How can we help you?
Online Message Board
CampusWireWe will be using CampusWire for all course related communication. Join the message board using the code 3394. The course staff will post important announcements and it is your responsibility to stay updated. If you have a question or a concern, please post it on CampusWire. Most questions can be posted publicly. However, if you are asking a question about your grades specifically or some other private matter, you may post the question/note privately. Specifically, do not post answers (answers, plots, code etc.) publicly on CampusWire.
Please do not email the course staff, but post on CampusWire instead. This is both to assist other students who may have similar questions and to ensure you receive the fastest response possible by making it visible to the entire course staff.
We will not debug code via the message board. If you need assistance debugging your code, please reach out to us during office hours.
Office hours
Most office hours will be hosted using Zoom (starting from week 2), and the links are provided below.
In-person office hours are marked with (*). Due to Siebel Center lower level construction, we will be moving our in-person office hours to Siebel basement 0218/0220/0222. Dev and Jacob's in-person office hours will be in the ACM Room (Siebel 1104). This is a temporary change, and we will update the location in the future if necessary.
The in-person office hours may be changed to online if the need arises, and these changes will be posted on CampusWire (Zoom link provided in the table). Check the message board before you go to in-person office hours.
| Time | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10am - 11am | Jacob , Jiangnan | ||||
| 11am - 12pm | Jiangnan (*) | Jacob , Jiangnan | |||
| 12pm - 1pm | Jiangnan (*) | ||||
| 1pm - 2pm | Dev (*) | Dev | |||
| 2pm - 3pm | Dev (*) | Jacob (*) , Kaiyao | Dev , Jacob (*) | Kaiyao | |
| 3pm - 4pm | Bowen (*) | Karnap (*) | Kaiyao (*) | Bhargav (*) | |
| 4pm - 5pm | Bowen (*) , Yuxuan | Bowen , Karnap (*) | Bhargav , Kaiyao (*) | Bhargav (*) , Yuxuan (*) | |
| 5pm - 6pm | Yuxuan | Bhargav | Kangyu (*) , Yuxuan (*) | ||
| 6pm - 7pm | Baoyu (*) , Kangyu | Hirish (*) , Victor (*) | Baoyu , Bowen | Hirish , Kangyu (*) | |
| 7pm - 8pm | Baoyu (*) , Kangyu | Hirish (*) , Victor (*) | Baoyu | Hirish |
The office hours table may be updated during the semester. Please check here often for the most updated information.
Happy Hour - hosted by Mariana
Tuesdays 3:00-4:00pm CT, Siebel 2213
This is not the "traditional" office hours. This is just a time when I will be at my office to connect with students. We can talk about anything you want: career goals, projects, research, hobbies, big-picture conversations about course content, other courses and programs, weather, food, etc. This is a great opportunity to foster community and connections! I have really enjoyed these happy hours in previous semesters, I hope you have a chance to stop by!
If you have specific questions about homework, and need someone to look at your solution and/or code, this is not the best venue for that. We have over 25 office hours per week with course staff that can help you with these more personalized interactions.
Make sure to check CampusWire for announcements before you go to Siebel, since I may need to cancel or move the time in some weeks.
Queue
QueueThe TAs and CAs will open the queue as needed during Student Hours.
We will also use the Queue to support the Group Activities for the online section from 12:30pm-1:45pm.
Guidelines for getting prepared for office hours and posting on CampusWire
- Come to office hours with specific questions about problems you are not able to solve on your own. We are not able to help students that come to office hours without giving their best effort to solve a problem and simply ask course staff "How do I solve this question?".
- When you come with prepared questions, we can efficiently help many students during office hours.
- Do not post screenshots of PrairieLearn solution, or your code, on CampusWire. You should instead explain your current approach, and what has not worked. You can explain code with words, or post small code snippets.
- If you have a question about your grade, or want to talk to course staff directly (professor, TAs or CAs), please post on CampusWire using the "Class feed" to "Instructors & TAs". Using DM is not as effective, since only one person gets access to your message. We split tasks among members of the course staff, so your message will reach the correct person only if you post to all of us.
Use the template below to post messages on CampusWire to get help with PrairieLearn questions.
- Which problem do you need help with? You should provide the assignment and question numbers, for example, HW2.3 (homework 2, question 3)
-
Describe your specific question(s). For example:
- a) "I don't understand the meaning of variable x".
- b) "I don't know how to get vector x from A"
- Describe what you have tried so far, or our general thoughts about the question. For example:
- a) I tried solving with ... , but it failed because ...
- b) I was able to get the answer .... using the approach ... . I don't know why this approach does not give me the correct answer.
- c) I first added x and y together ... , then I got stuck at this step.
- What were the course resources you have used so far? For example:
- a) I have already looked at the course notes and slides, but still not able to understand the issue explained above.
- b) I watched the video lectures.
Here is an example of a CampusWire post that is consistent with the course guidelines:
