Week 1: What was the best Course VI class you have ever taken?
Compiled: Feb. 16, 1997

6.001: 5 Sussman, Meyer: 2 6.002: 1 Schlect: 1 6.003: 3 (-1) White: 1 6.004: 4 Pratt, LoPresti: 8 6.011: -- Oppenheim: 2 6.012: 1 (-1) 6.013: 1 6.017: 1 6.021: 1 6.023: 1 6.033: 4 6.034: 1 6.035: 3 6.036: -- Hewitt: 1 6.042: 3 Leighton: 2

6.046: -- Leiserson: 5 Craig: 1 6.071: 2 6.111: 4 6.170: 2 6.270: 1 6.302: -- Leeb: 2 6.312: -- Bose: 12 6.720: 1 6.728: -- Sentura: 2 6.823: 1 6.840: 4 6.841: 1 6.851: 1 6.868: 1 6.969: 1 "The name says it all."

Week 2: What do you want the HKN Social Committee to do for you?
Compiled: March 11, 1997

• Lockers for lab kits
• Make your own taco social
• Cookies and milk social
• Vegemite
• Two words: nerdkit drop
• Online optional Course VI directory where students can find
  homework partners, dates, etc.
• Tell us when you have socials instead of 10 minutes before
• Socials where the pizza doesn't run out after two minutes
• More pizza at pizza socials
• Socials after 5pm
• Thanks for providing markers with the poster!

Other Comments:

• Stop blocking windows
• Show me the money!
• M-X WRITE-THESIS, M-X WRITE-PROBLEM-SET,
  M-X WRITE-HASS-PAPER
• Knee deep in gin and hookers social
• Delivery maybe?
• Free beer
• Naked mud-wrestling woo-hoo
• Write my thesis

Week 3: What are the top ten reasons to be Course VI?

Week 4: If you could pick 15 hours in the day, for the 5th floor labs to be open, what would they be?

Week 5: What's the funniest thing you've heard a professor say?
Compiled: March 31, 1997

• This exam should only take one hour.
• You'll do well in this class if you don't do things wrong. --C. Leiserson
• Big Bird? I'm not familiar with this character. Who is he?
  (Prof was born in US)
• Huh....I'm not wearing any pants.
• If you are not the lead dog, your view never changes.
• Do you know what the real numbers are? It's a show on MTV where they put a bunch of numbers together in an apartment." --Prof Hopkins (18.06)
• Buttendtricks! (otherwise known as Birth and Death rates--Prof Rota )
• We call the fundamental matrix "F". Now, taking FU...FU...what, did I say something funny?... Oh! I guess that's why the book uses... --Prof Matthews (18.03)
• Damn. We may have to retake 10-250 by force.
• If you're very smart, like I am... --Prof. Bennie (18.03)
• This one climaxed before the other, but that's OK, it happens all the time.
• It is not morally correct to drown babies. for fun. in coca-cola.
• six oh free free
• Veritable orgy of cancellation
• Prof. Hopkins about the diagrams in Strang's 18.06 book:
  "I know more than god about this subject and I don't understand that picture."
• This is the normal world. It's a nice world, and we'd like to stay in it. --Tsitsiklish 6.041
• Well then you're screwed --C. Malik
• I guess class is over since I seem to have shot my load.
• This isn't war, this is FISH!
• Its not the length of a sequence that matters, but how many degrees of freedom it has.
• The only way to learn is to suffer --Rota
• And you can keep it oscillating forever if that turns you on.
• You didn't ask me the first time, why are you asking me now?
• Student: Why does that happen?
  Prof: I dunno. It just feels right.
• Steal blindly and pay for it later.
• ...and if you aren't familiar with this sort of math then it sucks to be you.

Week 6: What Classes Should Course VI Create?
Compiled: April 6, 1997

Practical Topics:

• Game design class
• Operating systems class
• Networks (protocols and programming)
• Databases (not about any specific one, but more of an overview/ survey of what they are and approaches and technology)
• Genetic programming
• Wireless communications
• Interface design class, jointly with MAS
• Data structures
• 6.371 x 6.823 (real computer architecture implementation)
• High speed signal integrity (digital)
• How to build systems (how to design computer systems, e.g. client/server and 3-tiered) to solve real world problems; use consulting case studies)

Labs:

• 6-3 institute labs
• Some form of software engineering lab which satisfies institute lab requirement
• Make 6.035 an institute lab
• Robotics lab

Programming Courses:

• Introductory programming course, 6 units, for people with no computer background, to take prior to 6.001
• C programing class not designed to destroy you
• C++
• Java
• 6 unit class that teaches all the popular programming languages (C, C++, Java, Perl) that people who already know those languages would not be allowed to take
• Buzzword-compliant programming class that would look good on resumes and yet still be good
• "practical programming", a la 6.071, as an engineering-school wide elective (SWE); would replace 1.00 and 10.001; should be taught in Java

