6 ms·

OCW MIT: 6.006 Intro to Algorithms 2020

122 points by 8589934591 5y ago

JimTheMan 5y ago
It's a true joy to be able to learn a modicum of computer science from MIT as an engineer in a different field. And it's so enjoyable because you don't really need any special tools beyond a basic computer, which most already have. Thank you MIT. You helped me when I was made redundant, gave me something productive to do that I enjoyed (beyond frittering away my time.) PS. The lecturers are amazing. Similarly those who run the tutorials.
Invictus0 5y ago
Great to see they finally updated it. Hard to understand why so many MIT courses still don't have an OCW edition despite every single lecture and file being recorded and online for the entire 2020 term.
- smorgusofborg 5y ago
  Do they all have accurate captions/transcripts? It's kind of an odd situation that if no student in the class has a need for them they wouldn't have to be made but then you can't publish it for a larger audience.
  - elteto 5y ago
    Why can’t you publish it for a larger audience without transcripts?
    - myle 5y ago
      Some institutes/large orgs have similar policies.
    - gugagore 5y ago
      The National Association for the Deaf sued MIT and Harvard https://accessibility.mit.edu/captioning/mit-nad-agreement https://accessibility.mit.edu/captioning/mit-nad-agreement > New Content: Content posted 60 or more days following the effective date (effective date is July 21, 2020) must be captioned upon posting.
      - analognoise 5y ago
        Are these are the same people who ruined Berkeley's open courseware?
        gumby 5y ago
        Although I am not deaf I don’t see why this is considered “ruining” it. These accommodations are required by law.
        analognoise 5y ago
        Some jerks ruined Berkeley's Webcast/Open courseware content: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-berkeley-delete-publicly-available-educational-content https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-... Then there's this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-disabilities-act.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-d... I think the ADA sucks, and hope it gets gutted.
        gumby 5y ago
        That is very short sighted. The ADA ultimately benefits everyone. When I’ve had knee and leg injuries I found ramps valuable, for example.
        8589934591 5y ago
        If ramps are not available, does shutting down the building's access to the general public justify it? Does this benefit everyone/anyone in any way? I think that's the point the parent comment is trying to make. I'm not from USA so I don't know how the law works there. I feel that the law should enable/empower/assist institutes like OCW/UCB to incentivise or help them to create captions for the groups that the law is campaigning for. What good is going to come out of punishing access to general public is something I don't understand. When someone does something out of their goodwill using their time and money you should at least help them to enhance their goodwill for your cause, in this case, the govt or NAD employing people who can transcribe the videos for a fee. I feel the law is doing more harm than good to the general public.
- mananaysiempre 5y ago
  I’ve prepared videos of tutorials I did in almost real time, and though all of it was done to a very amateurish standard, I still spent about 2× to 3× of the time of the (2-hour) tutorial working on that. No transcripts, not even a list of chapters or landmarks, just gluing the 30-minute videos from my camera together (have I mentioned I hate the tax code?), fixing superficial fumbles (white balance when the session straddled the sunset, mild overexposure, etc.), and preparing an erratum. Unless there are professionals who’ll do it for you, these things take more effort than you expect. (And even then there still has to be someone who can deal with the subject matter.)
PartiallyTyped 5y ago
It's great to see that Erik is still the main instructor of this course, he has a fascinating history [1], and his explanations are very intuitive. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Demaine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Demaine
- worstestes 5y ago
  What an incredible career!
- srvmshr 5y ago
  If my memory serves right, Erik was MIT's youngest professor at ~20 y.o.
  - PartiallyTyped 5y ago
    That's exactly correct!
dmart 5y ago
Thrilled to see an updated version of this, and especially with Demaine still involved. The 2011 Devadas/Demaine videos had a huge impact on me when getting into the field. I would say they might be the single best resource available for learning the intuition behind algorithms. But perhaps this new version will supersede them (having higher quality video is nice, the blackboard is sometimes difficult to read in the 2011 recordings.)
Chyzwar 5y ago
I tried to watch it full a few times, but recording is tragic. MIT have an amazing collection of lectures on ocw, but it is unwatchable. Hopefully new edition would be better.

