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Jennifer Widom Named Dean of Stanford School of Engineering
- FullMtlAlcoholc 10y agoCongrats! I acquired more practical knowledge in her CS145: Intro to Databases than any other single class.
- droithomme 10y agoAlso got a lot from it, she's a very good teacher and will make a great dean.
- theparanoid 10y agoI first heard of her when she wrote about taking a year off and traveling with her family [0]. I've taken 6 months off and would love to do it again. [0] http://cs.stanford.edu/people/widom/yearoff.html http://cs.stanford.edu/people/widom/yearoff.html
- et-al 10y agoThanks for sharing that link. On a tangent, I love these old university personal pages. In an age of impermanence, it's endearing to stumble upon web pages still up 20 years after they were made. I've used the Arroyo Seco River Hike guide from another Stanford alum quite a bit: http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ (mildly NSFW) And Ed Corbett's tide charts for the Bay Area are priceless (though I noticed he hasn't updated them for this year): http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/edc/tides/2016/tides_2016.html http://wolfweb.unr.edu/homepage/edc/tides/2016/tides_2016.ht...
- randycupertino 10y ago> I've used the Arroyo Seco River Hike guide from another Stanford alum quite a bit: http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ http://theory.stanford.edu/~rvg/arroyo/ Casual nudity! On a work website. Love it. edit: update looks like they're part of a community of nudist hikers, the South Bay Naturists. Nothing wrong with that, though bold to post about it on your work website.
- et-al 10y agoWhoops, thanks for bringing that up. Luckily most folks in the States aren't at work, but let me email the mods. To continue the conversation, I think that site was more of a personal site just hosted on Stanford--not necessarily a work site.
- orsenthil 10y agoShe is a wonderful teacher. When the very first MOOCs were introduced, I took AI taught by Sebastian Thrun, Peter Norvig and Databases taught by Jennifer Widom. I could contrast the teaching style of these experts. Jennifer Widom is approachable, methodical, breaks down complex topics into easily manageable chunks and pushes you hard with attainable goals. The other two geniuses (Norvig and Thrun) will present something that you will have struggle (with frustrations because denial isn't an option with them) to get it. I loved her way of teaching and I am glad she taking on responsible roles.
- rz2k 10y agoI agree with you about the exceptional quality of that course. I did not take the other two earliest large online courses, but I have taken few dozen since then. Compared to MOOCs at different schools, I found her teaching style more similar to those offered by instructors at MIT than those offered by instructors at Stanford. I think your description is right, too. Methodical and easily manageable without a loss in rigor.
- taurath 10y agoMost people who struggle to learn to code don't do well with expected lightbulb moments, but I've seen the same people do wonderfully when presented with methodical steps as building a trunk they can branch off of.
- gordon_freeman 10y agoI owe a lot to her and to Thrun as well. I took Intro to Stats by Thrun and Intro to Databases by Widom when I wanted to brush up on my skills before interviewing and both have wonderful teaching style. Starting at very slow pace and smoothly and methodically going into depth of the subject matter.
- henrik_w 10y agoI also took her first MOOC course, and really enjoyed it. I would add: great sense of humor.
- carlosgg 10y agoHer Databases MooC is now offered as a series of self-paced mini-courses: https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/Home/Databases/Engineering/about https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/Home/Databases/Enginee...
- dorianm 10y agoIt's crazy how many pages it took me to find the actual class: https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/DB/Recursion/SelfPaced/courseware/ch-recursion/seq-vid-nonlinear_mutual_recursion/ https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses/DB/Recursion/SelfPaced... (those select boxes are definitely non-intuitive, and the whole interface in general) Anyway, great content!
- sampo 10y agoI have taken also other MOOCs (Machine Learning, Probabilistic Graphical Models, Functional Programming Principles in Scala, ...) and Widom's databases MOOC was by far the best planned, best designed and best executed. There was quite a lot of homework, but it was all well planned and served a purpose, you could do all the SQL, Xpath, JSON, ... query exercises in the browser without needing to install anything, and the system gave good feedback when you did something wrong. That environment was very well implemented. The course was packed with theory and practice, there was minimal extra chatter in the video lectures, almost every minute of the lectures was used to cover the material, and the lectures provided just the right amount of theory for doing the exercises, and the exercises covered almost everything from the lectures. Good video lectures are more dense, and proceed faster than live lectures, because when you miss something, you can always rewind and watch the last minutes again.
- henrik_w 10y agoGood summary - mirrors my experience. I wrote down my impressions after I took it: https://henrikwarne.com/2011/12/18/introduction-to-databases-on-line-learning-done-well/ https://henrikwarne.com/2011/12/18/introduction-to-databases...
- tlow 10y agoAnd the thermo guys are out. Might be a good time to recognize your University runs an isolated HCI group in it's CS department and about 4 different "Design" groups within the School of Engineering that are _NOT_ connected to HCI in anyway... Meanwhile the only course I know of at Stanford that teaches Arduino is at CCRMA.stanford.edu
- FullMtlAlcoholc 10y ago> Meanwhile the only course I know of at Stanford that teaches Arduino is at CCRMA.stanford.edu I don't understand why this is an issue. Why would you want that when Stanford and almost every other school offers Intro to Electrical Engineering? It will contain everything you need to know to hack away at Arduino and a lot more.It's EE40 as I recall and after the first two weeks of that class you should be able to play around with Arduino. Why would you want to waste thousands of dollars in tuition for knowledge you can pick up in a weekend at your local hobbyist Meetup for $20 or less Do you also bemoan the fact that Stanford doesn't offer a class in how to use Google or an Intro to Typing?
