Teaching Facility Location: Lessons Observed

This summer I taught Facility Location to a mix of seniors and graduate (mostly professional masters) students. As usual, lessons observed.

OVERVIEW
The course is billed as Logistics and Supply Chain Management. In particular, it is a course number that has not been used for a while. The department has pledged to have a couple courses offered every summer, so this was one of them. Of the other courses in the department, there is one course titled supply chain management, but it focuses on production. So, in consultation with that professor, this course was focused on Outside-the-plant rather then inside-the-plant.

The original intention was to make this a combination of facility location problems and vehicle routing. The texts for the course were Facility Location: Applications and Theory (eds Drezner and Hamacher) and Logic of Logistics (Simchi-Levi, Chen and Bramel).

The plan for the course was for me to teach the first half of the course covering the basic models. After that, my sense is the goal is for the students to see as many models as possible, but it probably did not matter which ones. So I had the graduate students teach a module of their choosing while the undergraduates would present an application paper found in an academic journal (usually Interfaces).

LESSONS OBSERVED

1. Software and programming: For the course, I informed enrolled students about a month before the course that we would use programming (C was expected, but any language of the student's choosing was allowed). Early on there was an assignment that required implementation of an algorithm, this was very difficult. What this really means is we need to expose students to programming more often so they get used to the idea they have to implement what they are learning, not just learn equations. For linear programming, we used GLPK. The original plan was to try to use Pennsylvania based data and the student versions of the LP solvers could not handle that. And is it turns out, noone remembered how to use LINDO/LINGO anyway. But because they are not used to programming, this was hard too. Most of them got GLPK to work, and I suspect that it is easier to figure out then LINGO was.

2. In class exercises: The first day of class I reviewed linear programming, then made them do a formulation in class to see what you remembered. And, it was useful to know just where the students were. It was a good thing I did this. I did have to scale down the course, and I changed topics.

3. Class interests: The other thing I did was ask the students for their interests. Based on this I (i) switched out one of the major topics and (ii) for grad students that did not have a preferred topic, oriented them towards topics that people were interested in.

4. Textbooks: The Facility Location book was good, but there were no exercises and a few editing errors. Most of the grad students who presented topics covered here found it dense, and did not catch critical aspects of their topics (generally, we figured this out when they scheduled time with me to review the topic and I explained the essentials) The Logic of Logistics book is probably too technical for undergrads and professional masters, as students with these backgrounds are not used to doing proofs. I ended up using Nahmias Operations Management to cover inventory and forecasting.

5. Forecasting: If I'm covering inventory, I need to cover forecasting. This was covered as part of one of the graduate student presentations, but I probably needed to do this topic and the graduate presentation can build on it.

6. Graduate presentations: Of the 9 presentations, I'd say 2 were very good, 4 were adequate (although 2 of these were on more difficult topics, so these would probably be considered good), 1 was marginal, 2 were strikes. One of the effects was a substantial increase in variance in the homework and test questions related to the graduate presentations as opposed to mine. Part of the presentation grade was the performance of the class on the related homework problem, which did correlate with my impressions. A few of the graduate students mentioned that they have been able to apply the topic of their talk almost immediately at work, which is rather gratifying. So overall, I think the idea is sound for this topic. But I need to find time to review the topics afterwards for quality control to ensure that the topic is learned.

7. Homework: This class was compressed during the summer, so I did not get as many homework problems as probably were needed. Most topics were only covered by one assignment and one exam problem. Even at this, they seemed to take a very long time on homework. In a normal length term, I would get out twice as many questions. In addition, I think we could get their computer skills up in the first couple weeks so that their performance on the homework would improve and become more efficient.

8. Undergrad presentations: The undergraduates reviewed one application article in the literature and write a short paper and presentation. First issue is for most of them, the first article submitted for approval (I wanted to approve the articles they selected), most were not applications. As one stated "I did not understand the article, I just saw symbols I recognized" This probably means I needed to discuss the difference between application and theory better, and how to read an article. (Yes, I had pointed them to Interfaces, but somehow people found the Journal of the Operations Research Society and thought that would be a good source.) For the papers and presentations, the students were much better presenters then writers. We've apparently done a good job creating powerpoint rangers, who cannot read or write (I've called them out on their inability to read on several occasions, and letting students know on their homework that I'm pretty sure they would have done better if they read the problem more carefully. I bullet point the relevant details in the assignment.) In addition, everyone went way over the desired length (~5 pages) At the beginning of the course, all of them were concerned with how long it was and I was assuring them that there was more then enough material for them to get 5 pages of material. I should have impressed on them that the real problem was getting the paper short and concise.

Homework and exam problems: The problems I gave were a mix of computational problems and formulation problems. During a teaching workshop, one comment a more experienced teacher made that the standard for teaching and evaluation was that he determined what questions someone in the class got correct, and that was his potential score. His goal was to keep the potential score in the 90s. For me, it was 100. And I'm pretty sure that they learned the material from me, so I feel pretty good about that. But I need to find ways of shortening the feedback loop, and have more points of comprehension checking, because I suspect that could have helped some.

NEXT STEPS
I am teaching in the fall the undergraduates the prerequisite course to this. The department is going to a direction where there is a lead professor on the main undergrad courses, so we've talked some on how to teach it. The focus is going to be pushing formulations more then the actual algorithm (which none of them will ever implement it because we always use solvers). Also, we're going to try to teach a modeling language as well as Excel (and in place of LINDO/LINGO, which are essentially matrix generators) The theory being that the modeling language has a nearly direct correspondence with the math formulation, so that they will reinforce each other for later.

My other plan is to ask the students to write a paper on a journal article, which was something that I did when I took this course as an undergrad. And my thought is to have them do two papers on the same article. First the 5 page paper (with a strict limit on the five pages). Then, after they get feedback, the two page summary paper, to force them to be concise.

Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I saw this Saturday with some friends. The previous movie sees the return of the death eaters and Voldermort in the open.

The story revolves on Harry viewing his role as "The Chosen One" as his own. Of course, with all the plot lines, this is hard to catch. And, he has that teenaged I-am-special-if-only-everyone-else-could-figure-this-out world view. At least he does in the book. The movie has Dumbledore understanding perfectly how wonderful Harry Potter is, although he is apologetic about demanding so much of him. In the book this is also true, but I don't remember Harry being quite so understanding of things.

The films still suffer from too many plots going on at once. This sort of thing works out better in books, in films it gets confusing since some characters are doing double and triple duty.

I remember not liking the book so much, because the Harry Potter teen-age angst was in full form at this point, with very little redeeming virtues. But with this watered down for the movie, it is harder to figure out his motivations. Or motivations for many of the other characters (ok, all the girls in potions class are pretty easy to figure out, but lots of other people seem pretty random if you had not read the books.)

Oh, the major character development plot seems to be all the kids starting dating, and it has to be with major drama. Again, this part did seem to work out better in the movie then the books, but it still seems compressed.

