Tribute to Rob Gysel
Before I begin, I need to explain some terms to the readers of this blog:
ECS 10: my first ever programming class, taught in Python
ECS 30: my second programming class that I took recently, taught in C
ECS 40: my next programming class, taught in C++. Known to be one of the hardest courses for CS majors in UC Davis (aka weeder course).
CS: Computer Science
TA: teaching assistant
Intro
Coming back from Winter Break, I was afraid of ECS 30. On the first day of class, I walked into an uber-crowded Rock Hall, thinking: “Woah! This has got to be intense!” Nervous, I took a seat in the front row and looked up to see a young man setting up his computer.
Uhh.. wait, is he a TA? Or maybe he’s some teacher from the previous class? He CAN’T be the ECS professor, right?
Five seconds later, he introduced himself as Rob Gysel, the ECS PROFESSOR. NO WAAAY. I was expecting him to be some old mid-fifties aged guy, but hell no. I was WRONG.
The first lecture (and Rob, more specifically) intimidated me by telling us how difficult the course was, and scared the hell out of the already scared me. Although I earned a well-deserved B in ECS 10, that class was intimidating. Well, if he thought that ECS 30 was shit (as an undergrad), then what about me?
The first few weeks were great, but as time passed, the struggle became real. Although I received really high marks (above 90%) on my two midterms, programming doesn’t come naturally to me, so I woke up everyday thinking that I was dumb. Juggling between calculus, chemistry, essay writing and ECS 30 wasn’t all fun and games, and I had less time to focus on both understanding CS concepts and on my coding assignments. There were moments where I cried doing assignments late into the night and even questioned my current status as a CS major. “Why am I doing this? Why am I such a slow learner?” I thought.
The Turning Point
It was the night after the Final Exam Review Session. I tossed and turned in bed, trying to sleep but unable to do so. After an hour of trying, I opened my phone and looked up the pdf Answer Key of the Sample Final that Rob uploaded earlier. I remember sitting in the Review Session feeling very confused, not knowing what I was learning. I mean, was I even learning? I only recall sitting there and trying to grasp information but everything was happening way too quickly.
I looked up “include guards” on YouTube and after all these weeks, I only started to understand what the terms #ifndef and #define do in a header file. But by the time I got to recursion and linked lists, it was already midnight and my brain got too weary to understand concepts. Then, by the power of a miracle, I remembered that Rob was going to hold office hours at 11AM.
So on the day before the final exam, at 10:50AM, I entered the Academic Surge building with my PJs because I haven’t done my laundry and ran out of legit clothes to wear. There was this guy who sat outside Rob’s room, and we had some small talk as I sat beside him. I opened my laptop and started shaking. I have always been intimidated by professors, so I never bothered to go to their office hours (I only went to my Writing Class office hours, but that’s because I already have confidence in my writing ability and want extra help to get me from good to “nearly perfect”). I hear my senior friends telling me to get to know my professors and take advantage of their hours, but I was afraid. What if Rob thought that I was dumb? During those ten minutes, I googled “how to act during professor’s office hours?” and read some Do’s and Don’ts. And I thought.. I came all the way from Indonesia yet I was too scared to make use of professor office hours? Wake up, Rai!
Despite the logical side of my brain trying to comfort me, I was still shaking. I even rehearsed my question in my head ten times. At 11AM, Rob peeked out of his room, smiled, and then the guy before me came into the room. All of a sudden, it was my turn.
"I'm so nervous," I whispered to the guy before me as I was about to enter the room. Thump, thump, thump. I could hear my heart beating uncontrollably. I knocked the door and smiled at him, went inside, and took a seat.
Trying to hide my nerves, I shook his hand and said, “Hello, my name is Raisa.”
“Nice to meet you,” he replied.
I opened my laptop and then asked, “In Problem 3 on the Sample Final.. can we go through recursion and linked lists? I need to see diagrammatically, what is going on.”
“Sure!” he replied.
“Do you need a pen and paper?” I asked as I opened my backpack.
“No,” he replied back, as he was sketching using the Notability app on his iPad and displaying the output on a screen.
Wow. That’s smart! I’ve become more of a visual learner lately, and nobody takes notes and gives color codes better than Rob.
In the middle of the explanation, people trickled into the room. I always thought that people queue outside the room when someone is inside with the professor, so I was rather confused. What was going on? I thought I was only going to stay for 10 minutes, but I quickly realized that it was becoming more of an open discussion.
And at the end of the session, I was glad that I stayed for the full two hours. We went through some tough questions on the sample final, and during that time period, I actually LEARNED STUFF!! Plus, the people in that room, it turned out, were regular office-hour visitors! So yes, to all the clueless and intimidated freshmen out there, please go to your teachers’ office hours early in the quarter/semester to clarify any shady concepts (and not just the day before finals HAHA)! It’s very highly recommended! I was surprised to find that: 1) I was not dumb! I could actually grasp and even explain some conceptual things to Rob, and 2) Rob was willing to explain even the simplest things to me without intimidating me.
But the highlight of the two-hour session was when Rob gave his pep talk on the notoriously challenging ECS 40: “Do it, don’t quit.” He also told us that after an intense ECS 30, we were prepared for the Sean Davis’ ECS 40, and I had to blink more than once and ask myself, “Is this real?” Aside from that, Rob shared some tips on how to ace CS in college and beyond. I learned that it’s not too important to get a high GPA, but what matters more is the ability to bounce back from failure. He told us about his experiences as an undergrad and ended with the line: “So what? Suck it up and move on!”
After those two hours, my brain was tired from so much learning - I have never learned so much in a short time span! I asked him for a selfie since I like to keep memories of all of my professors and TAs. At first, he seemed kind of shocked, in a good way though, but we took the picture anyway. (During the selfie session, someone even suggested me to use a Snapchat filter! Haha! But I didn't use it since I don't have a Snapchat account). Then I shook his hand, thanked him and left the room with a different attitude about CS than I did when I entered.
_ _ _
Dear Rob,
At the end of the ECS 30 final exam, I was mentally drained and I left the room saying nothing more than “Bye, Rob.” You smiled at me and said “thank you” as I rushed up the stairs to study for a chemistry exam that day.
But Rob, I am the one who is supposed to be thanking you. Thank you for instilling the confidence in me that was never there in the first place. As the enthusiastic and intellectually curious person that I am, I now look up to you as a role model because if you could make it through, then so can I.
Sincerely,
Raisa
(Days after writing the post)P.S. Reiterating the above point: office hours was definitely worth it! I got a really high score on the final exam because I made use of the opportunity. So yes, all of you shy freshmen, please give it a try!