- tabeth 10y agoHow much influence do deans have at Stanford? I think she's a great teacher, but from my experience, your teaching ability is irrelevant when it comes to your responsibilities as Dean.
- mattybrennan 10y agoPlease tell us more about your experience in being a Dean
- tabeth 10y agoI have no experience being a dean. I do have experience being managed by one. I personally didn't see any correlation in their effectiveness and their popularity as a teacher. If you have any evidence stating there's a correlation I'd love to read it.
- tnecniv 10y agoI'm sure there's some correlation between teaching ability and money raising, one of the more important aspects of being dean. They both stem from being a good people person.
- steego 10y agoMaybe she was promoted to Dean because she's incredibly well-rounded, has a solid vision, is of great character, has cultivated numerous productive working relationships and can fund raise like no other. She can be all that and a great teacher.
- UncleMeat 10y agoShe was the chair of the cs department for two terms and did a fantastic job by all measures. Teaching skills aren't why she is qualified. Past administrative experience and success are why she is qualified.
- sizzzzlerz 10y agoVery impressive credentials and a well-deserved appointment. Being appointed Dean of the School of Engineering at one of the world's most prestigious universities has to be close to the top of career achievements for an academic.
- santoshalper 10y agoYeah, there really is almost nowhere further to go in an academic engineering career. She will probably retire there.
- gydfi 10y agoThe trouble with "affirmative action" is that in situations like this, nobody can really tell whether she earned it on her own merits or not. It's possible she would have got the job if she were a man, I don't know. But what I am fairly sure of is that if she were a man then I wouldn't be hearing about it.
- throwaway729 10y agoI'll help you out. Read her bio. She earned it.
- gydfi 10y agoAnyone being considered for that job will have an impressive CV, obviously.
- Steko 10y agoIf only we could go back to the Eden of the past when every position was earned entirely on merit and no one ever benefited from social connections or say systematic discrimination against other groups.
- discombobulate 10y agoI was thinking something similar! Just don't know these days. She may have gotten the position on merit, or not. I feel bad. But what's the alternative: Bullshit & say I'm sure her being a woman has nothing to do with the promotion? I just can't say that with any certainty. I guess affirmative action is a double-edged sword.
- tmeasday 10y agoDoes it bother you if a male candidate gets a position that maybe there's a better qualified female candidate who wasn't considered because "maybe she wants to start a family" or some bullshit? Do you let that (potential) bias affect your judgment of whether the guy "deserved" it? Biases exist. Meritocracy is an illusion. Deal with it.
- tlow 10y agoPreface: I hold a BSE Product Design 2009, Stanford. I conducted research at the CDR. I took courses at the d.school and CCRMA. I attended weekly HCI research meetings for 3 weeks and saw Ed Catmull present to the HCI group once. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT DESIGN ISSUE. Please understand that Stanford's School of Engineering pretty much owns and grossly mis-manages the teaching and cooperation amongst different groups with an interest in DESIGN that there are 6 programs in design that aren't interrelated, HCI belongs to Computer Science, Design Impact is it's own program, the d.school doesn't grant degrees, I'm not sure what the "Design Group" in Mechanical Engineering is, but it is related to the only PhD design Program at Stanford, the CDR, and product design have no formal linkages. It would not be common for a Product Design student to ever know or encounter a CS HCI student, except by coincidence or other interest. This represents an important change in leadership in the school of engineering. Previously it was my understanding the SoE was being run by the thermo guys who are totally clueless to the importance of Design. Stanford Engineering owns Stanford Design and is an extremely fragmented program which completely ISOLATES the Computer Science Department (a part of the School of Engineering) has ZERO ties to 5 other DESIGN programs at STANFORD within the SoE.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Lastly the only course that teaches anything to do with arduino is at CCRMA.[6] [1] Center for Design Research cdr.stanford.edu [1] HCI hci.stanford.edu/ [2] Design Impact – A Master of Science in Engineering Program at Stanford designimpact.stanford.edu/ [3] Hasso Plattner Graduate School of Design aka d.school https://dschool.stanford.edu/ https://dschool.stanford.edu/ [4] ME Design Group https://me.stanford.edu/groups/about-design-group https://me.stanford.edu/groups/about-design-group [5] Product Design https://majors.stanford.edu/product-design https://majors.stanford.edu/product-design [6] CCRMA.stanford.edu (pronounced "kharma")
- suhcistudent 10y agoFirst, I'm not clear how your comment is relevant to the post. Second, I think the "design" situation at Stanford would make a bit more sense to you if you took some time to better understand the academic field of HCI, of which design is just a small sub-area. Browsing the list of papers at last year's CHI is a good place to start [1]. Third, several HCI students are co-advised by design faculty in mechanical engineering and HCI faculty. Several HCI students also both take classes and physically work out of the d.school. CCRMA members routinely attend HCI lunches. Fourth, product design is no more relevant to the academic research that takes place in HCI than it is for the many other sub-fields of computer science for which building systems is a major aspect. [1] https://chi2016.acm.org/program/?tab=chi2016-schedule https://chi2016.acm.org/program/?tab=chi2016-schedule
- bossskag 10y agoI took a course on databases through Stanford Online or something like that years ago, she was great. Glad she's moving up in the world.
- oculusthrift 10y agowho cares? we seem to obsess over the elites when America is built off people going to state schools.
- offsky 10y agoI can honestly say that taking Widom's Intro DB class in the late 90s set my entire career trajectory. It may have been the most influential class I took at Stanford. I am very grateful for her teachings and guidance.