Restaurant Review: Tamari, Lawrenceville

Tamari
3519 Butler St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15201




We arrived around 6:30 and they were busy. We hung out at the bar and had a fun conversation with the bar staff as well as the owner's father (of China Palace) At first, they tried to seat our group outside, and we were eventually seated, but we eventually were chased in by the rain. So we ended up at the sushi bar, where we had front row seats of the chef at the stove. So we had a treat watching a hopping kitchen as the orders came through with head chef Roger Li keeping an eye on things from the side (it was a narrow kitchen).

I had the 16 spice rubbed in pork tenderloin and I was able to taste wrapped shrimp (pictured). The confidence of the kitchen showed when their medium rare was done like it should have been (i.e. not overcooked). The purpose of this restaurant is not feeding volume, in fact the portions are nicely sized. The focus is providing good food. Seasoned uniquely and intended to be savored. And I did so, one bite at a time.

Following lessons learned from his father, owner Allen Chen was wondering the floor chatting with customers. At our front row seat we watched Roger Li manage his kitchen, mentoring younger staff and even exchanging a few words with us watching. A wonderful eating experience, and something creating that makes eating in Pittsburgh fun.

Recommend this review

Book Review: A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This was a book club selection. And not by me :-)

Philip Caputo was a marine lieutenant among the first units in Vietnam in 1965. And his unit, like all such who are the first of their generation to go to war, was unsure of what they would find, looking to their few veterans from Korea to what it would be like, and the guidance from above. And the guidance from above was that it would be easy.


It was not. And Caputo shows what it was like at the ground, the walking into the unknown, not knowing what was ahead. A war where they did not know who was the enemy, and in every village, they did not know how to tell who was who. Their good intentions on dealing with the local population, spoiled by the fact that their opposition was embedded with that same local population and using that as their striking ground for their attacks on Caputo and his marines.

It is this description of dealing with the uncertainty of war that makes this stand out. And to make the example more stark, the second part of the book takes Caputo on his next assignment, staff officer in Vietnam. Far from the unknown of the battlefield, he is now in a war that is measured in numbers on a board, where the planners of war create their plans in willful ignorance of conditions on the ground, asking for certainty that does not exist. And you realize what others like Halberstrom and McMaster have stated in their books on the same era, that this pattern of making decisions in ignorance was even higher as you got further away from the battlefield.

Caputo also shows what a difference it makes to have a commander who desires to get beyond this. He describes a change of command, where the new commander insists on recognizing the reality of war, almost in opposition to the staff that he inherited. And the two commanders contrast with Rick Atkinson's description in "In the Company of Soldiers" of the general of the 101st Airborne during the 2003 invasion of Iraq , whose recognition of facts on the ground which higher levels were denying changed the way the 101st went into battle.

This was a good war book, not one that focused on glory or horrors, but what it meant for men on a battlefield to deal with all the unknowns of war. Very apart from those who speak with assurance based on ideology instead of experience.


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Book Review: Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL: From Novice to Professional by Neil Matthew

Originally at Goodreads

Beginning Databases with PostgreSQL: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition by Neil Matthew

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This has proven to be a very good book. I'm not a database expert, but I happen to need PostgreSQL because I am working on a project that involves GIS, and PostGIS turns out to be a very appropriate tool for what I am doing. This book got me started and has helped me through the importing of data, understanding basic functions, and incorporating PostgreSQL into my programs (I use a combination of R, Python/Jython and Java. The book does not talk about them all, but what is in there carries over pretty well.) I've also used this to use BIRT and Openoffice.org to link my PostgreSQL databases. Again, it is not spelled out, but what was in here brought me well along the way to making it work.


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Book Review: Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R by Bivand, Pebsma, and Gomez-Rubio

Originally posted to Goodreads. Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R by Roger S. Bivand

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Applied Spatial Data Analysis with R (ASDAR) is written by the same people who wrote and maintain the spatial sp class in R. The book is not a statistician's text on mathematical geo-statistics, rather is focuses on taking geospatial (e.g. GIS) data and applying analysis within R. Not being a statistician, I used the book to learn how to manipulate geospatial data for my own analytical purposes. The mark of a good technical book, not only did I learn about how to work with the standard geospatial data types, I was able to implement analyses using the material in the book.


The book has three parts. First is an introduction to spatial data. Much of it is orienting the reader to the vocabulary of geospatial data such as point, line, polygon, grid, coordinate system, projection. It also motivates why using R for spatial analysis. (The other options would be within a GIS such as GRASS or ARCInfo, custom functions using C++ or Java, or Python, which has been incorporated into many GIS environments). In particular, it looks at the many packages and analysis built up that uses the sp package and data structure, allowing many developed analytical methods to be used together to build a complex analysis. (this is similar to my purpose, taking advantage of the fact that R provides a standard entry point to several computational toolkits that I use.)


The second part discusses accessing and using geospatial data in R, which fulfilled my purpose. It is detailed documentation on the various spatial classes and the methods that are applicable. There are descriptions and examples of how to visually display geospatial data. The chapter on data import and export covers GDAL/OGR, coordinate reference systems, projections and transformations, and what you would need to work with formats such as shapefiles, PostGIS, KML, image files such as tiff files and Google Earth overlays (PNG), or directly with GRASS, TerraLib, or Python interfaces with ArcGIS, RPyGeo.


The last part is on implementing geostatistical methods such as for pattern analysis, geostatistics, areal analysis (geographic aggregation), or epidemiology. I cannot comment too much on this as this is not an area that I have expertise, but the methods look both adequate as well as practical to use.


While the intended audience of this book are statisticians working with geospatial data, I would also recommend this to those who do data analysis or modeling with geospatial data. Most of the analytical texts I've seen discuss algorithms. This text gets into the practicalities of working with real data formats and real data issues that are the inevitable first step in a project. And it does so at a more analytical level then the point and click interface instructions that are enabled by standard GIS systems alone.


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PSO: Independence day at Hartwood Acres

[also posted to the Pittsburgh Symphony Website (give them a couple days) http://pittsburghsymphony.blogs.com/outside/]

I went to school in the north suburbs of Chicago, and every year one of the highlights was the Ravinia music festival, where the Chicago Symphony and others would perform outdoor concerts on summer nights. My friends and I would pack a picnic dinner and picnic and enjoy ourselves, and then be treated to a wonderful concert under the darkening sky.

And a friend let me know about this July 4, when PSO was playing a summer night outdoor concert not too far away from home. So we went in anticipation of just a fun concert.




For an outdoor concert it was a bit of ambitious. Strauss, and Beethoven, with a cello concerto by Herbert for the first pieces in the program, with the rest of the program the more conventional Americana of Copland, Ives, and the Armed Forces Salute. Finishing with the almost obligatory 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever.

The Strauss, Herbert and Beethoven pieces were almost trying to hard. While nice pieces, they seemed to get swallowed up in the open air and grass and trees (and the ambient noise of the park).

Copland's Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring reminded me of Gabriela Montero's concert back in January, when she brought with her Air and Simple Gifts for its live debut after the presidential inauguration. This and the Ives Variation America provided a feel of Americana that you would want in a concert on that day.

The Armed Forces Salute as well as 1812 Overture and Stars and Stripes Forever are almost mandatory for a July 4 concert (it was getting dark by then, so I did not see our veterans stand in their turns).

But something was missing. Oh. "Musical fireworks" were advertised, but no actual fireworks??? It would have been a fun way to cap the night if this happened to be coordinated with some nearby town holding their fireworks to coincide with the last part of the show. *sigh*

Flag raising, July 4, 2007, Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan

Rachel Carson Challenge 2009

This marked the third time I've hiked (not run) the Rachel Carson Challenge. The previous two times were in 2006 and 2008. (I was here in 2007). And of course, this time I aimed to finish on time. The past two times I was coming in right at the time limit at a full run (or I was trying to go at a full run, I was usually with people who got tired faster.

As usual, there was another task being accomplished. Last time, I was trying listen in on a 2M amateur radio (which I could do.) This time, I was running another experiment. I carried a GPS tracker that was connected to a 2M (VHF) transmitter that would broadcast my location on APRS. If all went well, it would be recorded by a digipeater that would record my position and track. All of this using equipment loaned by members of the Pitt Amateur Radio Club.





We began in North Park, going east. So it meant the fast part was at the beginning.



We waited in the dark, punctuated by reflective piping on everyone's shoes and gear, and the flourescent green shirts of the volunteers running the challenge.



I started out with a group that was part of an exercise club at Pitt, including a couple people from my department. We started out by crossing the stream at the beginning, helped by Mark E. the lead of the trail maintainers. Of course, B. went for a spill, filling the need to get muddy out of the way for the rest.



And it was important not to be concerned about getting muddy, because the trails were very muddy, a remnant of the heavy rains that caused major flooding in Turtle Creek, Pitcairn and Forest Hills earlier in the week (and yours truly was doing damage assessment for the Red Cross.) This slowed down progress through North Park to Route 8 significantly, as the mud sucked on our shoes as we went through.



Halfway through I met up with S and J, who I trained with for the 2008 Challenge, both of whom had traveled back to Pittsburgh for this.



As usual, there were the many hills to climb and descend, with the twist that I was going in the opposite direction then I had in the past.



And then we pushed to the end. The clouds that were forecast throughout the day were over the finish at Harrison Hills Park, and as two of us raced through Harrison Hills Park (and made one wrong turn, that I figured out) the rains hit. Just as we got to the Bobwhite shelter, which USED to be the finish point. We pushed through the uphill through last part of the course through a downpour, which turned the trail into a torrent of muddy water. And when we got to the end, we emerged out of the woods to wild cheers of volunteers and other late finishers, who probably were not expecting anyone to navigate their way through the now skies after the setting sun and downpour.



And we were soaking wet, from shoes that were completely inundated with mud pressed in by the current, to clothes that were completely soaked. D, one of the volunteers, gave me a hug, and the water being squeezed out of my clothes was very visible. We wolfed down some burgers, I got a massage and a ride back home that evening.

And the experiment, well, it did not really work. But we knew this would be a problem because of the hills and valleys blocking the radio signal from the digipeater, and all the forest cover that blocks GPS signals. But we have some ideas for the second time we send someone with an APRS transmitter down the trail. All we need to do is find someone crazy enough to do the Rachel Carson Challenge while carrying a radio and GPS tracker . . .

Using shp2pgsql to import Shapefiles to PostGIS

I covered some of this in a previous post on Converting Lat/Long data to PostGIS. But now my problem is to import Shapefiles into PostGIS.

First, why do this. While Shapefiles are good for distributing and looking at data, it is difficult to do any analysis. To do anything, you end up using OGR/GDAL to examine the shapefile and then do something with it. PostGIS takes the spatial and data components of the Shapefile and exposes them in database format, allowing anything that can be done with a database to be done with the Shapefile. In addition, it enables Simple Features for SQL which allows for using set operations on geographic objects (as opposed to only sets). Think of all the Venn diagram pictures back in High School. And other spatial operations that may come to mind when dealing with points, lines and shapes.

The key, of course, is to get the PostGIS database started. So, first, within PostgreSQL, create a database

CREATE DATABASE PA;

Next, load PostGIS onto the database. The first step is to load PL/PGSQL

CREATE LANGUAGE plpgsql;

Next, within the database, load the lwpostgis.sql and spatial_ref_sys.sql into the database. I used the pgAdmin III GUI.

Next, use the shp2pgsql tool The format is:

shp2pgsql [] > .sql

This should be run from the directory with the .shp file. refers to the name of the shapefile. is the name of the table to be created within the database. You can also enter this in schema.tablename form if you want. database name is the name of the database on the local server that it is being entered into. Usual practice is to pipe this to an SQL file that will be read in later (with all the necessary permissions. For option, the common one is to enter the -s of the EPSG (if known).

So, for example, using the NHPN shapefile for Pennsylvania (FIPS: 42), which is to be imported into a database named PACities, in the 'public' schema as the table 'NHPN' with the projection NAG 83 (ft) (Pennsyvania South) EPSG=2272, I get:

shp2pgsql -s 2272 S42NHPN public.NHPN PACities > nhpnImport.sql

And now it is in.

PSO: Back from China

[Note: Originally posted at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra website. Original here]

My wife and I went to Friday's concert, after a long break while the PSO went on their tour of China. We quickly found the board of pictures from the trip, including the picture of 'No horn' sign among those taken by Chuck Lirrett and Stephanie Tretick.



I especially enjoyed it because I had just returned from a trip to China myself, and like Chuck was amused by the "No horn" sign, especially when it was found outside a concert hall or school of music. And during our trip, we encountered a few friends who noted the PSO's appearances in Beijing and Shanghai not long before.

My wife's family has an association with the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and when visiting the school and various faculty there, we came upon their Wall of Fame, with pictures of illustrious alumni and staff from over the years. And another picture, of some distinguished alumni and friends from the United States who had recently come to teach and inspire the next generation of musicians.



It seems that Adam Liu, Cello and alumni of the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, and a few other PSO friends came to the Tianjin Conservatory of Music ahead of us. We laughed at the many interwoven connections we have in our lives, and how small and how rich our world is.

Trip notes: China 2009

An account of my first trip to China to meet my wife's family in Tianjin and friends in Beijing and Shanghai.


Tianjin
Beijing
Shangai
Tianjin Pt 2
Quotes
Conversation topics

I arrived in Beijing on Friday afternoon. On arrival, the plane was inspected by health officials who inspected everyone using a hand held temperature sensor. Those who were flagged where then inspected using a second sensor, which I assume is more accurate. Only after everyone was inspected was the plane cleared to depart. With the swine flu scare in full swing (in the past week Japan had reported over 100 cases) there were three more checkpoints with temperature sensors manned by health inspectors before we reached immigration and customs.

S was waiting for me out of customs, and we went downstairs to take the Tianjin bus. We took that to the Tianjin bus station, and met S's father there who picked us up.

Tianjin

In Tianjin, we spent a lot of time walking around the neighborhood. Her family still lives near the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, which was the center of both her life and her mother (who worked there). So we went to markets in the area, her school (all three campuses), and various shops (including a tea shop her mother frequents, where we had two sets of tastings to pick teas to bring back.) S and her mother are in some pictures on the Conservatory wall of fame in the courtyard.



Tianjin traffic is pretty bad. It is not that it is heavy (Bangkok is much heavier), but the drivers are very aggressive, in the disfunctional Boston way (meaning not the New York aggressiveness that has obvious purpose of people trying to get somewhere, but aggressiveness that is clearly sub-optimal because every expression of aggressiveness probably slows down everyone, including the driver jumping in.) For example, red lights are merely suggestions, drivers tend to view pushing across an intersection against a red light as a legitimate possibility. Which causes cross traffic to stop when they reach him, and invariably the crosser gets trapped in the intersection as cross traffic goes through before he makes it across, trapping everyone else. Also, pedestrians cross anywhere, anytime, secure in the knowledge that Chinese law is punative against drivers who touch pedestrians. In contrast to, say Bangkok where I think every pedestrian is fully aware that they don't count for all that much against a car.

The signs are somewhat odd. Many of the public advisory messages consist of a picture and text. But the picture is of what NOT to do, and you have to read the text to realize this. So you have pictures of cars hitting each other, drivers and phones, drinks, etc. Although my favorite sign does utilize the universal circle and line symbol for No. It is a symbol of a horn, which I find exceptionally funny at the Tianjin Conservatory or the Tianjin Music Hall.


This one is actually in Shanghai, but there were such signs in Tianjin as well.

We visited S grandmother in the hospital, multiple aunties and uncles. A few cousins.

One morning we went to the morning market nearby where the W family lives. At that hour in the morning, that road is mostly closed. In addition, there are some roads that are closed to vehicles, which leads to a large pack of bicycles like the old days.

In the market you can get all sorts of things. We got car seat covers, socks, some herbs, and breakfast. There was all sorts of fruits, vegetables, fish, meats, housewear, and one guy who seemed to have assorted everything.

One of the more famous restaurants is Go Buli (the english on the sign says 'Go Believe') It is known for its steamed buns. The story of the restaurant is the founder was universally poorly regarded, and even the dogs ('go') did not ('bu') look at him ('li'). But, it has become successful, and these restaurants are found throughout the country and Tianjin is known for its steamed buns.

Beijing

We took the bullet train to Beijing. It takes about 1/2 hour and arrives at the Beijing-South railway station. Which somehow lacks an associated subway station. Very inconvenient. We took a bus to the nearest train station, then went to the Forbidden City, under the theory that we should do touristy things on our own instead of subjecting our friends in the area to such things. We took lots of pictures, including a close-up of the Mao portrait at the front wall of the Forbidden City, which seemed to attract the attention of a nearby guard who was apparently satisfied that I was not taking pictures of anything else as we went in.





We had lunch in Dongsi, the neighborhood north and east of the Forbidden City. We were pointed that way by a tea shop worker where we called friends. We went into a little side street (Houjie) and found a noodle place to have noodles.

S's friend lives by the Today Museum of Art, so we went there to hang out at their place. CL's husband, Chen Leiji, played the Guqin at the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies during the Scroll of Chinese Paintings segment.



We had dinner in a restaurant at Apartment #8 along with CL and family, JY (from Northwestern) joined us as well as CL's friends. Very good seafood. Interesting dishes of varying quality from ok to very good.


We stayed at Motel168 by Andinglu station. The next morning, we got buns made at a street stall right next door. Next we went to the subway to go to Olympic Park. But first, we decided to take a detour in a small park along the way. Which turned out to be a fairly long park following a small river that ran through the center of the city. We saw many nanny's with babies and retirees. There was also a saxaphone player, an erhu player, some people doing tai chi, and one group that took over a pavilian to play chinese instruments and sing opera.



We took the train to Olympic park. Line 8 (of course!) was a spur line that went to the park. We took pictures of some public sculpture as well as the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube.






Then we went for lunch. First we went to Wangfujing street to look. We had lamb on a stick (where we suspect the vendor cheated us of change. grrr) and coconut. Neither was all that good, although there was some entertainment value at looking at live scorpions on a stick. We ended up eating at Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant, the original Peking duck restaurant. Very good food there.

Shanghai

Compared to the new Beijing South and the Tianjin train stations, Shanghai's train station seems designed to make taking a trip as hard as possible, with multiple, separate buildings for getting tickets, lines for getting in the station, and multiple wings with waiting areas. And then the Shanghai crowds and subway. This was the first day of the Dragon Boat festival holiday, so there were large crowds at the station. But here as well as on the subway and everywhere else we went, there was an obvious increase in bumps-per-unit-time indicator of social aggressiveness. My best illustration. We had taken a spur line to the transfer point at the end of the line. At the transfer point (the end of the line) we see the people in the station getting ready to get on the train (which is about to empty, since it is the end of the line). And there is no space for all of us to get through. Looking out the door, what follows would be obvious. When the doors open, the whole wall of people outside surges to get in, while everyone in the train trying to get out (which is all of us) surge to get out. And the effect is not dissimilar to a rugby scrum. Right down to my bracing myself for the initial impact. I felt sorry for the poor ai yee behind us, who cried out "aiyaa" as the doors opened and she saw the scrum she needed to get through to get off the train.

Shanghai was with my former roommate S and K and their two sons and two daughters. They live in a complex on Tianshanlu in the west part of the city (by Weininglu station). A in particular seemed to enjoy our visit as she had the unusual experience of having multiple adults with her with no other kids to compete.

After a shower and a bit of rest, S and I took the subway to People's Square. We went to the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, which was dominated by a model of Shanghai, and our introduction to the ubiquious preparations for the 2010 World Expo to be in Shanghai.



Which was indicated in signs and public sculpture all over town. Even in the depths of non-touristy neighborhoods you were faced with the exhortations of 'Better city, Better life' accompanied by the requisite cute mascot.



Next we took the bus to the Yuyuan bazaar (by Yuyuan garden). Very crowded. We had lunch in a food court type place right before that. Nothing exceptional. Next we tried to walk on the Bund. But we soon found out that there was construction along the whole way. So a taxi to Pudong was in order.



