Chan's Personal Blog - Academia

The Illusion Of Competence

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:06:11 -0800

I came across this amusing article in Time Magazine entitled, "Competence: Is Your Boss Faking It?"

Bosses may be an overbearing breed, but more often than not, you've got to admire their business chops. Wouldn't you love to have that same sense of competence and confidence, that ability to assess tough problems and reach smart solutions on the fly? Guess what? So would they. If you have ever suspected that your boss isn't actually good enough at what he or she does to deserve the job in the first place, a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that you might be right. [...]

Social psychologists know that one way to be viewed as a leader in any group is simply to act like one. Speak up, speak well and offer lots of ideas, and before long, people will begin doing what you say. This works well when leaders know what they're talking about, but what if they don't? If someone acts like a boss but thinks like a boob, is that still enough to stay on top?

[Work sessions] were videotaped, and a group of independent observers performed the same evaluations, as did Anderson and Kilduff. All three sets of judges reached the same conclusions. Consistently, the group members who spoke up the most were rated the highest for such qualities as "general intelligence" and "dependable and self-disciplined." The ones who didn't speak as much tended to score higher for less desirable traits, including "conventional and uncreative." [...]

"Dominant individuals behaved in ways that made them appear competent," the researchers write, "above and beyond their actual competence." Troublingly, group members seemed only too willing to follow these underqualified bosses. An overwhelming 94% of the time, the teams used the first answer anyone shouted out often giving only perfunctory consideration to others that were offered.

Lately I've been finding myself with a front-row seat to amateur hour performances, and I cringe when people offer up random bad answers that make no sense. Seems like the more answers you give, the more competent you appear. Kind of funny though. Imagine appearing on Jeopardy and always buzzing in right away, and quickly making up an answer. You'd have a huge negative balance, but people would rate you highly competent right?

Something's Wrong With Co-operative Education

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0800

When I went home for Christmas, I went back to my university to visit professors, friends, and old co-workers. I spent a good amount of time chatting with folks from the Department of Co-operative Education, where I worked for almost five years. As I talked to people, there seemed to be a little bit of doom and gloom in the air. I dug a little deeper, and it seemed like enrollment in co-operative education was drastically down compared to its glory days.

For those who are unfamiliar with co-operative education, it's basically a program where you spend a couple semesters working in the real world for school credit. It offers an excellent way to apply some of theory you've learned in academia, and it gives you a chance to make connections with people in industry. A computer science student (back in my day) typically spent five semesters working at a co-op job. In my experience, it was a pretty good deal because you managed to add 20 months of work experience to your resume, and you got a chance to make some money too. A study also revealed that 90% of co-op students found a job after university within 6 months of graduation. I am one of those fortunate people that falls into this category.

In the old days, the Department of Computer Science at UVIC used to have around 400 students enrolled in co-op. Competition was always extremely fierce, and demand for jobs outstripped supply. It was always nerve wracking when you were trying to find a co-op job because you didn't know if you were going to be working or going to school in the next semester. Also, if all your friends went out on a co-op work term, and you didn't, your academic schedule would become unsynchronized with theirs, and that was not fun.

Fast forward to today, and apparently enrollment is about half of what it was. Only around 200 computer science students are enrolled in the co-op program. The supply of jobs far outstrips demand. Employers are constantly complaining that students are not applying to their jobs, and this is even the case for big name employers. Students these days also seem to be very picky about what kind of work they do, whereas in my day, we were glad to get any kind of work.

Continue reading "Something's Wrong With Co-operative Education"

CUPE's Call To Ban Israeli Academics

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:12:21 -0800

The Ontario chapter of the union made headlines which is captured in this editorial entitled, "CUPE call to ban Israeli academics out to lunch." For those not familiar with CUPE, it's Canada's largest union. A huge chunk of university workers are a part of this union. Thanks Myron for sending me this link.

CUPE Ontario has embarrassed itself again.

The unions president, Sid Ryan, is backing a move that would call on Ontario universities to ban Israeli academics who arent prepared to condemn Israels current military operations in Gaza, and specifically the Dec. 29 bombing attack on the Islamic University of Gaza.

Mr. Ryans meddling is wrong-headed, on multiple levels.

As many in Ontario academia have pointed out in denouncing Mr. Ryans plan, the proposal violates the essence of the concept of academic freedom. By demanding adherence to a particular political point of view, with a professors job hanging in the balance, CUPEs stated goal runs counter to the core mission of institutions of higher learning: promoting free academic inquiry.

