Current Events > holy shit my linear/nonlinear programming class is such a mess

(+) Yeah! (+)

half the class has dropped; the remaining is mostly failing by normal standards. she's pleaded with everyone considering dropping to just talk to her before doing so

45 minutes after finishing mid-term 2, she made the last 2 (of 5) problems extra credit

now we're given this final project that not a single person in the class has any clue about. so she's creating an extra class tomorrow (it's only MW regularly), just to go over the final. because none of us have made any progress.

and she assigned a hw yesterday, that a few hours later she said is only worth bonus.

what a mess
---

Programming is harder than people think.
I did ok in C++ but Java kicked my butt.
Also, I am terrible at math and could not understand linear algebra and matrices.
---

so what is the cause of the problem?

I always see the biggest drop in classroom attendance in programming classes. Most people just can't do it.
---

Melonfarms posted...

Programming is harder than people think.
I did ok in C++ but Java kicked my butt.
Also, I am terrible at math and could not understand linear algebra and matrices.

yeah, it's not a class actually about programming. it's almost all theoretical.



that's our final project
---

Fam_Fam posted...

so what is the cause of the problem?

too theoretical given the pre-reqs for the course tbh
---

Johnny_Nutcase posted...

I always see the biggest drop in classroom attendance in programming classes. Most people just can't do it.

this is a senior level math class. it's not actually CS or even oriented around programming. none of our homeworks have even involved programming.
---

so it's more of a discrete math class?
---

TheGoldenEel posted...

so it's more of a discrete math class?

maybe, i never took an actual discrete course.
---

Yeah. No thanks. I never got to this level of math.
---

organicbamf posted...

TheGoldenEel posted...

so it's more of a discrete math class?

maybe, i never took an actual discrete course.

well if that's not a pre-req then maybe that's why no one knows wtf is going on
---

looks like discrete math tbh

TheGoldenEel posted...

organicbamf posted...

TheGoldenEel posted...

so it's more of a discrete math class?

maybe, i never took an actual discrete course.

well if that's not a pre-req then maybe that's why no one knows wtf is going on

prob. pre-reqs were calc series and linear. theoretically, that should be fine, but it's so abstract for all of us, idk man we're struggling you know. i actually don't think more than than that is strictly necessary, but it's just way outside our applicable ability thus far

Milkman5 posted...

looks like discrete math tbh

apparently
---

like it comes off as an unconstrained quadratic programming problem, but all of us have gone to her office and she told us there's a way to constrain it and apply linear least square approach

but after spending hours together, none of us can figure out how

if we could actually iterate anything, yeah we could maybe form some Ax=b constraint, and then apply what we've learned

but it's an under-determined system as stated, so we can't even do that

like what is going on idgi
---

tag

i'm secretly hoping someone can give me insight :)

this was my prof's master's thesis btw, except she reduced it from PDE to ODE
---

organicbamf posted...

Melonfarms posted...

Programming is harder than people think.
I did ok in C++ but Java kicked my butt.
Also, I am terrible at math and could not understand linear algebra and matrices.

yeah, it's not a class actually about programming. it's almost all theoretical.



that's our final project

I would die before taking that 'programming' course
---

Try posting the problem on the homework help board.

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/1060-homework-helpers
---

yeah like, the "programming" part isn't even necessarily difficult

but setting up the problem itself? lol

gl fam
---

tag fam
---

That sort of Math reading seems pretty standard, but I doubt it's gonna be ever useful
---

legendarylemur posted...

That sort of Math reading seems pretty standard, but I doubt it's gonna be ever useful

what are you trying to say here honestly

seems standard, but will never be useful? that's contradictory. unless you mean standard in the sense that "all math problems look the same" ...

but this stuff is actually the basis of a lot of machine learning. which has a ton of uses, obviously.
---

i wanted to go into programming when i was 14 but then i realized it was basically applied math. im bad at math so i went into accounting instead

It's not programming it all, linear programming is optimization. It's also not discrete math at all, it's literally analysis lol...

Looks good man, Lagrange is your homie now.
---

i'm taking a class rn that basically covers the first financial math exam

how do you dislike math but go into that

it's nothing but geometric series and calculus
---

IllegalAlien posted...

It's not programming it all, linear programming is optimization. It's also not discrete math at all, it's literally analysis lol...

Looks good man, Lagrange is your homie now.

This.

Lol at the guy saying discrete math pretending to act like he's in the know. Get the fuck outta here, boy.
---

IllegalAlien posted...

It's not programming it all, linear programming is optimization. It's also not discrete math at all, it's literally analysis lol...

Looks good man, Lagrange is your homie now.

yeh

she told us to use lagrange on the assignment, but any time we went into her office hours, she tried to reapply it to a QPP

which doesn't use lagrange at all

but even still, idk how to apply lagrnage to this :\ and i've spent a considerable amount of time trying
---

organicbamf posted...

legendarylemur posted...

That sort of Math reading seems pretty standard, but I doubt it's gonna be ever useful

what are you trying to say here honestly

seems standard, but will never be useful? that's contradictory. unless you mean standard in the sense that "all math problems look the same" ...

but this stuff is actually the basis of a lot of machine learning. which has a ton of uses, obviously.

The reading of it is standard. Like I can sit here and just read it and generally understand what it's trying to say. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm a programmer myself, but I've found that it takes a very small portion of actually working. Developed intuition about the subject is almost always far more useful
---

organicbamf posted...

Johnny_Nutcase posted...

I always see the biggest drop in classroom attendance in programming classes. Most people just can't do it.

this is a senior level math class. it's not actually CS or even oriented around programming. none of our homeworks have even involved programming.

This is why computer science programs are a joke. They fill the curriculum with this sort of math and algebra nonsense and barely teach any actual programming
---

legendarylemur posted...

organicbamf posted...

legendarylemur posted...

That sort of Math reading seems pretty standard, but I doubt it's gonna be ever useful

what are you trying to say here honestly

seems standard, but will never be useful? that's contradictory. unless you mean standard in the sense that "all math problems look the same" ...

but this stuff is actually the basis of a lot of machine learning. which has a ton of uses, obviously.

The reading of it is standard. Like I can sit here and just read it and generally understand what it's trying to say. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm a programmer myself, but I've found that it takes a very small portion of actually working. Developed intuition about the subject is almost always far more useful

so you can't actually apply your knowledge to real world problems where the setup isn't basic af? i really don't get what you're trying to say

GoatHunter posted...

organicbamf posted...

Johnny_Nutcase posted...

I always see the biggest drop in classroom attendance in programming classes. Most people just can't do it.

this is a senior level math class. it's not actually CS or even oriented around programming. none of our homeworks have even involved programming.

This is why computer science programs are a joke. They fill the curriculum with this sort of math and algebra nonsense and barely teach any actual programming

programming in and of itself is not hard. the math behind it is hard tho. that's what a real CS curriculum teaches.

i'm not a CS major, i only took this class because the group theory class i wanted to take got cancelled this semester.
---

Guys, as programmers you should really be embarrassed if you went to school for computer science. Remember in your algorithms course when you learned "Dynamic Programming"? Remember how the programming in DP wasn't computer programming at all? The facepalm is so intense right now holy shit.
---

IllegalAlien posted...

Guys, as programmers you should really be embarrassed if you went to school for computer science. Remember in your algorithms course when you learned "Dynamic Programming"? Remember how the programming in DP wasn't computer programming at all? The facepalm is so intense right now holy shit.

lol

for real tho, help me out mang. i can't see how to apply lagrange, nor the linear least squared approach she seemed to suggest.

like i just have no idea how to find an analytical solution. i went to her office hours and she suggested certain problems from the hw... but they just don't fit

like i have tried making a constraint that forms to Ax=b with no luck. i know this is a time discrete markov chain, but i've no fucking clue how to approach this shit

we have to give a 15 minute presentation next week. she asked us in class and emailed us later telling her to give who'd like to go first. i straight up told her in class just randomly assign it because nobody is going to volunteer. she just laughed. i was 100% serious
---

also, the A matrix in that problem is not defined properly, but that's a trivial problem

she released an update last night, but we'd already figured out how it was wrong in the problem presented
---

organicbamf posted...

