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Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

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351–360 of 429 posts

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#351
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The research paper will tell you everything except how to reproduce this work in minimal effort, it's like they are hiding something. They are. I used to work in an adjacent field. Everyone was open about doing it - they're competing with others for grants, and worry that if they reveal the secret sauce, others will move faster than they can. You can say you performed a DFT calculation to get the result, but anyone…

Not only that, but DFT itself has many many different forms. There's DFT that is O(n)^3 and there's DFT that's O(n)^7 in time complexity, the wild variations are due to the different approximations (i.e. algorithm and parameters). Saying "I used DFT" is like saying "I used a computer", its nowhere near enough info to reproduce the work

You are right. But I think nearly a half of DFT calcs are done with VASP.

Particularly, if one using ASE or other higher level wrapper of calculators(like quacc), he can share all the params in just one python script.

If not, just share the INCARs and POSCARs using a github link or whatsoever.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took and then TA'd a class where the semester long project was to control robots (it was a software engineering principles class, the actual code writing could be done in a single weekend, but you had to do all the other stuff of software engineering- requirements analysis and documentation etc). We had a software simulator of the robots, and the first lab was everyone dutifully writing the code that worked great o…

Just out of curiosity, were you up-front after the fact that this was part of the exercise? We had a first-semester freshman year course that all incoming students were required to take. The first assignment in that class was an essay, pretty typical stuff, I don't even remember what about. A day after handing it in, roughly half of the class would be given a formal academic citation for plagiarism. That half of the…

Right. I'm all for making freshmen learn it early but this is just hazing.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#353
Fun fact, he did end up switching to CS [1]:

> Ph.D. Computer Science, November 2004 > University of Wisconsin, Madison

> M.S. Computer Science, May 2001 University of Wisconsin, Madison

> B.S. Physics, June 1999 Stanford University

[1] https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~kovar/cv.html

EDIT:

Went on to work at IL&M for 5 years and has been at Google for 14 [2]. My guy did indeed end up rolling in cash haha

[2]: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucas-kovar-185a3531/

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#354
post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

This is, more or less, exactly what happened when I took Electronics I in college. The course was structured in such a way that you could not move on to the next lab assignment until you completed the one before it. You could complete the lab assignments at your own pace. If you failed the lab, you failed the class, regardless of your grade. The second or third lab had us characterize the response of a transistor in…

[deleted]

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> he was angry, he marked it wrong. That’s grounds for termination to me. Seriously. I would put this man out of a job and endanger the livelihood of him and his family for this kind of shit.

There's a certain irony in your outrage at his failure to control his emotions, even as your own rage leads you to dream of hurting his family.

>There's a certain irony in your outrage at his failure to control his emotions, even as your own rage leads you to dream of hurting his family.

Wow, what bad take.

Are you willfully misinterpreting the parent commenter, or would you need some help understanding it?

Assuming it's the latter, here it is.

First, there's no outrage or rage. That's something you ascribe to the parent comment, and that's unwarranted.

Second, there's no dreaming of hurting [the teacher's] family.

The message was: it is important that this person should be relieved of teaching duties, with the full understanding of the gravity of such an action, as being fired from one's job in the US puts the livelihood of the person being fired at risk.

See, the person you're responding to is empathetic, because they consider the impact of what they wish — the teacher being fired — on the teacher as well as others (the teacher's family), and don't take wishing something like that lightly.

Most people would stop at "bad job, fire him", without contemplating what it means for that person.

The parent commentor did, and is saying that, as grave as the consequences are for the teacher (and, potentially, his family, if the teacher is the sole breadwinner), it is still necessary to remove them from teaching because harm to children and violating the trust we put in instructors is unacceptable, and the damage they do in their position is far greater than the damage that would be done by firing them.

This is a compassionate and composed consideration.

Oh, and there'd be no irony about the parent's response even if they were raging, as they were not talking about the teacher's failure to control their emotions.

The issue is hurting children, which isn't something the parent commentor is decidedly NOT doing.

Hope this helps.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#356
post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

This is, more or less, exactly what happened when I took Electronics I in college. The course was structured in such a way that you could not move on to the next lab assignment until you completed the one before it. You could complete the lab assignments at your own pace. If you failed the lab, you failed the class, regardless of your grade. The second or third lab had us characterize the response of a transistor in…

I had a very similar experience during a lab internship I took during my biochemistry undergrad degree.

First part of a project was running PCR on a particular plasmid that we were going to use to transfer a gene into Drosophila. But for some reason the PCR didn't work, and I spent almost all of my time trying to get the damn thing to run.

Everyone naturally assumed I was just doing something wrong, being an undergrad with little lab experience. After about ten weeks, it turned out that the lab tech had written up the protocol wrong and I was using the wrong primers. No wonder it didn't work.

Was one of the experiences that made me realise that working in a lab really wasn't for me...

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#357
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, HF is as safe as NaCl. Or so I take you to suggest, this otherwise totally failing to follow from anything anyone has said...

