses. We’ll be back in the states next spring.
It seems odd I know, but they’ll get an American instructor (which will help their sudents get software contracts from American companies) and my family gets an opportunity of a lifetime in a foreign country. Between the semesters, we’ll take a side trip to Vietnam and China to visit the girls’ hometowns. We should be able to save on air travel from there.
We haven’t exactly figured out what to do with the cats and fish while we’re gone. There are tons of things to do to prepare between now and the time we leave. After all, it is already APRIL 1ST!