122 points by 8589934591 5y ago

It's a true joy to be able to learn a modicum of computer science from MIT as an engineer in a different field. And it's so enjoyable because you don't really need any special tools beyond a basic computer, which most already have. Thank you MIT. You helped me when I was made redundant, gave me something productive to do that I enjoyed (beyond frittering away my time.) PS. The lecturers are amazing. Similarly those who run the tutorials.

Invictus0 5y ago

Great to see they finally updated it. Hard to understand why so many MIT courses still don't have an OCW edition despite every single lecture and file being recorded and online for the entire 2020 term.

smorgusofborg 5y ago
Do they all have accurate captions/transcripts? It's kind of an odd situation that if no student in the class has a need for them they wouldn't have to be made but then you can't publish it for a larger audience.
- elteto 5y ago
  Why can’t you publish it for a larger audience without transcripts?
  - myle 5y ago
    Some institutes/large orgs have similar policies.
  - gugagore 5y ago
    The National Association for the Deaf sued MIT and Harvard https://accessibility.mit.edu/captioning/mit-nad-agreement https://accessibility.mit.edu/captioning/mit-nad-agreement > New Content: Content posted 60 or more days following the effective date (effective date is July 21, 2020) must be captioned upon posting.
    - analognoise 5y ago
      Are these are the same people who ruined Berkeley's open courseware?
      - gumby 5y ago
        Although I am not deaf I don’t see why this is considered “ruining” it. These accommodations are required by law.
        analognoise 5y ago
        Some jerks ruined Berkeley's Webcast/Open courseware content: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-berkeley-delete-publicly-available-educational-content https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-... Then there's this: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-disabilities-act.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/magazine/americans-with-d... I think the ADA sucks, and hope it gets gutted.
        gumby 5y ago
        That is very short sighted. The ADA ultimately benefits everyone. When I’ve had knee and leg injuries I found ramps valuable, for example.
        8589934591 5y ago
        If ramps are not available, does shutting down the building's access to the general public justify it? Does this benefit everyone/anyone in any way? I think that's the point the parent comment is trying to make. I'm not from USA so I don't know how the law works there. I feel that the law should enable/empower/assist institutes like OCW/UCB to incentivise or help them to create captions for the groups that the law is campaigning for. What good is going to come out of punishing access to general public is something I don't understand. When someone does something out of their goodwill using their time and money you should at least help them to enhance their goodwill for your cause, in this case, the govt or NAD employing people who can transcribe the videos for a fee. I feel the law is doing more harm than good to the general public.
mananaysiempre 5y ago
I’ve prepared videos of tutorials I did in almost real time, and though all of it was done to a very amateurish standard, I still spent about 2× to 3× of the time of the (2-hour) tutorial working on that. No transcripts, not even a list of chapters or landmarks, just gluing the 30-minute videos from my camera together (have I mentioned I hate the tax code?), fixing superficial fumbles (white balance when the session straddled the sunset, mild overexposure, etc.), and preparing an erratum. Unless there are professionals who’ll do it for you, these things take more effort than you expect. (And even then there still has to be someone who can deal with the subject matter.)

PartiallyTyped 5y ago

It's great to see that Erik is still the main instructor of this course, he has a fascinating history [1], and his explanations are very intuitive. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Demaine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Demaine

worstestes 5y ago
What an incredible career!
srvmshr 5y ago
If my memory serves right, Erik was MIT's youngest professor at ~20 y.o.
- PartiallyTyped 5y ago
  That's exactly correct!

dmart 5y ago

Thrilled to see an updated version of this, and especially with Demaine still involved. The 2011 Devadas/Demaine videos had a huge impact on me when getting into the field. I would say they might be the single best resource available for learning the intuition behind algorithms. But perhaps this new version will supersede them (having higher quality video is nice, the blackboard is sometimes difficult to read in the 2011 recordings.)

Chyzwar 5y ago

I tried to watch it full a few times, but recording is tragic. MIT have an amazing collection of lectures on ocw, but it is unwatchable. Hopefully new edition would be better.