Circuits and Electronics:

• RF circuit design (we're behind other schools in this area)
• Intuitive circuit design class like Horowitz's at Harvard, to replace some of .002 grunge (i.e. 6.002 taught by Bose, using his book)
• Digital electronics class not designed to destroy you

Seminars:

• Seminars encouraging students to participate in CS/EE contests like Robosoccer and MicroMouse
• Seminar(s) on future of computers and where they're going

Math Intensive:

• Combined .002/.003 that isn't afraid of using real math (i.e. assume 18.03 and 18.700 as prereq's)
• Linear algebra 6.011 style (i.e. linear algebra for EE's)

Others:

• Study hall
• Chemistry

Week 7: Who is the Best TA You've Ever Had?
Compiled: April 13, 1997

Especially Popular TAs (multiple comments):
• Dave Amundsen (math)
• Craig Barrack (6.046)
• Tim Denison
• Pat LoPresti
• Anthony Patire (6.003)
• Dewey Tucker
• Hanoz (Bose)

Other Mentioned TAs:

• Joey Adler
• Babak Ayazifar
• Takin Aina
• Peter Beebee (6.001)
• John Buck
• Marc Burock
• Vahe Caliskan
• Bill Clintoy
• Paul Fieguth
• Luis Go (6.121)
• Mike Gordon
• Paul Gray
• James Hockenberry (6.002)
• Mark Herschberg
• Andrew "Bunnie" Hwang (6.004)
• John Henry Jannotti
• Mike Joo
• Dan Kilfryle
• Pat Kriedl
• Malay Kundu (6.001)
• Thien Lee
• Ken Lundber
• Scott Macgregor (6.115)
• John Mackey
• Abe Maritime (6.004)
• Abe McAllister (6.101 LA)
• Dan McMatill
• Brian Perdault
• Jon Rodriguez
• Mohammed Saheed
• Ben Shih (6.041)
• Eric Sruckey
• Walter Sun (6.041)
• Zalib Talib (6.003)
• Marc Tanner
• Marc Thompson (6.101)
• Beril Toktay (6.041)
• Tri Tran
• Sean Warnick
• Dan Winship (6.001)
• John Wuu (6.004)

Week 8: Why is MIT's Course VI the best?
Compiled: April 23, 1997

Masochism:
• Pain
• Anyone can get into Hell; here you need to apply (and lose your shirt in the process).
• After freshman year, how else are you going to get hazed?
• Because you get to complain about it all the time.

Teaching & Students:

• The smart students.
• TAs that speak English
• Because we have a master's thesis requirement - some schools don't have a thesis requirement.
• Because they have faculty like Prof. Oppenheim.
• 6.373 is fun
• Electronics are just plain cool
• Kent // much disagreement here

The Finish:

• $$$$$$$$
• When you graduate, you can say obnoxious things like "I beat Course 6 at MIT. And you?"
• Looking forward to Heaven's Gate.

Rebuttals:

• It's not. Course 3 is.
• Poor question. VI is only good if you like the stuff. Besides, "best" what or at what? Think before posting these things, so the comments are useful!
  --> If you don't like the stuff, why are you Course 6?
  --> I'm both.
• What makes you think it is?

Misc:

• Hacks in the elevators.
• The highly social students
  --> That's a good one! Haha

And:

• I'm assuming that because you said "MIT Course VI" you are asking us to compare with other schools. I am a 6-3 senior. What I've enjoyed about VI is:
  
  - learning 6-1 stuff
  - learning the fundamentals as opposed to dwelling on the specifics
  - 6.270!!!
  - My kick-ass job offer
  

Week 9: What was your most embarrassing moment in Course VI?
Compiled: May 4, 1997

The Choice:
• Turning in the course selection form and choosing 6-3.
• Watching my friends choose 6-1.
  --> No, watching deluded folks go 6-3.

The Lifestyle:

• I said something really geeky and realized I had truly become Course VI.
• A long discussion about the (lack of) aesthetics in Adobe Postager.
• Seeing this really nerdy guy and realizing he and I were wearing the same shirt.
• When I was showing someone an athena cluster (in building 36) and realized it smelled *so* bad.

The Classes:

• My life is a continuous moment of shame due to my unfinished 6.002 labs (12 months and counting).
• When my 6.111 kit started smoking.
• 6.002 casualties: 4 resistors, 2 trasistors, 1 computer, 1 op amp, 1 bread board, my grade.
• Sleeping in class and the professor called on me.
• Every test I've taken since choosing Course VI. It's a tie.
• Being woken up by the professor in the middle of an 011 lecture because I was snoring.
• Handing out that terrible "Decaf Java" set to my 6.001 students. What was I thinking?
• Begging Kent Lundberg to give me 6.302 lab extensions.
  --> She said "embarrassing, not "scary" or "painful"
  --> I second that!
• Being clueless on the new 001 Java evaluator problem set - I'm an LA!
• Going to Babak Ayazifar's office hours and answering questions wrong on the black board. Totally blanking out.
• My sophomore year during 6.002 recitation, Prof. Schmidtt was telling us about how when he was in college they had to use punch cards to write programs and it would take an hour to get program results, etc. etc. So I asked him if he also had to walk uphill in the snow both directions to get to the computer lab. He didn;'t think that was very funny at all, and he looked right at me and replied, "No, I didn't." There was dead silence and then the guy to my left turned to me and said, "Dude, you blew it."

It's Us:

• Answering HKN questions.
• Reading this poster.
• The time I misspelled "embarrassing" (just kidding).

Week 10: Which classes should be required for a course 6 degree?
Compiled: May 12, 1997

Course VI:
• not 6.001 for 6-1 (2) (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)
• not 6.002 (2) (Circuits and Electronics)
• 6.002 (Circuits and Electronics)
• 6.001-6.004
• 6.004 (Computation Structures)
• 6.033 (Conputer System Engineering)
• 6.035 (Computer Language Engineering)
• 6.041 (Probabilistic System Analysis)
• 6.046 (Intoduction to Algorithms)
• 6.101 (2) (Introductory Analog Electronics Laboratory)
• 6.111 (Introductory Digital Systems Laboratory)
• 6.121J (Bioelectronics Project Laboratory)
• 6.301 (Solid-State Circuits)
• 6.302 for 6-1 (Feedback Systems)
• 6.302 (Feedback Systems)
• 6.312 (Acoustics)
• 6.840 (Theory of Computation)
• 6.969

Computer Languages:

• C and C++
• Any practical computer language--not Scheme

Mathematics:

• 18.100 (Analysis I)
• 18.310 (Principles of Applied Mathematics)
• 18.313 (Probability)
• 18.702 (Algebra II)
• Linear Algebra

Others:

• 5.12 (Organic Chemistry I)
• 5.60 (Thermodynamics and Kinetics)
• 10.301 (Fluid Mechanics)
• 1.12 (Computer Models of Physical and Engineering Systems)
• 21L501 (The American Novel)
• 21M301 (Harmony and Couterpoint I)
• 21M301-302 (Harmony and Counterpoint I and II)

Week 11: What Course VI classes need to be improved the most?
Compiled: May 15, 1997

The Classes:
• 6.002 (20)
• 6.182 (4)
• 6.001 (3)
• 6.012 (2)
• 6.042 (2)
• 6.036
• 6.152J
• 6.170
• 6.121J
• 6.*

The Supporting Comments:

• No more 6.002 labs.
• Get a 6.002 textbook.
• 6.042 needs a standard curriculum and a real book.
• Improve the 6.012 students before improving 6.012!

The Contradictions:

• Stop making 6.002 a requirement for VI-3.
  --> I disagree; programmers might not ever use it, but CS isn't just software.
• 6.003 should be Course XVIII.
• 6.003 is the best class in the world & should be taken by everyone!

The Great Sever?

• Split the department!

Week 12: Which classes should have EDPs and how much?
Compiled: May 21, 1997

The Classes:
• 6.301 6 EDPs (2)
• 6.302 4 EDPs (2)
• 6.012 4 EDPs (2)
• 6.555 12 EDPs
• 6.301 should be 8-12 EDPs
• 6.046J 6 EDPs
• 6.042J 2 EDPs
• more EDPs for 6.011

Suggestions:

• Imagine a 6.111 that is all simulated would that really be engineering design?
• I like the EDP to be distributed
• software engineering is a valid form of engineering should have EDPs
• give EDPs for grad class as well
• core classes should have no EDPs
• I do not agree 6.012 should have a EDPs as suggested by others

Elimination:

• EDP should be eliminated, it's hard to do a course 6 w/ EDPs, why give us something else to count?
• EDPs are stupid, you get them from everything, it is hard not to get enough
• EDPs are for the weak

Other:

• QOTW should be 4 EDPs

Week 13: What are your Plans after Finals (and/or Thesis)?
Compiled: May 29, 1997

Workaholic:
• get started on my next thesis.
• som.media.mit.edu
• 6-A

Partying on:

• Disney Land
• to bike 3 hours a day
• to go see Rent, and then SLEEP!
• SLEEP!
• So somewhere where they serve GOOD FOOD!
• Drink!

Moving on:

• Never, ever, ever take another Course 6 class!
• Start permanent job in 2 weeks - drink whiskey till then.
• Join the real world
• Seattle! (not Microslush)
• I'm off to work in sunny San Diego. Ha ha ha minutes away from the border, ..,
  beautiful women, tequilla, nachos, and a nice salary. Too bad for the rest of you.
  --> Good luck (you'll need it).
• Leave Kansas.

Non-believer:

• oh yeah, like such a time exists.