eat drink seth liz

As most of you know, our summer in Shanghai is financed by the Univ. of Michigan—Shanghai Jiao Tong Joint Institute and, in return, I have agreed to teach the youngsters here an Introduction to Algorithms.  The Joint Institute is an exclusive degree-granting institution that recruits the best, brightest, and richest students at Jiao Tong but uses the University of Michigan curriculum, often taught by Michigan professors during the Summer semesters.  (Exclusive?  Yes, the tuition here is 5 times that of the regular university.)

Before I started teaching I heard a few things from several sources about the Chinese students here:(1)  they do a lot of cheating—on homeworks, exams, you name it, (2) they are more prepared and work harder than the Univ. of Michigan students studying here, and (3) they absolutely refuse to speak during class.  I don't know much about (1) yet but my guess is that the stories of widespread cheating are grossly exaggerated.  As for (2), the Chinese students have a bit more math under their belt but they're not a bunch of whizes.  Here's how I know.  In the first lecture I give a little quiz to see what they know about probability, which comes in very handy in an algorithms course.  Nearly every Chinese student had taken a probability course but got the following question wrong:

A couple has two children.  One of them is a boy.  What's the probability that the other one is a boy?

(Anyone want to take a stab?  Post a comment.)  As for (3), the students here absolutely refuse to speak in class, and it's not for lack of questions.  In the middle of my 90 minute lecture I take a 10 minute break and am immediately swarmed by 10-15 students with lists of questions.  The same thing happens after class.  I've tried calling on students during class who are looking confused and they react by silently and vigorously shaking their head.  It's apparently not cool to talk in class.

Our aptartment is a couple blocks from the downtown Jiao Tong campus but I teach on the massive Minhang campus in the suburbs. (Minhang is now famous for that recent building collapse.) Given how densely populated Shanghai and its surroundings are, it is truly amazing how large and green the campus is. It's not clear in the snapshots below, but the campus is crisscrossed by romantic canals shaded with weeping willows.


Be sure to view them in full screen mode. The button's in the bottom right corner.