CSE 312: Foundations of Computing II, Spring 2022

Course Staff/Office Hours

In addition to the staff contact information, this page contains the most up-to-date listing of staff office hours (and their location). Office hours are subject to change, but we'll try to keep this page accurate at least a week into the future. Note: AC nth floor = Allen Center Breakout Space on Floor n.

Variance
Independence of RVs
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
9-9:30a
9:30-10a
10-10:30a Aleks Jovcic
(AC 5th floor)		 Shreya Jayaraman
(CSE2 131)
10:30-11a Aleks Jovcic
(AC 5th floor)		 Stefano (CSE 644)
Shreya Jayaraman
(CSE2 131)
11-11:30a Tanmay Shah
(CSE 220)
11:30-12p Claris Winston
(AC 3rd floor)		 Tanmay Shah
(CSE 220) 		Jerome Paliakkara
(CSE2 131)		 Chloe Winston
(CSE2 131)
12-12:30p Claris Winston
(AC 3rd floor)		 Jerome Paliakkara
(CSE2 131)		 Chloe Winston
(CSE2 131)
12:30-1p Jan Buzek
CSE2 151		 Francis Peng
(AC 4th floor)		 Swati Padmanabhan
(AC 5th floor)
1-1:30p Jan Buzek
CSE2 151		 Francis Peng
(AC 4th floor)		 Swati Padmanabhan
(AC 5th floor)
1:30-2p
2-2:30p Ben Zhang
(AC 3rd floor)
2:30-3p Paul
CSE 668 or Zoom		Ben Zhang
(AC 3rd floor)		 Paul (CSE 668)
3-3:30p Paul
CSE 668 or Zoom
3:30-4p Stefano (CSE 644) Phawin Prongpaophan
(AC 5th floor)
4-4:30p Stefano (CSE 644) Phawin Prongpaophan
(AC 5th floor)
4:30-5p
5-5:30p
5:30-6p
  • Paul Beame (he/him) (Instructor)
  • beame [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Office Hours: Mon 2:30-3:30, Fri 2:30-3 (CSE 668 + zoom)
  • Class Section: B
  • Welcome to CSE 312! I've been here long enough to have worked with the design teams for both the Gates and Allen Centers. My primary research is in computational complexity, with interests both in pure theory and in its applications to other areas of CS. Randomness comes up in my research both as an algorithmic technique to solve problems and as a way of constructing challenging examples to show that problems are hard solve.

  • Stefano Tessaro (he/him) (Instructor)
  • tessaro [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Office Hours: Mon 3:30-4:30p, Fri 10:30-11a (CSE 644 + zoom)
  • Class section: A
  • My name is Stefano—pronounced [ˈsteːfano] (i.e., the stress falls on the "e"). I have been a professor in the Allen School since January 2019. Most of my research is on cryptography — I focus on developing secure systems backed by rigorous proofs of security which can then be deployed at scale. Discrete mathematics and probability play a major role in my research. In fact, almost all secure systems rely on randomness. And moreover, one of my favorite research topics is how to generate randomness on a computer.
  • Jan Buzek (he/him)
  • jbuzek [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BB
  • Office Hours: Mon 12:30-1:30p (CSE2 151)

  • Hi everyone! I'm a sophomore at UW studying CS and Math. I like playing chess and classical music (clarinet and piano) as well as hiking. I'm excited to TA 312 this quarter!
  • Shreya Jayaraman (she/her)
  • shreyaj [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BA
  • Office Hours: Fri 10-11a (CSE2 131)

  • Hi everyone, I’m Shreya! I’m a fourth-year Master’s student studying CS. This will be my 8th quarter TAing, and I’m super excited to be helping teach 312 this quarter! Outside of CS and teaching, I enjoy making playlists, reading and travelling. I hope you’ll reach out to me if you need anything or just want to chat — so excited to meet you all!
  • Aleks Jovcic (he/him)
  • ajovcic [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BC
  • Office Hours: Tue 10-11a (AC 5th Floor Breakout)

  • Hi everyone! My name is Aleks and I'm so excited to TA for CSE 312 this quarter! I'm a senior studying Computer Science, and this is my 7th quarter TAing for this class, 9th overall! I have a passion for critical education and teaching, and besides that I love music, movies, and playing tabletop games! Right now is still a difficult time for a lot of us, so if you need any help, 312 or otherwise, don't hesitate to reach out!
  • Swati Padmanabhan (she/her)
  • pswati [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Sections AB, BB
  • Office Hours: Wed 12:30-1:30p (AC 5th Floor Breakout)