Mr. Ryan proposes a political litmus test to decide whose views should be allowed to be expressed. Thats a contravention of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protection of free speech, as well as an act of discrimination under this countrys human rights codes.

CUPE Ontarios actions are also inconsistent in that no such bans are sought on academics from other parts of the world where charges of repression are rampant. If Israeli professors are to be barred from teaching based on what they say about Gaza, why not ban Chinese academics over Chinas role in Tibet? Or Russian professors for their countrys controversial campaigns against Chechnya? As Bernie Farber, Canadian Jewish Congress CEO, pointed out last week, CUPE has not called for Palestinian academics to be banned over Hamas rocket attacks. (It should be noted that Israel claims the Islamic University in Gaza was a storehouse for munitions and bomb-making centre.) Such scenarios should seem ludicrous, of course, but that further underlines the fact CUPE Ontario seems to devote a lot of time and attention to anti-Israeli efforts. That obsession has not surprisingly led to accusations CUPE Ontario is anti-Semitic. The union denies such charges.

Another question many have is why a union that supposedly exists to fight for better wages, working conditions and other benefits for members is using its resources to take sides in a bitter, deeply complex dispute thousands of miles away. CUPE Ontario was roundly criticized several years ago for calling on learning institutions to divest themselves of Israeli investments. Mr. Ryans latest salvo seems more of the same.

Continue reading "CUPE's Call To Ban Israeli Academics"

Your Minimum Grade is 50% In Pittsburg

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 23:59:00 -0700

I came across this article in the Post Gazette entitled, "Eyebrows raised over city school policy that sets 50% as minimum score
- 1+1=3? In city schools, it's half right."

Pittsburgh Public Schools officials say they want to give struggling children a chance, but the district is raising eyebrows with a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work.

The district and teachers union last week issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers President John Tarka said the policy is several years old.

While some districts use "F" as a failing grade, the city uses an "E." [...]

they said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, Ms. Pugh said, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.

"We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up," she said, adding a sense of helplessness can lead to behavior and attendance problems.

"It's not grade inflation. We're not saying, 'Give people passing grades,' " Ms. Pugh said.

But the policy strikes some teachers and parents as rewarding bad work and at odds with the district's "Excellence for All" improvement campaign.

"Clearly, some people will not be pleased with this policy," Mr. Tarka said. But he added, "We stand by that decision."

Judy Leonardi, a Stanton Heights resident and retired district home economics teacher, said she objected to the notion that a student could "walk in the door, breathe the air and get 50 percent for that."

"I don't think it sets kids up properly for college, for competition in life," she said.

To Ms. Leonardi, a 20 percent score means a student isn't trying or needs more help with the material. Automatically putting 50 percent in the grade book, she said, doesn't help the student in either case. [...]

Superintendent James Lombardo said he's in favor of implementing the idea, partly as a fairness issue. He noted that a failing grade carries far more mathematical weight than any other grade if the "E" or "F" has a range of zero to 59 percent.

"I guess I laud the Pittsburgh district for recognizing some of the foibles of our numerical system," he said, adding low percentage scores sometimes are given to students because of their attitude or work ethic, rather than their level of accomplishment.

Continue reading "Your Minimum Grade is 50% In Pittsburg"

UVIC Students Overturn Military Ban

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:27:56 -0800

This is a follow-up post from a blog post I wrote about called UVSS Bans Canadian Forces From Student Union Building. On October 25th, UVIC had their annual general meeting to vote on the military ban. The Martlet (the UVIC student newspaper) has a story about how the vote went.

Students overwhelmingly rejected a motion to ban the military from recruiting in the Student Union Building at the UVic Students Society (UVSS) annual general meeting on Oct. 25.

According to UVSS records, 525 students packed the SUBs Michèle Pujol Room to attend the meeting. The meeting started half an hour late as students waited in line to sign in and receive voting cards.

Roughly 25 people voted in favour of the ban. Had the motion passed, the Canadian Forces wouldnt have been able to recruit at the annual UVic Career Fair in January because it is held in the SUB.

George Robinson, former UVSS chairperson candidate, spoke against the ban. For students that wish to protest the war, this is the wrong way to do it, said Robinson. By banning any organization that we may disagree with, we are acting against the very purpose of this university.

Student Serina Zapf agreed. Im a human rights activist. I totally understand the issues in Afghanistan. I know about the torture. I hear about these things. I campaign on them, she said. That being said, as a human rights activist I believe in a dialogue of voices Im excited that our UVSS has a voice and is speaking on issues. But at the same time, I dont think they need to protest for me.

