THE University Ranking and University Qualities

Times posted its 6rh edition the THE – QS World University Ranking recently and received wide responses. By the way, I got my Ph.D. from the No. 49 and am also an alumina from the No. 29. But this does mean too much. What I am interested is the criteria: Academic Peer Review (40%), Employer Review (10%), Faculty Student Ratio (20%), Citations per faculty (20%), International Faculty (5%) and International Students (5%). Only the first, the second and the fourth of the criteria make sense to me. I am working in an engineering faculty where we can easily get a lot of points on international faculty and students. I credit this to the subject and the immigration policy. This is just by nature. Every engineering faculty may be the same. I know that some of the names in the list are known only locally, not internationally. I do not know how these names are compared. I also know that there are also well known universities are not in the list. So who cares about this list?

Everyone is thinking the problem of what makes a good university. Different people have different criteria, because they are looking for different things. It may not be the research citation, and it may not be the international faculty. People who pay the tuition may think more the employer review or the start-up salary. People who do research may think more a specific domain. So a general ranking may not concern. For a university, I would say, to be generalized and try to be the top in the list won’t make sense for long. In the future, a university should be good in one dimension, not in multiple dimensions.

The Iceland Strategy on Data Center

Probably no country was hit by the economic crisis than the Iceland. Pulled back from banking industry, Iceland turns back to its rich nature resources again. The following is based on a yesterday BBC report.

This time, it is about data center. It is said that the data centers produce CO2 as much as the aviation flights. Iceland’s cheap and renewable energy, cool climate and water make it an ideal place for building data centers. Actually data centers are built and the Americans are attracted.

This is also what I think for Canada. Canada also satisfies all the above merits. We need to cultivate these skills among our students.

A Concordia Alunima

Today I found that the CIO of the federal government is a woman and a bachelor of science from Concordia University. See a recent report about her , and her appointment.

The European School vs. the North American School of Research

I like the European school of research. Here people are trained well. The atmosphere of research is strong. The struggling and surviving atmosphere is less. I feel that research can be a part of your life, a part of your life style. We do not link research to the pure interests gain in our lives. In North America, research is a tough career. The successful rate is so low that only the most ambitious and persistent people can survive.

The Europeans have their deep heritage in research. Their training in philosophy and logics is sufficient when they begin their research at a young age. They are used to analyze problems in a systematical way and tackle difficult problems very early due to their background. And there are many good institutes where the research atmosphere is strong and financial supplies are sufficient. You have almost no problem to take research as a part of your life and a part of your life style. I like this kind of sophisticated atmosphere. I feel relaxed in my free thinking. However, their “engineering” skills are also too sophisticated. I found sometimes they make simple problems too complicated. Sometimes, a 50 pages report can be summarized in 2 pages. The ideas are simple. However, to particulate it, it involves deeper skills, not the other sense.

The advantage of the North American school of research is that they change fast. They dare to abandon some old “productive” topics to try something new. The progress can be fast. However, their professors are too, too busy that their students are lack of supervision. Sometimes, the papers are clearly not reviewed by their profs, because they are very coarse. But if well written, the North American style papers are very clear and straightforward. And most of the time, they are accompanied with good motivations and concept proving experiments.

On my jogging route today

I have a luxury jogging route in Paris – across the Museum Louvre, through Jardin Tuileries, arrive at the Place Concorde. After glazing at the Arc de Triomphe and other things, like the Hotel Crillon at the Concorde and the Tour de Eiffel at the far left side, I run back. I love Paris, because it always tries something new, sometimes obscured. See what I saw today in the Jardin Tuileries (all shot with iPone):

Dinner in Sky: 50m above. The platform is hung by a crane.

New obscured sculptures around a fountain

The Museum Louvre from the Jardin Tuileries

Additional expectation to my new graduate students

Study well and live well is my expectation to you.

1. An international students should always remember to improve his/her English.
2. Living a sufficiently comfortable and healthy life. Because Montreal winter is harsh and many graduate courses are in the evenings, it is better to live in an apartment on the Metro line or near the downtown. You may want to spend a little more money to get a studio so that you are able to work from home and rest well. You will find housing price out of downtown is much cheaper.
3. I expect my students to publish papers within 1 – 1.5 years after you become my students. If you have publications before, you can do it in 0.5 years. If you do not have research experience, use the point below.
4. Evaluate your research especially if you are from a different culture. You need to read the references I listed in my Web site to learn how to start your research.
5. Reference to the post on August 27, please discuss with me what you are missing and your plan to learn it. And you also need to discuss with me your understanding of research and how you are going to make progresses.
6. Be self-motivated and be a self-starter. You will find you need a lot of independent thinking and thoughts. You need to be able to solve your problems by yourself.
7. Programming well. I do not see many good programmers indeed. Also, not everyone can do research as his/her career. Being a good programmer can locate you a job practically.

I expect you discuss your self-evaluation and your plan with me

My schedule for the fall

I do not teach this fall term. This is a good break to advance my research. I will be on and off the campus. You can reach me by emails. If you are my students, please make use of the time I am on campus. Make appointments with me to discuss your research is expected. For the new students, face to face meeting is very important until we are familiar enough to move our discussion online. For the old students, we can continue our discussion over Skype and email. I hope you understand my absence that to advance my own research is very important for my career. I am always available for discussion online.

• September: work in University of Paris 11 (Orsay)
• October: on campus, work with my graduate students, PPE exam, prepare course
• November: work in University of Paris 11 (Orsay)
• December: on campus, work with my graduate students, PPE exam, prepare courses

2009 New graduate students: Course Selection

(Revised on Sept. 7)

You need to take four 6000 and 7000 level courses. I found some courses of 5000 level is useful. However, you are not allowed to take credit from them. And there are conflicts in the schedule. So, finally I suggest the following courses:

Fall 2009:

COMP 6721 INTRO TO A.I. (4 credits) Fall
/2 Lec F M-W---- 11:45-13:00 SGW H- 459 HAARSLEV, VOLKER MATTHIAS
/2 Lab FJ --W---- 16:15-18:15 SGW HAARSLEV, VOLKER MATTHIAS

COMP 6231 DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM DESIGN (4 credits) Fall
/2 Lec DD ---J--- 17:45-20:15 SGW H- 521 JAYAKUMAR, RAJAGOPALAN
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Winter 2010:

COMP 6651 ALGORITHM DESIGN TECHNIQUES
/4 Lec NN ----F-- 17:45-20:15 SGW H- 619 JAUMARD, BRIGITTE


COMP 6521 ADV.DATABASE TECH. AND APPL. (4 credits) Winter
/4 Lec EE ---J--- 17:45-20:15 SGW FG- B080 EAVIS, TODD

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I found the following courses are interesting too:

(Time conflict with COMP 6231, add on Sept. 7)
COMP 6531 FOUNDATIONS/SEMANTIC WEB (4 credits) Fall
/2 Lec DD ---J--- 17:45-20:15 SGW H- 603-1, HAARSLEV, VOLKER MATTHIAS

(Comment: may hard and not directly linked to Web services, but it is a good training)
COMP 691E DISCRETE MATH OF PAUL ERDOS (4 credits) Fall
/2 Lec NN --W---- 17:45-20:15 SGW H- 537 CHVATAL, VACLAV

(Comment: directly useful to Web services research. If you are not familiar with formal models, you should audit this course)
COMP 5361 DISCRETE STR.+FORMAL LANG. (4 credits) Winter
/4 Lec DD M------ 17:45-20:15 SGW H- 627 FORD, DAVID
/4 Lab DI M------ 15:15-17:05 SGW FORD, DAVID