We wook a taxi to the Super Brand Mall, near the Oriental Pearl Building. It is the standard 9 story Asian mall catering to the middle class. We walked through there as well as Riverside Park. Dinner was with ST and A at Ding Tai Feng, featuring Xiao Long Tung Bao, their version of steamed buns is characterized by soup inside the bao (meaning you really need to eat the bao whole). ST knows of this from Taiwan, where it was a little hole in the wall. Now, it is something that is moderately upscale in Shanghai and other major cities around the Pacific Rim.



We went up to the 87th floor of the Grand Hyatt to take a quick look at the Shanghai skyline, then went down to the 54th floor where we stopped for coffee. A was enjoying her extended alone time with daddy well past her normal bedtime. And doing some importing things like teaching her guests how to play a driving game on her phone. (Note: while knowing how to go faster is nice, the next major advance is learning how to go left or right).

The next day, S and I went to Qibao, a water town in the west part of Shanghai. Using our guidebooks and the wonders of the internet, we mapped out a route using a combination of subway and buses to get there. Which was followed by asking many people how to find it. An endeavor in which we teamed up with another local couple who was trying to do the same thing. And when we finally found it, we found that there is now a subway stop, right outside the gate. The line is so new that it did not show up on our guidebook maps. Which shows how fast the place is growing.



Qibao is a tourist town. A bit out of the way so not as deadly as Yuyuan Garden, but still close enough to be accessible by public transit (and fewer foreigners). There is a pedestrian mall outside Qibao (where we shopped at a store that was closing globally). At Qibao itself, we got the pass for the touristy spots like the replica merchant house and garden, and the shadow puppet theater.





This was most useful as a quiet place to hide from the crowds in the town (which was probably consistant with the original idea). The main part was full of little shops, of pseudo antiques, food (conventional and more interesting), and other stores. And the canal with boats (after all, this is a canal town). The narrow streets of shops made it very crowded with bustling shoppers, yelling merchants hawking their wares. Creating the purely intentional effect of a crowded old time market (as opposed to the modern mall)


We returned to the T's after lunch, and hung out with the kids for watercoloring and pizza. Then it was on the bullet train back to Tianjin.

This time we took a normal sleeper car instead of first class like we did on the way down. It was not terribly crowded. We were thinking of upgrading to first class, but it turned out we had our 6 bed compartment to ourselves, so we stayed. Our conductor was very amused as we were asking her about how that worked, and she found out that I was American (Your husband is American?! Your English must be very good) In comparison to first class, the normal sleepers had 6 beds instead of 4 and no compartment door. The car as a whole was only about 2/3 full, so it was not terribly loud, but the car got cold overnight as people did not close the car door, leading it getting very cold with the wind going through the car. Someone took one of our extra blankets, and in the morning, there was a lot of sniffling going on in our car. I can see why the Chinese are terrified of Swine Flu. If it got into the passenger train system . . . (or either Golden Week *shudder*) They should just include face masks as part of the ticket price here.

Tianjin final

The last stretch in Tianjin was marked by visits with relatives (who wanted to wait until they were sure I was in China long enough to be sure I was not bringing Swine Flu in from the United States). S's mom's birthday (we got her a cake),



We met with S's schoolfriend L, who is still at the Tianjin Conservatory of Music, getting ready for her Master's recital. She dragged S's parents along with us for lunch at a restaurant in Tianjin that was notable for the many antiques on display along the walls including bells, many Buddha statues (and one idol that S's mother made a point of stopping by, which was for praying for children).



We also had a couple trips to the large pedestrian mall in Tianjin, in our ongoing quest to find S qipao suitible for future galas. S's mom knew of many of the older department stores and dress shops along the way. Some of the other prominent stores: a very large number of wedding studios and wedding companies. Several Li-ann sporting goods stores. I think there was one every 100 meters, just to make sure you saw it. To be sure, there were several Adidas and Nike stores too, but Li-ann was pervasive. (Note: whoever setup Walmart here did an excellent job. Ditto Nike's NBA-China marketing account. Those people deserve whatever they make and I hope they got a good bonus as well.)

QUOTES

Numerous occasions with variations:
When are you going to have kids?

In Beijing:
Look what your friend CL gave me. He played in the Olympics!

To S's mom:
When are you going to America to take care of your grandchildren? (Note: S is an only child)

In Shanghai trying to get to Qibao:
Why are you going to ancient city Qibao instead of the clubs and bars?

Numerous occasions:
He does not look American.

In Shanghai:
ST: We're not going to be contributing to the cause of grandkids. Staying with the T's is worth several months of birth control.

On the train from Shanghai to Tianjin:
He does not look American.
Your husband is American? Your english must be very good.

L in Tianjin:
We have to go to the antiques restaurant. You are our international friend.

I approve. (of me)

Immigration at Dulles International Airport:
What is your profession? (after reviewing my assorted visas)

Conversation topics

When are you going to have kids?

How fast buildings are going up in Tianjin/Beijing/Shanghai

How do you like the restaurants in Beijing?

How does the economic downturn affect you?

The trends in quality of Chinese conservatories.

The raising of children in China (AKA the Lang Lang model of parenting AKA why people our age in China don't want kids)

Tianjin's tourist aircraft carrier restaurant (AKA why you do not buy a ship made by russians)

Children's day!

The need to have pretty girls greeting people at stores/restaurants/etc. (AKA when you have 1.5 billion people, it is not too hard to find pretty girls to be greeters/hostesses.)

Global warming (AKA everyone in China believes in Global Warming, because no emporor of China would build his capital in the dessert (Beijing) )

Movie Review: Sparrow (China)

Part of the 2009 Silk Screen Film Festival. The Silk Screen Film Festival runs in Pittsburgh through Sunday, May 17.

http://silkscreen.bside.com/2009/films/sparrow_silkscreen2009

Johnny To brings Sparrow, a Hong Kong based movie about pickpockets. 'Sparrow' refers to a bird who appears in the life of the main characters, and is in and out of cages, as well as Hong Kong slang for 'pickpocket,' which is the main source of income for most of the principle characters.

The plot, well its silly. We have the pickpocket gang. The old-school gang who tries to show the younger upstarts how it is done. And the beautiful girl, in this case a caged sparrow yearning to get free. The plot is a silly thing, and the encounters are also a joke.

But the plot here is not the point. The cinematography is where all the work went into. The pickpockets at work montage. Various chase scenes of the sparrow trying to escape her handlers, the protagonists or the antagonists. The many now-you-see-me-now-you-don't scenes. The card table. And the final showdown of groups of people crossing the street in the rain carrying umbrellas. Silly as plot devices, but still fun to watch Johnny To set the visuals.

Enjoyable summertime nothing-serious movie

Movie Review: Handle Me With Care (Thailand)

Part of the 2009 Silk Screen Film Festival.
. The Silk Screen Film Festival runs through Sunday, May 17.





Handle Me with Care is the story of a Thai villager (Kwan) with one special trait. He has three functional arms. In all other respects, he is quite ordinary. But it means that he is the subject of talk and teasing. And he has a hard time finding a girlfriend, because when he does find someone, she gets scared off by all the attention he gets everywhere he goes. His solace has been his mother and uncle. His mother died a year before the movie. And at the beginning of the movie, his uncle, a tailor, dies. And now the burden is too much, and he takes up the offer of a high-profile Bangkok doctor for a free amputation of one arm, with the hopes that he can blend into society like everyone else. And with limited funds (he is a poor villager) he heads off to Bangkok.

Along the way he meets up with a woman (Na) who is also trying to head to Bangkok. To see her husband who ran away a year ago to the big city. And she has a slightly more common attention getter. She is well endowed, and everywhere she goes, her breasts get the attention.

Much of the movie is Kwan trying to push Na away, and Na asking why he wants to change. The other major theme of the movie is Na observing Kwan's character in action (it is almost cliche for the physically deformed character to have a heart of gold a la the Disney version of Quasimodo.)

Kwan's question is how much changes when the physical differences are gone. People in the village still treat him the same. He has the same relationships with everyone (except his boss, who does not like the fact that his job performance went down.)

So the end of the movie, Kwan is looking at his life before, and now. And thinking about what the future holds. And he makes the observation that what makes his mother and uncle so precious is they dealt with him as a person, not as a curiousity. So he goes to join someone else who does the same. Na (who has returned to her village), who welcomes him (her mother had told her prior to the movie "you either come back with your husband, or you find a new one")

Slightly cheesy. But given the number of ways we (society) find to declare people as freaks, it works to give a bit of empathy. And having a third arm that is not an actual handicap was a good plot device to do this. It is notable that the only real handicap was other people's reactions, because it is not actually a handicap. Very much like some qualities that leads parts of society to declare people as freaks today.

Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

Official Website

I saw this the first weekend,  like many others.  And it was in an IMAX theater.  I don't think I've had that experience recently, and when the first trailer played I thought "oh, wow, what a sound system."

Star Trek was the long waited reboot of the Star Trek series, from the original.  And its notable because of the youth of the characters.  In particular, while Spock and Scotty have some level of experience (and McCoy is still a doctor which is a different track), Kirk, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov are fresh out of training (or abbreviated training in the case of Kirk).  

While I imagine there is the idea of an appeal to youth, the crew relationship and development is one I tend to react rather negatively too.  To make a point of it, it depicts an environment where success is due to chance and turn of events, and not decision making.  While thrilling, to me it is unsatisfying.

A very strong counterexample is the remade Battlestar Galactica.  There you have a crew made of senior and junior officers and enlisted men.  And amidst all of the pressures of war and imminent death as a consequence of failure there is a dedication to each other,  mentoring between senior and junior, with seniors making decisions based on wisdom and experience, and purposely guiding the junior personnel so they may also grow in wisdom and experience of their own.  And in the original series you saw it as well.  By the time Kirk is captain, his backstory includes a pattern of development and mentorship and experiences.  The movies have it with Decker and Sulu being protoges of Kirk.  Scotty's nephew, Spock's mentoring Saavik and Valaris.   With our new Captain Kirk, there is no sign of any development of the person, only raw intuition and emotion.  No development of leadership skills, empathy, instillment of loyalty.  It shows in the Kobayashi Moru scenes where his fellow cadets follow his orders in a bored offhand way instead of the crispness that they have been trained, even if they viewed his orders as silly (after all, they are being evaluated too).  And no indication that Kirk cares about the development of anyone around him (other then checking that they appreciate and recognize his moments of brilliance.)

But would someone follow such a person?  By the end of the movie, Kirk has good moments.  But in many ways he was merely lucky many times, and he does not show the ability to work with people that marks the other captains in the movie, or the other captains in the other Star Trek movies and series.   There is a saying that you'd rather be lucky then good, but would a crew be inspired to work by such a person?

Movie Review: My Dear Enemy

My Dear Enemy (2008) (subtitled) was the opening night show for the 2009 Silk Screen Asian Film Festival in Pittsburgh. It is a Korean movie starring Jeon Do-Yeon and Ha Jung-Woo. The movie revolves around a man and woman who were dating at one point but broke up a year prior, and she suddenly appears demanding he pay back money he borrowed from her from back when they were dating. And for the rest of the movie, he goes around to various girls who he knows borrowing money so he can pay her back.

He comes across as somewhat of a doufus, acting on the spur of the moment, but somehow managing to keep up a wide range of relationships with women but not being able to maintain anything long term. She is depicted as being very pushy and judgmental. But we don't know anything about her motivations. Like why she decides to take a day to follow him around borrowing money from girls and occasionally feeling humiliated for their feeling sorry for her. You hear some statements, like him telling everyone that she is in a bad situation, but you don't know if he is being honest or not (and you get the idea that he is not always honest, even if he is well meaning) There are occasional asides as to problems (in the past year, he married then divorced. She broke off an engagement to someone who had lost his job.). And she mentions that all she wanted to do was yell at him, not necessarily get her money.

What it does well is complexity of characters. He comes off as a thoughtless doufus, but you get the impression that the affections and gratitude of various girls is something that had been earned by his being there in times of trouble. You admire her for being forthright and confronting him about his thoughtlessness, but you get the nagging feeling that she is only looking for someone to yell at and instead of seeing her as an advocate for the girls that he is getting money from by being slightly dishonest, you start thinking that she is envious of not having the experiences that led to their gratitude in her own relationship with him.

At the end, you see him connecting with another set of girls, talking about a plan of his that you are very unsure is for real. And you see her leaving, with an IOU that provides a means of reentering his life, and smiling at seeing his pattern of relationships continue.

The making of greatness: PSO

I've been working with a student, steadily introducing him to the ways of our chosen profession.  And like many others who are learning their trade, it is turning into a steady stream of work for him to learn the foundations that his success will be built on.  And as I was listening to Mozart Concert No. 24 in C minor for Piano and Orchestra I was thinking of that.  The piano reminded me of the diligent student, engrossed in the details and intricacies of his work, while the orchestra seemed to be the friends at play.

David Brooks in the New York Times had a column on "Genius" earlier in the week.  And he is writing about this, of how the mastery of the art was reached through repetitive and deliberative work, specifically talking about Mozart.  While I can see why the romantic idea of genius as something genetic is appealing, I never felt the idea of Athena springing forth mature from the head of Zeus to be something to strive for.  And how especially true it must be for music.  Writing this now, I still have an image of Bronfman playing completely focused.  Or our marathoners this weekend, most of whom should have started their training while there was still snow on the ground, pounding pavement in the cold and the dark, knowing that this weekend would come.  So much of our trade is built on many hours of building up the foundation that enables us to make something great.
[Note:  Originally posted to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra]

There are many areas where years of training and exercise build into performance on the stage of life.  It is true is music, running, mathematics.  It can be seen in the firefighters I work with responding to fires, the police officer who brings everything they know to every contact with a citizen, and to the soldier and marine who must bring all they know when they talk to a villager, patrol a mountain, build a building, or engage an enemy.  And all this training and exercise is meant for they day that we go on stage, take to the field, or explore an unknown.