Continue reading "UVIC Students Overturn Military Ban"

UVSS Bans Canadian Forces From Student Union Building

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 23:59:00 -0700

I was going to blog about something else, but this story instantly jumped the queue after I read it because I was so infuriated by it. The story is about the University of Victoria's Student Society (UVSS) banning the Canadian Forces from recruiting in the Student Union Building (home of the annual career fair). Whether you're for or against Canada's involvement in Afghanistan, please read the "enlightened" reasons why the Canadian Forces are being banned.

The ban voted in on Sept. 10 means that the Canadian Armed Forces will be unable to attend the annual recruiting fair put on by UVic's Career Services in the SUB every January. The Armed Forces attended last year's recruiting fair.

At the Sept. 10 meeting, UVSS director of academics Caitlin Meggs read a statement by Jennifer Margison, manager of Career Services, urging students not to ban the military and to invite a member of the Armed Forces to speak to them before making a decision. Margison was unable to attend the meeting.

'If the policy would be implemented as a ban, I would ask the board to consider that this could be a very slippery slope, and one that I don't believe is in the spirit of a university campus, where alternate and opposing views, debate and discourse, personal choice and decision making should be fostered,' Meggs read on behalf of Margison. 'I would suggest that banning any organization from campus, if they are operating in accordance with Canadian law, and with university policy, is an infringement on the rights of students to make their own decisions about their futures.

Continue reading "UVSS Bans Canadian Forces From Student Union Building"

Canadian Universities Condemn Israeli Academic Ban

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:59:00 -0700

I saw an interesting article on the National Post entitled, "Canadian Universities Condemn Any Israeli Ban."

During the normally quiet months of summer on campus, Canadian university presidents have been near unanimous in their denounciations of a call by Britain's largest professors' union to consider a boycott of Israel's institutions of higher learning.

The British resolution, endorsed at the end of May by 150 of the University and College Union's more than 120,000 members, suggests that locals consider a freeze on ties with Israeli universities including teacher and student exchanges, attendance at conferences and publication of research papers.

Based on the premise that Israeli universities are complicit in denying Palestinians the right to an education, the union's proposal -- at this point only to discuss such a possibility -- has since drawn widespread international condemnation for violating the sacred tenets of academic freedom.

From Dalhousie to Simon Fraser and most of the ivory towers in between, Canada's university principals, rectors, chancellors and presidents have gradually been adding their voices to the swell of opposition from the likes of outgoing British prime minister Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the U.S. Congress, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and a long list of scholars that includes Nobel Prize winners.

At last count, 22 Canadian universities had released statements opposing the British union resolution.

In Vancouver, University of British Columbia president Stephen Toope was among the first to react.

"The attempt of one group of scholars to stifle the views of another is an affront to modern society and must be condemned wherever it arises," said Mr. Toope, himself a world-renowned human rights expert.

"Those British professors who have brought forward this shameful scheme ought to reflect on the example and consequence of the intolerance they are communicating to their students."

Read on in the article to see what other Canadian universities are saying. I guess I find this article interesting because from my experience in university, academia tends to have a heavy anti-Israel bias. So, I'm surprised by the strong stands that Canadian university presidents are taking on this issue in defending Israel.

Hello Mr. Nienhuis

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:26:00 -0700

Last month, I was walking home from downtown and I ran into one Mr. Hank Nienhuis. He was the drama teacher at my high school, and my sound crew used to do sound and lighting for all of his major plays and productions. I always looked forward to organizing sound and lights for the annual dinner theater because it was a catered buffet event, and we all got to eat for free.

Anyway, he seemed to be doing quite well. He's done a lot of travelling in his retirement, and I believe he recently came back from Europe. Also, he and his wife volunteers at the Thrift Store on Government St. and Bay St. (next to the foreign car dealer) every Monday, which is where I bumped into him. He was talking about how great of a salesman he was because he sold a lot of furniture that day. He tried to peddle some used furniture on me too.

We reminisced a bit about the past. Some things never changed though. I was still doing well in academia, still into web development, and still doing sound and lighting for shows. The foundations of all of this can be traced back to high school. Good times.

Suddenly I feel older.

In either case, go visit him at the Thrift Store on Government St. and Bay St. on Mondays. Make his day and buy a couch from him.

Hello Master Chan

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:59:00 -0700

Well, today was finally my convocation ceremony, and I have officially received my Master's degree from the University of Victoria. That's another expensive piece of paper that's getting mounted on the wall.