  • Hi all, I am a Ph.D. student studying algorithms for convex optimization. In spring & summer 2022, I am also interning at Google Research, where I'm working on online algorithms in optimization, which uses a fair amount of probability and statistics. I am therefore excited to be a TA for this class this quarter. Outside of research, I love east coast swing and tap dance, singing with the UW Treble Choir, swimming (this was until they shut down the UW pools, RIP), and puttering around in my p-patch garden. I very strongly believe that the ability to do math/TCS is not inherent, rather, it can be taught or learnt, and as your TA, it is my job to help you! So please come to my OH!
  • Jerome Paliakkara (he/him)
  • jeromp [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Sections AC, BC
  • Office Hours: Wed 11:30-12:30p (CSE2 131)

  • Hi, I'm Jerome, a 5th year master's student. I've TAed for CSE 312 a couple of times, and it's probably my favorite theoretical CS course. I love cooking and mixing cocktails. I'm also mildly obsessed with playing cards and magic, so ask me about it :)
  • Francis Peng (he/him)
  • fpeng13 [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BA
  • Office Hours: Tue 12:30-1:30p (AC 4th Floor Breakout)

  • Hey everyone! I'm Francis, a sophomore CS major. This is my second time TAing CSE 312, and I'm very excited for this upcoming quarter! Outside of class, I enjoy playing any racket sport (tennis, badminton, ping pong), cooking, and hiking/backpacking (<------ check me out at a glacial outwash in Idaho!). 312 is probably my favorite class, because it's so so important for many other areas of CS, like machine learning. Feel free to reach out via email or come into Office Hours to hang out (when you're not working on those psets, of course).
  • Phawin Prongpaophan (he/him)
  • phawin [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section AD
  • Office Hours: Tue 3:30-4:30p (AC 5th Floor Breakout)

  • Hi! I'm Phawin (pronounced [pʰaːwin]), from Bangkok, Thailand. 22sp will be my twelfth quarter at UW and my fourth quarter as a TA of this course. I'm double majoring in Computer Science and Economics with a minor in Mathematics. Outside of the classes, I enjoy doing competitive programming. For a little more relaxing stuff, I love playing varieties of modern board games, where I try to make friends with probability.
  • Tanmay Shah (he/him)
  • tanmay [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BD
  • Office Hours: Tue 11am-12pm (CSE 220)

  • Hello everyone! I am Tanmay, a senior in Computer Science major: Data science option. This is my second time TAing CSE 312, and it is a great class to TA for since it teaches you crucial foundations to data science and ML. Outside of academics, I am a musician (percussionist), an armchair historian, and a FOSS enthusiast. I like to watch movies and wildlife documentaries, play badminton and I've recently jumped into solving leetcode problems. Looking forward to meeting you all!
  • Chloe Winston (she/her)
  • chloewin [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section AE
  • Office Hours: Fri 11:30-12:30p (CSE2 131)

  • Hi everyone! I am Chloe, and I'm excited to TA CSE 312 this quarter. I am a senior majoring in computer science and neuroscience and minoring in neural computation and engineering. CSE 312 has been my favorite CSE class so far, and I hope you enjoy it as well. Outside of studying, I enjoy baking, crocheting, and playing the violin.
  • Claris Winston (she/her)
  • clarisw [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section AE
  • Office Hours: Mon 11:30-12:30p (AC 3rd Floor Breakout)

  • Hi everyone! I'm Claris, and I'm a sophomore majoring in computer science. Outside of school, I enjoy gymnastics, drawing, playing piano, and composing music. I also love baking sweet treats and cake decorating! Looking forward to a great quarter with you all!
  • Ben Zhang (he/him)
  • bzhang0 [at] cs.washington.edu
  • Section BD
  • Office Hours: Tue 2-3p (AC 3rd Floor Breakout)

  • Hey everyone! My name is Ben Zhang, and I'm a second-year student studying computer science and minoring in mathematics - you may recognize me if you took 311 in Wi22! In my free time, I enjoy cooking, watching 3b1b, and gaming. Another hobby would probably be building computers, but it's a pretty expensive hobby so I don't do it much :P. Feel free to reach out to chat about anything. I look forward to meeting all of you!