I was talking after the concert to one of the PSO staff who asked me if I was the one who went to Afghanistan.  Because her Marine brother was preparing for deployment.  And in addition to all the preparation and training that has come before and he is doing know, the family is preparing as well.  I do not know if he has deployed to war before, but either way, everything he knows in dealing with people will come into play, their motivations, their desires, and how to deal with them.  Semper fi.

End the University as We Know It: Op-ed

End the University as We Know It: Op-ed contributed to the New York Times by Mark Taylor

Mark Taylor's Op-ed letter to the New York Times deals with the structure of college education in the United States. In particular he rails against the specialization of departments, entrenchment of faculty due to tenure, the use of adjuncts and graduate students for research and teaching, and the inability of professors within the university to interact with each other on problems of significance, instead diving in solitude on their increasingly narrow areas of interest.

As a visiting junior faculty, I probably fall into what Taylor would consider an affected class, the non-tenure-track academic. By way of background, I am on an engineering faculty at a research institution, and I also have a graduate degree in a social science, so I think I have at least visibility to all parts. With that in mind, look at Taylor's arguements.

1. Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.

He also ignores the possibility that these department-based division of labor (as he calls it) have a purpose and origin. And it is something other then arbitrary or even subject based. The different fields of study exist because the people in those fields think differently. For my own undergraduate major, political science exists because they look at events and issues differently then historians or philosophers (Poly Sci focusing on the Who and How as opposed to Who and When and Why or interactions between members of social groups). And similarly, Economists, focusing on ownership and factors of production diverge from political scientists. In the more modern era, at the point where mathematicians and electrical engineers noticed that there were substantial groups within them that starting thinking and talking about math and engineering among each other differently then the rest did, it made sense for computer science and computer engineering to be established. So to eliminate the departments means saying to people who think, discuss, analyze in similar ways to disassociate themselves and join the larger group, who think, discuss, and analyze in a different way.

And what the departments have done is to make it possible for people to learn how to think in this ways deeply and well, which does not happen when you organize people by subjects (vs. ways of thinking) (Note: since 'ways of thinking' is not something that gets codified anywhere, departments do require nouns as names, just because human being have to use words to communicate.)


2. Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs.

Taylor desires to eliminate the current department structure in favor of cross-cutting areas defined by problems. An example of one set of cross cutting areas that he gives are: Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and Water.

The areas he gives present too easy a target. The obvious one is "who picks the areas" and "why ephemeral areas". And the real obvious hole in that he apparently decides that things that have solid form are not important. (buildings, roads . . .)


What most universities (and I have in mind examples of top level universities, and not-so-top-level universities) have done was form centers built around topical areas. And those who decide to be involved can collaborate and bring their different ways of thinking to bear. Commentary on the article add the benefit that participants get to self-select, unlike Taylor's idea (more on this later) (I am actively involved in research at one such center, while clearly being a member of a specific department.)

3. Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty. Institutions will be able to expand while contracting.

It turns out the "do not need to do all things" happens naturally. Because you can only have a finite number of faculty. And management of finances dictates that a department make choices. Collaboration is harder. Again, is it top down, or are faculty entrepreneurs who look for people who have the backgrounds that their own institution when they need skills and knowledge and ways of thinking that they do not have (the center I am affiliated with has active faculty from three different public universities.)

4. Transform the traditional dissertation.

I imagine that Taylor thought this was his guaranteed shot. But before you decide to get rid of something, it is often useful to make sure you know why it was there in the first place (before something comes falling down on you.) The dissertation is not meant to be something to brag about. The scholarly certification provided is the proof that the person is capable of thinking about some subject deeply and completely. If there is a problem with small print runs of dissertations at university presses, the obvious solution is to not have a print run at a university press. A few print-on-demand copies would be sufficient (copies for the student, the members of the committee, the university library and the student's mother normally suffice) People who really need a published book should write a book and get it published.

Now, if there is a means of establishing that an individual has deeply and completely examined the said topic, go for it. The printed word (and mathematical symbol) have great advantages when communicating qualities such as completeness and correctness of thought, so it is not obvious how Taylor's alternative media can replace this.

5. Expand the range of professional options for graduate students.

This would be true if you are one of those people who think that graduate student professional options are only to teach/research at a college/university. Of course, if you organize the university into units that are built around a subject, you are now left with people who know how to examine a subject. If you organize people around units that are based on ways of thinking, they can then work on the subjects that take advantage of those ways of thinking. (this presumes that the way of that a particular academic field is actually useful for thinking about actual subjects)


6. Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure.

Hmm, so the idea is to remove the iniquity of the fact that grad students and untenured faculty do not have job security by removing job security for everyone. And his idea is to do 7 year tenures. The first thought that comes to mind: you are a university with a 7-year slot to fill. Who do you use to fill it, the person who has already been there 7-years, or 14-years, or the person you don't know? Absolutely no question, it goes to the known quantity. A 4-5 year slot you can take a gamble (since it probably does take 2-3 years to know if someone is a good teacher or researcher). A 7-year slot is a large burden.

Next question, do you force institutions to fill their teaching requirements with 7-year people? How long does it take to figure out if someone is good? Probably not 7-years. In which case, some lucky students get to suffer having a known poor performer as professors. And the university also has a problem because the poor performer also does not bring in money and has to be paid from somewhere until the 7-year term is up. The leverage that should exist is the fact that a faculty member wants to be paid. How much of the pay goes with the title, and how much comes from doing that activities that the title enables the person to do? Engineering faculty at research universities are laughing at this point. When I came on board, it was stated outright that the teaching/title pay was expected to be a pittance, the real pay came because I was working on research projects (which would imply that I was helping write the proposals that lead to these research projects so that research project would continue to come in so I can be paid)

Now, there is a possibility that the background I have is somewhat strange and idealized, and that somewhere, there were academic departments/fields of inquiry that are not characterized by the way they thought about the subjects being studied, that they did were not involved in studying subjects that could be looked at in several different ways, where dissertations where not used as proof that the writer could examine a subject completely and deeply, and that faculty pay was removed from the ability of the faculty to use their thought processes on a subject determined by people with remunerative resources as interesting and worth study and support (interesting can be defined in many ways, not necessarily economic return). Then the question is, why does that department exist? (as opposed to, say, a center where faculty from other departments look at that subject using their many varied ways of looking at the world in a deep manner, which clearly did not exist in the original department?)

