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Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

boston.com

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Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#21
post #15
post #9

Unless they were absolutely terrible, professors received a standing ovation at the end of the quarter. Feel like this is tradition, no?

If you are referring to MIT, I never observed this when I was there (mid 1980s).

The only professor I've seen get a standing ovation (not including retirement lectures) was Patrick Winston during one of the last lectures of Artificial Intelligence. Or, maybe How to Speak. Memory is a bit fuzzy.

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#22

Strang's OCW lectures on linear algebra are excellent. From a distance, he truly seems like a professor that was at least as interested in educating the next generation as he was making his own discoveries.

If you truly care about discovery, how could you not also care about the next generation? Life is short.

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless they were absolutely terrible, professors received a standing ovation at the end of the quarter. I guess I'll be the first one to point out that I never witnessed anything like that.

It was common at my university (US).

[deleted]

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#25
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen that anywhere - across like 4 or 5 different universities and three countries. Even if it had happened why would it be at anything other than the end of the year or maybe semester for a single semester course?

I've seen it once (and well earned) - Imre Leader at the end of a one term course.

That's not a name I was expecting to see on HN! I haven't had the luck of taking one of his courses, but I discussed many interesting puzzles with him at a conference last year, great guy!

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#26
post #9

Unless they were absolutely terrible, professors received a standing ovation at the end of the quarter. Feel like this is tradition, no?

As a student, I think I only saw this a few times. Maybe at the end of 6.001 with Abelson & Sussman? As a professor, no, I've never gotten any kind of applause, though some polite "thank you" is no uncommon (and very much appreciated).

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#28
I learned Linear Algebra from the 2nd Edition of Strang 30 years ago. I just started re-learning it with the 6th Edition. He has been refining the presentation over the years and keeping it current with applications (now there are machine learning chapters). It would be so easy to fall into a rut teaching this subject year after year, but he has kept it fresh through his obvious joy in teaching. I’m very grateful we have Prof. Strang’s lectures to watch! (No offense to our professor at CMU back in the day, btw, he was great.)

Re: Students give Gilbert Strang a standing ovation after his last lecture

#30
post #9

Unless they were absolutely terrible, professors received a standing ovation at the end of the quarter. Feel like this is tradition, no?

One time a single student clapped a few times at the end of my one of my TA sessions, and it really made my day!

I was a TA for many classes during my Physics PhD program, and this bit of clapping was a singular occurrence, in the middle of the semester. I’ve never been a course lecturer though, that was always for faculty.

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