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The head of the program was a cosmologist, actually. I know that she taught herself to code, as did the other two profs I worked for. -I think that had somethin
by markkat 16y ago
The head of the program was a cosmologist, actually. I know that she taught herself to code, as did the other two profs I worked for. -I think that had something to do with their attitudes. Also, it might have just been from a practicality standpoint. We didn't have the room for multiple CS courses, and the students seemed to be able to pick it up well enough to do what they needed to.
I have to mention, I did take a 100-level CS course as an elective, and personally, it was too basic. I think to get what we needed, we would have had to skip the intro courses, and I it's possible the CS department would have frowned on that. On a related note, my PhD was in medical physics, and our department did have an agreement with the bio department to let us take a 400 level physiology class without the prereqs. It was a point-of-pride in the physics program that our students always lead those classes.
No doubt CS can get deep and anyone that codes could benefit from those higher-level courses. But, I think the situation wouldn't allow for that.
Maybe she was saying that physics students were bright enough to figure out what they needed on their own. From what I saw, she would be correct there. We weren't math majors, but we were pretty able. :)
- scott_s 16y agoThe problem with a pure pull approach is that you only know the first things that let you accomplish what you want to do. Sometimes, those first things are good enough to get the job done, but not enough to let you really know what's going on. That's not a problem now, but it may be in the future. Anyway, it seems more like you agree CS courses aimed specifically at scientific computing would be good and worthwhile.
- markkat 16y ago>Anyway, it seems more like you agree CS courses aimed specifically at scientific computing would be good and worthwhile. Oh, absolutely. I think there might be an analogy in writing. -I'm no writer, but I can pen an effective grant. I'd really like to be an effective writer too, but that would be a divergent path in light of my work. There's just not enough time in one human life. :/ BTW, a second postdoc is cruel and unusual punishment IMO. My best wishes to your friend.
- ylem 16y agoAlso, it's sad and unfair, but even though I've know some people succeed in getting a permanent position after the second postdoc, it gets harder as the number of postdoc increases...