School Nurse Set Response in Motion - New York Times

Seeing Warning Signs of Outbreak, School Nurse Set Response in Motion - New York Times

It was a routine call last Thursday from a diligent high school nurse that put health detectives in New York City on the trail of a swine flu outbreak. Over the next few days, things unfolded much like a criminal investigation, with alert epidemiologists cast in the role of the police officer who remembers information on a wanted poster.

The newest thing on the things-to-be-scared-of list is swine flu, which has hit a number of countries around the world. In particular, Mexico, which led to cases in the U.S. So this because a Public Health emergency. And, since the coping through ignoring it and pretending it did not happen does not seem to be the U.S. policy, the first order of business is calming the public (because if you don't your doctors and emergency room will be flooded with the worried well/sympathetic illness types. The players here are the government and mass media. Because the function of mass media is to disseminate information to the population as a whole. (*really, this is what justifies their existance, otherwise news would only be subscription based to the few, a la Dow Jones corporation*)

So, how does this happen? The lazy way is news as copying press releases (e.g. Fox News and the Republican National Committee) But if you actually have a reporter who knows something about the subject and about her beat, you can do so much better. So the New York Times actually has a series of articles. One essentially communicating what the Federal Government (DHS, DHHS, CDC) are saying, articles about the city department of public health and the mayor. A couple articles of Q&A with expert doctors whose names are handy. Everything needed to let the public know that there is a plan and procedure, and noone is hiding, even with the unknowns. And throughout, the reporters know the questions to ask (not long ago, a very experienced New York Times reporter wrote an article looking back at how New York handled the 1918 Spanish Flu, no doubt giving all the young reporters there a master class on how these things are done.)

And this article is something even different. A close look at how the system works, by showing it in action. A school nurse spots the symptom (because school nurses, as well as other public health nurses, actually see entire populations first hand, not just reports that are sent in to them), the city department of public health recognizes a pattern that needs attention. Public health staff fan out and examine the affected. Centers for Disease Control are contacted and lab samples sent and tested. And a response is developed and enacted. All procedures that have been in place for years, tested on the ebbs and flows of daily life, and the occasional emergency. And refined by people who actually have to use them. Just the way you hope.

And it may be that swine flu is a little thing, a flash in the news cycle. But it is more. It is what scientists call a found experiment. Disaster response people have another name. A spontaneous exercise. Respond to something that uses all the command, control, and communications procedures that are in place for responding to something bigger. In this case, waiting for the day that a genetic drift mutates a strain of avian flu so that it is human-to-human transmittable. Just to make sure that everyone, President, cabinet secretaries, White House staff, agency leads, local officials, teachers, doctors, nurses, news media, and others, know what their role in a public health event will be.

First thoughts on teaching

I submitted my first set of grades for a class I'm teaching at Pitt. Part of my foray into academics. Which means I write my standard Lessons Observed (titled following the British tradition). I'm sure that those who have much more experience then I in teaching can have much to say.

Background:
I am teaching Database Design within the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). It is a service class, not part of the core curriculum of IE. But it is something that is very useful for engineers to know because of the large amounts of interaction with data. I have some background, because I use databases regularly, including some rather advanced uses for one of my research projects. The class is split between upperclassmen and graduate students, with most of the graduate students being professionals going for a master's degree. For most of them, this will be their only database course. There are two other places in a university where such a course would be offered. An information science (or possibly computer science) department would likely have a concentration in this field that examines data storage and retrieval. Business schools would sometimes have information management as a field, but more likely will have a course that teaches use of MS Access.

Goal:
The course objectives where to teach database design, with the understanding that the audience are engineers, i.e. people who would design applications that use a database, not database administrators or builders of database management systems. Similarly, I decided to make it a design class, not a course in driving a software package (MS Access), although using MS Access (or other database) would be assumed. I think that defining where the course fit in with other similar courses what the right idea, because it let me do the is-is not analysis when deciding what to include. I've done that with a course proposal I've submitted for fall, as well as the course I'm teaching in summer.

Software:
I did not specify software for the course. For the database, everyone ended up using one version of MS Access or another (three different versions were in use). While it probably would have been possible to do table design and queries in any database, teaching reports and user interfaces would have been too much of a stretch unless you use this. There were some problems because I don't use MS Access myself (I generally use PostGIS and BIRT for database and reporting) so I was probably light on the examples. For the next time, it would probably be safe to state use of MS Access. For diagramming, I gave them the choice of Visio or Dia. MS Visio was installed on the university computer labs (but not the department lab) and Dia could be freely downloaded. People ran into trouble navigating Visio (it was designed for programmers, not database designers) and most switched to Dia (databases is a base use case for Dia). While this is not software course, I probably should make a standard.

Projects:
For the project, not enough people had access to a real world project, so I had them create projects, and I had teams assigned to review each other (to include adding goals to the project). This was a heavier administrative burden then I realized it would be, and I was not able to keep track of all the communications. I should have had fewer mandated interactions, and let them do informal interaction. I was not sure about the quality of the peer-review, but most of the project reports specifically mentioned that having peer-review of the project at various stages gave the projects more clarity then they would have had otherwise.

Lectures:
This was a somewhat different subject then most in an engineering curriculum, since it is very soft. And not a subject I know deeply. I was walking the line between too much information to absorb on a weekly basis, but there was not enough content on a class session basis. Probably what it meant was I should have been doing more examples, especially working the software. Another thing I should do is organizational prep work. In particular, for the next course I will be preparing a lesson plan in addition to a lecture, to give each lecture more context.

One thing that did work was spend some time on motivating the day's topic at the beginning of every class. I suspect some of them thought I was only rambling, but others were able to make it work for them in putting things together.

Value at Risk Case Study:
I have in the back of my mind a capstone lectures that declares that mathematical models are a form of communication, and I expect every class I teach will have a way to talk about this. In this case there is a module on reporting, meaning how you present summary information from the database. And I used the Value at Risk statistic that factored into some of the riskier instruments used by various financial institutions. There was a clear division in how well this was understood. By the final, all the grad students made the connection between that and the related question on the final. Only a few of the undergrads did. Probably because the grad students were intimately familiar with the problems that financial institutions were having and it held their attention better.

Research and teaching:
I am now a firm believer that research helps teaching. One of the things that made this course interesting was the fact that I had actual database projects I worked with. While the actual projects could not be done in the course, I could extract parts. And I could use actual datasets and data collection tools as examples in the course. A couple of the students complained about the vagueness of the data specifications, which would be echoed by the people who actually deal with the data in question, so that was actually good.

Use of examples:
I had three datasets that I used for examples throughout. The US Department of Agriculture Standard Nutrient dataset (used in the preparation of nutrient labels on food), Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency damage assessment collection forms, and the MS Northwind Traders example database. In particular, I used the USDA data from the very beginning of the course. It provided a rich set of understandable data so that it was clear what happened. I will probably do that again, using Pennsylvania as a dataset in my location class this summer.