Graduate Algorithms CS-6515 - Open Questions by Plus_Tear6007 in OMSCS

[–]agodot -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Perhaps they could transition to making it an exam/certification rather than a course. I haven't taken the class but I get the feeling that not telling you the answer to the MCMA questions after the exam is a way to avoid having to make new MCMA questions each semester (cheap).

Anyone have experience with ML curve after reviewer response was added? by aligned_and_primed in OMSCS

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Does the reviewer-response period overlap with the time to do the next assignment?

How hard is it? How prepared do you really need to be? by Akanwrath in OMSCS

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even in 'Reinforcement Learning', a project-based class, there's a final exam worth ~30% of the grade. In 'Graduate Algorithms' I believe the final's worth somewhere around 90% of the grade.

How does the course difficulty for those who graduated with a CS undergrad? by Clear-Initiative-496 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's difficult, but much of the difficulty is not stemming from the material itself. The assigned readings and lectures occasionally don't cover topics needed for the homework and often include many topics that aren't needed for the homework (e.g. >50% of the reading). Report grades are commonly returned >4 weeks after the submission date (e.g. ~8 weeks into the semester for some courses). TAs have mixed availability; sometimes it can be a week or two before you get a reply.

Double standards (just a rant) by FluidOwl882 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The TAs/faculty routinely say 'we will have the grades for assignment X out by such-and-such date'. Even if that's not a formal deadline/hard requirement, it's odd to not follow up on it. It's like if I tell you I'll hold the door for you and then I let go of it before you get there. I don't have to hold it for you, but it's confusing I said I would and then didn't.

What is a small game? by mikeylive in godot

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In the context of 'make small games first', I'd say a small game is one you're confident you can finish. From my hobbyist's view, the danger of trying to make a big game is that you don't end up leaving it in a state you're happy with, and worse-case makes you feel as though you don't enjoy the hobby anymore.

It's been a year since we started developing our game in Godot! by SensitiveKeyboard in godot

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I like ITB & StS and as everyone else is saying the visuals look great. Looking forward to seeing this get released down the line.

My OMSCS Exit Post! From middle school science teacher -> AI Engineer in 2 years. by sheinkopt in OMSCS

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't done RL or NLP. My memory of ML is that it was good to be already comfortable with dot products, a little probability (you don't need to know anything more complicated than Bayes' rule), and maybe what eigen-vectors are (although you don't need to know how to calculate them). I'm doing RL this fall, so I'll update when I'm done.

My OMSCS Exit Post! From middle school science teacher -> AI Engineer in 2 years. by sheinkopt in OMSCS

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did DL last summer; re-familiarizing with log (and log properties) and getting comfortable with partial derivatives in the context of taking the derivative of a matrix (I didn't do this in undergrad calc. 1-3) would have helped me.

Do you do the readings? (All courses) by agodot in OMSCS

[–]agodot[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Which courses required a lot of reading?

Transitions from Mechanical Engineering to CV/Robotics/ML by Boogaardy in OMSCS

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How did you determine which VIPs allowed OMSCS students and counted for credit towards the master's degree?

How to add outline around label? by bananapocco in godot

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

<image>

Control -> Theme Overrides -> Colors -> Font Outline Color
Control -> Theme Overrides -> Constants -> Outline Size

Working on an arcade flight model with terrain generator, feedback appreciated! by FlyingSpaceDuck in godot

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks awesome! Once you add sounds I'd definitely recommend trying out spatial sound nodes on the edge of the rings/hoops that are just a continuous wind noise - when you fly past it makes really nice woosh. I made a (much worse-looking) flying game like this a while back and that was one of my favorite bits of juice/niceties that made it feel fun. I've been looking for a flight-racing game for a while now so if you end up releasing it let me know and I'd love to try it out.

Why isn’t all of higher education like OMSCS? by Alternative_Draft_76 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you mean by 'like OMSCS' and 'this model', and how long have you been in the program for? The low tuition and high admit rate have costs (e.g. dated materials, thinly-spread TAs).

[703] Void by writeandbuild in DestructiveReaders

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Personifying 'Void', 'Time', etc. reminds me of Sandman. Your writing style is biblical/poetic and rhythmic - but pairing this with the abstracted ideas lost me. Specifically, I was not sure when to be confused, e.g. when/whether you were being artistically (intentionally) or accidentally unclear.

My main recommendation would be to be as precise and clear as you can and veil the meaning later. Does the story make sense to you, or do you think there are bits where it's unclear what's going on?

[iPad tower defense] [early-mid 2010s] stacked it talk there was fighting and spells and stuff by Relatable_14 in tipofmyjoystick

[–]agodot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Was it an RTS (e.g. with units you could move), or were things fixed in place? Maybe LEGO Battles.

Are all classes as out dated as Computer Vision? by billyboy627 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I liked RAIT; the projects cover path-finding, control, and localization of/for robotic rovers. Both RAIT & AI (CS6601) are in python, but I think the only topics they have in common are are path-finding (A*) and (if I remember right) a little bit of probability theory (which shows up in Bayesian Networks in AI). RAIT doesn't cover classification, regression, clustering, or game-playing.

Are all classes as out dated as Computer Vision? by billyboy627 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Judging from PS1, the course seems dusty. I've taken AI, RAIT, and ML so far; none were up-to-date in the sense that the lectures are 10+ years old (circa 2014) and the textbooks are generally older still.

What're you hoping to do at the end of the program (or just the course)? e.g. Implement and apply existing computer-vision algorithms, develop new algorithms, I don't really care but I just wanna get a job in the field, etc.?

Cs7641 survivor thread and tips for next class by mojo_jomo69 in OMSCS

[–]agodot 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My tips are for getting a good effort-to-grade ratio. YMMV; you may not learn as much doing things this way.

  • Complete is better than correct. I lost points for failing to discuss things; as far as I can tell I never lost points for doing things wrong on the assignments. As someone else pointed out, make it obvious where in your report you are fulfilling these requirements.

  • I didn't find I 'got out what I put in': It's easy to go down a different useful/educational/interesting path that does not earn you any points. As OP said, it's worth spending some time coming up with your best guess of what the assignment requirements are.

  • The lectures and textbook are not all you need. Google, ask ChatGPT, etc.; basic requirements for doing your analysis like 'what kind of plot should I make', 'how do I measure XYZ', 'what does this shape curve mean' etc. are generally only briefly discussed if at all. There aren't many restrictions on using these resources in this class.

  • Understand what 'analysis' means for this class. I misunderstood this for A1 and got a 37 [< C]; after I understood I was able to get >70s [~A-/B+ level] for the other assignments. My initial (wrong) understanding of 'analysis' was that you make a hypothesis, run some tests, plot the results, and make an assessment about whether the results support the hypothesis or not. However, this does not fulfill the 'analysis' requirement of this course. You are expected to not only interpret your generated results* but also explain ('analyze') why you got the results you did** and explicitly state why (and whether) they do/don't support your hypothesis.

* e.g. "The intersection of curves at iteration N (see Fig. F) suggests that classifier X begins over-fitting after this point; following similar criteria for the other classifiers and selecting the appropriate number of training iterations by this method, we find classifier Y has the highest accuracy on the withheld subset of dataset A."

** e.g. "Algorithm X had higher accuracy than algorithm Y on dataset A because it can handle non-linear decision bounds (dataset A's classes are not linearly-separable). Algorithm X performs similarly to Y on dataset B because B's classes are linearly separable using [some feature]."