Everyone has been asking if I was excited. Honestly, today was just another day. I was far more excited in February when I successfully defended my master's project which concluded my academic requirements. That was when I celebrated and felt that I had crossed the finish line. The ceremony today was more of a formality. I'd probably be more thrilled if I had finished my program in May, but I didn't.

For anyone who has actually attended a convocation ceremony, they tend to be fairly boring. You sit there waiting for your loved one to be called up, and they get their 20 seconds of fame on the stage, and then you wait for hundreds of other students to get their degrees before you can leave.

Continue reading "Hello Master Chan"

Hello Master Chan

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:51:53 -0800

So, today I defended my master's project by presenting my work and answering questions from a panel of professors, and I have passed. This marks the end of the academic journey that has spanned 6 years and 5 months.

The first thing one of my co-workers said to me after the defence was how calm and collected I seemed while giving the presentation. Honestly, I was fairly calm because I had already done a practice run of my presentation on Friday, and I had to hardly tweek it. In addition, all grad students in my program have to go through a course on giving presentations, and I was the top presenter, so I wasn't too worried.

I remember talking to Mr. Teel who had finished his masters last year, and he said that he wasn't nervous at all when he had to defend his thesis. He said that the hard part is getting the document written and getting it successfully reviewed by professors. The defence itself is pretty straightforward because you're the expert of that subject. Looking back at it, I would agree with his statements.

The part that I was most worried about was the questions afterwards because the professors would have questions about my project, and three courses that I had taken during graduate studies. It's pretty hard to study for three courses especially if you have no idea what would be asked ahead of time. Thankfully, the questions were mostly about my project (which I'm an expert in), and there were just a handful of questions about my courses. Needless to say, I overstudied by a long shot this time.

One of the professors spent most of his time inquiring about how easy it would be to add certain features because he wanted to use my software for the university. So, this is a good sign because it means he was rather impressed by my implementation, and he could see other uses for it.

The one course that the professors did ask a lot of questions about was on open source software engineering, since my supervisor taught me that course. There was a lot of discussion around that because all of the professors thought that this was an interesting topic. At times, they were debating with each other which is good, because that runs the clock down, and it means less questions for me.

Overall, I think there were two or three questions that I didn't know the answer to, but that was okay. One of the questions that the professor gave didn't make a lot of sense to me, and when he gave the answer, I realized that the answer he gave was wrong. However, the master's defence survival guide says not to argue with a professor even if they're wrong; choose your battles to fight.

After the professors finished with their questioning, everyone was asked to leave the room while the professors discussed whether my work was significant enough to be awarded a Master's degree. They took about 15 minutes to talk it through. Then, the door opened, and the three professors came out bearing congratulations and handshakes. They also informed me that I didn't need to make any revisions to my technical project report, so I am completely done.

All in all, the professors were rather impressed by my technical project. As mentioned before, one of them is interested in adopting the software for other uses at the university, so there's some potential there.

Anyway, I'm very glad that it's over. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet, but I'm sure I'll be more excited later. All that I'm thinking about right now is getting some decent sleep because I have been staying up pretty late studying for the last few nights. But just think.... tomorrow, no more studying! And the day after..... no more studying! This is going to take some getting used to

So, that's another set of acronyms that I can tack onto my name.

Mr. Chan, MSc. BSc.

Looks pretty snazzy.

D-Day

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:38:44 -0800

Well, it's 12 hours before my Master's Defence. Honestly, I thought I'd be much more nervous on the night before the big op, but I'm fairly calm. Really, I just want to get this thing over with because I've been studying for the last 5 days straight.

The checklist for tomorrow morning is to go over my notes and presentation one more time, read over the thesis once more, get dressed up, get psyched up, and into battle we go.

Here's a speech by Adama that will set the tone for tomorrow as I prepare for end.

This one goes out to all of my friends, family, and the Lord for supporting me through this long and arduous journey. Special shout out goes to Myron as he couldn't make it to the defence because of a turn of events.

It's on.

One Last Offensive

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 20:57:58 -0800

I have finally confirmed a date for my Master's defence. It is scheduled for February 20th, 2007. This marks the final step before ascending to the title of master. Just to make things more epic, I made this movie trailer for my defence. Time well wasted

So, I have ten days to prepare for this defence, so things are going to be fairly crazy. If blog updates or e-mail responses seem tardy, you'll know exactly why.

[Updated]. Random thought #1. It's quite challenging trying to condense a 90 page master's project down to 15-20 slides for a presentation, and having only 20 minutes to present all of the material.