Sevensor said they would like to make Etsy moms using HF to frost shot glasses reread the MSDS for HF. This would only benefit them if MSDSes were reliable guides to the risks of working with different materials. Unfortunately, as evidenced by my example, they are not. Therefore, the Etsy moms, having reread the MSDS, might reasonably dismiss the information contained in it, unfortunately failing to protect themselve…

You don’t wear gloves when you work with HF? You are banned from my lab. 8 mil nitrile. Always check for cracks and pinholes before use.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#358
post #27

One of my Core Memories when it comes to science, science education, and education in general was in my high school physics class, where we had to do an experiment to determine the gravitational acceleration of Earth. This was done via the following mechanism: Roll a ball off of a standard classroom table. Use a 1990s wristwatch's stopwatch mechanism to start the clock when the ball rolls of the table. Stop the stopw…

Out of curiosity, could you add which country you are from? I think in general there's similarities everywhere.

In Belgium (Gent to be more specific) where I'm from, there is a high cultural degree of critical thinking, and if I handed in a report like that, with the accompanying numbers, our teacher would not have given it a failing grade. Especially if the report was accompanied with either a written or verbal disclaimer mentioning the limitations of the measuring equipment and that the results didn't match your expectations.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#359
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sevensor said they would like to make Etsy moms using HF to frost shot glasses reread the MSDS for HF. This would only benefit them if MSDSes were reliable guides to the risks of working with different materials. Unfortunately, as evidenced by my example, they are not. Therefore, the Etsy moms, having reread the MSDS, might reasonably dismiss the information contained in it, unfortunately failing to protect themselve…

You don’t wear gloves when you work with HF? You are banned from my lab. 8 mil nitrile. Always check for cracks and pinholes before use.

Part of my PhD involved lots of fluoride synthesis using HF. I always used gloves (changing them very frequently). My advisor never used them for the following reason: if a droplet of HF lands on your glove you won't notice, but HF will go through the glove. If it lands on your bare hand chances are you'll notice it and wash them immediately. I could never follow his advise, but I did change gloves pretty much every step in the synthesis just in case.

Re: Electron band structure in germanium, my ass (2001)

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a certain irony in your outrage at his failure to control his emotions, even as your own rage leads you to dream of hurting his family.

Is it rage? If he murdered someone I would put him in jail and that will harm his family too. There is a fine line between justice and compassion and if you never cross the line to enforce justice then you have corruption because nothing can be enforced because inevitably all enforcement leads to harm.

I want to apologize on behalf of the person whom you're responding to, as they misunderstood your point to an extent that makes it seem very unlikely that they'll be able to contribute to the discussion of where to draw that line.

To answer your question, let's note that holding a job in general — more so, a job which involves authority and power, and doubly so when it's over children — isn't a right, but a special privilege, which is given under certain assumptions, one of which is that the children entrusted into the instructors' power are to be treated fairly.

Consider that children's livelihoods depend on this assumption when they grow up, as grades affect which college they get into, which scholarships they get, which career they get to follow, how much money they make.

The teacher has violated this fundamental assumption; consequently, his teaching privileges must be revoked.

The damage to his family is out of scope; employment isn't a right, so starting a family is a risk that people take willfully.

Further, the teacher might be better off doing something that doesn't drive him mad. It's more healthy.

There's no mercy or compassion in keeping someone where they are miserable.

Side note: I changed my graduate advisor on my 5th year of graduate school, after trying for 3 years under someone who simply "didn't have the heart" to kick me out when it should've been clear we're not a fit for each other — something they had the experience to see, and I did not.

All "giving me a chance" for 3 years did was take 3 years out of my life, drag me into deep depression, and push me to almost dropping out of the graduate program.

After I started working with another advisor, I graduated in two years, writing a thesis we both were happy with (and getting a couple of publications out of it). I didn't stay in academia, but it was an option (I'm not tough enough for it, frankly, but that's a whole another conversation).

My point is: tolerating, out of compassion, an instructor who gets mad because their student understands the material very well may be similar to the compassion my first advisor had for me — which did more harm than anything else.

Being pushed out of a job one is miserable at, but can't quit on their own for whatever reason is, too, an act of compassion.

And I posit that this is what this "teacher" needs (aside from therapy).

I don't see this teacher ever being happy or excited to see a student that is so interested in the subject they teach that they understood something better than the teacher did.

But that's a prerequisite for being a teacher. Merely tolerating your students' excellence isn't enough — it's something, hopefully, a teacher should strive for.

We hope that a child taking a physics class at least has a chance of becoming a great physicist, i.e. a better physicist than their physics teacher.

But the chances of that are diminishing greatly if their physics teacher doesn't wish the same — i.e. doesn't hope that their students would shine brighter than they did.

And if that possibility drives them mad... to an extent where they'll willfully wrong the student in retribution...

...I can't imagine what it would take for them to do a 180 turn and end up being happy the next time they find themselves in this scenario.

Firing them seems like a win-win for everyone.

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