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Master's Project
Dec. 4th, 2004 07:05 pmI saw my Master's student yesterday.
He came to me at the beginning of the term, asking me to take him on. The plan was for him to spend this semester learning background material, and to start his thesis project next semester. So, I searched my shelves, handed him a book and told him to read Chapter 5, and come back when he was comfortable with its contents. This was in late August, and it was the last I saw of him until yesterday.
We chatted a bit about his reading assignment; he confessed to having some difficulty with the proofs, and I encouraged him to think about things in a slightly different way. (Geometry, dammit! Remember the First Law!) Then he asked if I had decided on a project for him. I described an idea I'd had, which was something I messed around with a little bit a few years ago but never got anywhere with. I was a little concerned that it might be too hard for him, but he seemed interested and willing to tackle it, so I gave him a few exercises and suggested he just fool with it a while and get the feel of it. We'll see.
(The problem has to do with a kind of algebra in which exponents are allowed which aren't numbers; the usual laws of exponents hold, except that there doesn't seem to be an analog of the Binomial Theorem. His assignment: find one.)
He came to me at the beginning of the term, asking me to take him on. The plan was for him to spend this semester learning background material, and to start his thesis project next semester. So, I searched my shelves, handed him a book and told him to read Chapter 5, and come back when he was comfortable with its contents. This was in late August, and it was the last I saw of him until yesterday.
We chatted a bit about his reading assignment; he confessed to having some difficulty with the proofs, and I encouraged him to think about things in a slightly different way. (Geometry, dammit! Remember the First Law!) Then he asked if I had decided on a project for him. I described an idea I'd had, which was something I messed around with a little bit a few years ago but never got anywhere with. I was a little concerned that it might be too hard for him, but he seemed interested and willing to tackle it, so I gave him a few exercises and suggested he just fool with it a while and get the feel of it. We'll see.
(The problem has to do with a kind of algebra in which exponents are allowed which aren't numbers; the usual laws of exponents hold, except that there doesn't seem to be an analog of the Binomial Theorem. His assignment: find one.)