Green Light

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 23:59:00 -0800

Last week, I submitted my third draft of my Master's Technical Project to my academic committee. Today, I received word from the committee that they have reviewed the paper, and said that it was ready to go. They have given me the green light to defend the paper. It's on!

So now, I have to schedule a defence day, and start studying. For the oral defence, I have to choose three courses that I've taken, and the committee will prepare questions for those courses. The oral defence will involve a 20 minute presentation of my technical project, and a 40 minute question and answer period where the committee will ask questions about my technical project and the three chosen courses.

The thing I'm most worried about are the questions about the courses. I'll have to re-study for those courses again, and treat it like I'm about to write a final exam in those courses once again. One of the courses that I will be using for my defence, I had taken in January 2005, so it has been a LONG time since I took that course, so I'm a bit rusty.

I was talking to Mr. Teel a few months back, as he had finished defending his Master's thesis, and he told me that the hardest part in the Master's degree is writing the paper. Everything after that is quite anti-climatic and not really a big deal. I sure hope he's right.

Anyway, we are at the last mile of the marathon.

Thesis v2.0

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:59:00 -0800

Sorry for the lack of timely updates as of late. I've been busy rushing to get my thesis finished. Last Saturday, I fired off the first draft of my thesis for review, and it weighed in at 70 pages. I got the draft back from my professor, and luckily, no major revisions were required. I probably had about 20 revisions to do. At 2:00am today, I submitted my second draft, and it weighs in at 78 pages. So tired..... zzzz.

Now, this is 78 pages of content and diagrams. This isn't even including all the fluff like table of contents, acknowledgements, list of figures, etc. With all that stuff, it's probably about 98 pages long.

Interestingly enough, last Wednesday, I bumped into Mr. Teel on the bus (my highschool math teacher). He had gone back to university to pursue his Masters in Philosophy. I was asking him questions about his thesis, and about his experience writing it. He said that his supervisor wanted the thesis to be under 100 pages, but Mr. Teel's thesis was longer than that. So, he took a bunch of pages, moved them to the appendix, changed the line spacing and font size, and voila, 99 pages long. He defended his thesis in August of this year, and he said it wasn't that bad. He said that the hardest work is writing the thesis, everything after that is fairly trivial. It was uplifting and reassuring to talk to someone who had recently finished their thesis.

Anyway, I do think the hardest part is writing the actual thesis (crosses fingers). It's tough trying to stay focused and motivated to keep on writing. The key is to keep your eye on the prize at the end. It's really easy to procrastinate or feel unmotivated because after spending hours writing, you realize that there is a still a million miles to go, it's like you've barely done any work. I've probably been at this for about two months straight now.

It's time to end this once and for all. It's on!

Mysterious Chemical Spill

nospam@example.com (CHaN) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 22:29:00 -0800

Last Thursday morning, I was walking into work, and as I was going up a flight of stairs, I noticed security personnel interviewing some of the computer consultants. Something must be up. After I get into my office, I head to the main kitchen to wash out my cup, and I see a bunch of security people roping off a section of lockers with caution tape.

Half an hour later, I walk past the lockers again, and there's security personnel monitoring the lockers while tradesmen are cutting and sawing off locks. Something in those lockers weren't good.

By lunch time, I pass by this area again, but the lockers are all gone. They cut a section of them off, ripped up the carpet, and hauled it all away.

This week people from maintenance were having a serious talk with one of the managers of our department about what had happened last week. It turned out that there was a chemical spill in the lockers. Someone had put something in the top locker, and the substance ate its way through three levels of lockers, and ate a big chunk of carpet. Strangely enough though, they never bothered trying to identify what the substance was.

When the manager heard about this, he was angry. He said that at least four staff members were complaining that they had a burning sensation in their eyes last Thursday. The theory right now is that the chemical agent must have gotten into the ventilation system, and that air is distributed our floor, thus spreading the chemical agent.

What's surprising is that the security people knew about the chemical spill but didn't bother evacuating the building or informing us what had happened. Now it seems like all of us could have been exposed to some unknown chemical agent. This got our manager fairly mad because he's ex-navy, and military training offers extensive training in an "ABC situation", that is, what to do if you're exposed to Atomic, Biological, or Chemical agents. So, the manager got a hold of security and had a nice long talk about how to handle the ABCs.

So, security is now trying to get the substance in the lockers identified. The troubling thing is that they don't know who put the chemicals in that locker, and whether there was malicious intent. I guess in a post 9-11 world, anything is possible.

Hopefully it turns out to be nothing. Kind of scary nevertheless how incompetently they handled the whole situation.