IllegalAlien posted...

Guys, as programmers you should really be embarrassed if you went to school for computer science. Remember in your algorithms course when you learned "Dynamic Programming"? Remember how the programming in DP wasn't computer programming at all? The facepalm is so intense right now holy shit.

lol

for real tho, help me out mang. i can't see how to apply lagrange, nor the linear least squared approach she seemed to suggest.

like i just have no idea how to find an analytical solution. i went to her office hours and she suggested certain problems from the hw... but they just don't fit

like i have tried making a constraint that forms to Ax=b with no luck. i know this is a time discrete markov chain, but i've no fucking clue how to approach this shit

we have to give a 15 minute presentation next week. she asked us in class and emailed us later telling her to give who'd like to go first. i straight up told her in class just randomly assign it because nobody is going to volunteer. she just laughed. i was 100% serious

ehhhhhhhhh I know optimization for machine learning in particular for primal/dual formulations of SVM and MLE estimates. I skimmed over your HW and it seems relatively straightforward but I can't shed light for you in the context of your class.

There are some math PhD's on the board that might be able to help.
---

word, where is iderivedx

it seemed straightforward to me as well, but then when i actually sat down to approach it... nothing

like if we could do some iterations by hand, as she seemed to suggest, we could make a linear least squared problem like i mentioned. the problem is, it's an underdetermined system and we can't even do that.

extra credit for this was defining a dual problem, but we can't even do the basics on this lol

like i said, this class is a mess. should definitely have some other pre-reqs, i think. even tho it technically only uses vector calculus and linear algebra
---

IllegalAlien posted...

Guys, as programmers you should really be embarrassed if you went to school for computer science. Remember in your algorithms course when you learned "Dynamic Programming"? Remember how the programming in DP wasn't computer programming at all? The facepalm is so intense right now holy shit.

the cs program at my school had so many optional electives that algorithms wasn't a required course tbh
---

TheGoldenEel posted...

IllegalAlien posted...

Guys, as programmers you should really be embarrassed if you went to school for computer science. Remember in your algorithms course when you learned "Dynamic Programming"? Remember how the programming in DP wasn't computer programming at all? The facepalm is so intense right now holy shit.

the cs program at my school had so many optional electives that algorithms wasn't a required course tbh

so like, what did you actually study then...

no offense homie. but i feel like as an applied math degree, that should be standard, you know?
---

I'm an english lit major I have no idea why I'm in this topic

I would recommend going to line math stackexchange or something. When I was stuck on a differential equation years ago I went to mathhelpforum.com IIRC. Those guys seemed pretty in the know. I don't think you'll find the right skills at GameFAQs, certainly not on CE. I've sort of moved away from the pure math stuff in my studies, DifferentialEquation has turned into a gimmick poster (and I think he did some sort of discrete math)... I guess maybe Darkman has since linear programming in his degree?
---

scar the 1 posted...

I would recommend going to line math stackexchange or something. When I was stuck on a differential equation years ago I went to mathhelpforum.com IIRC. Those guys seemed pretty in the know. I don't think you'll find the right skills at GameFAQs, certainly not on CE. I've sort of moved away from the pure math stuff in my studies, DifferentialEquation has turned into a gimmick poster (and I think he did some sort of discrete math)... I guess maybe Darkman has since linear programming in his degree?

yeah... DE is such a disappointment now. i actually just told him i used to admire him, but his redhatting these days is just too far gone

i might post this on a real help forum this weekend. i mostly just wanted to vent about how this class has turned into such a shit show

reminds me of my complex variable calc class.

got a gentleman's C and i ain't even bothered

just hoping this turns out the same, since it'll literally be the difference of me getting my degree or not :)

my interest theory and combinatorics class are ez pz, but this one holy fuck
---

organicbamf posted...

yeah... DE is such a disappointment now. i actually just told him i used to admire him, but his redhatting these days is just too far gone

The way he words his posts, I'm quite certain he's playing an exaggerated character to get reactions.

Have you looked at online resources for LP? Maybe there are other examples more easily applicable to this one.
---

mmm, can't say that i have

just looked at hw problems suggested by the prof, since they were supposedly applicable
---