Getting Help

Having questions or getting stuck on something is entirely expected in the learning process. If you find something challenging with your studies, that is a sign you are learning! Learning is not something that you need to do alone though! In fact, connecting with your peers or asking a member of the course staff for help can add extreme depth to your knowledge.

  • Synchronous Help (Office Hours): One place to go to get help is our Office Hours hosted throughout the week. TAs staff office hours for many hours a day to provide you the help you need when you need it! This is a great place to go if you want to review a particular course concept, work on a practice problem with the help of a TA or your peers, or get help on one of the take-home assessments if you are running into difficulties.

  • Asynchronous Help (Ed Discussion): With a class of our size, directly emailing a member of the course staff is not always recommended. There are many of you and only few of us, so if you email one person directly we can’t make a guarantee how quickly we can respond! To alleviate this one-on-one communication of email, we have a course discussion board that will be a much more lively place for discussion and a way to make sure you can get helped more quickly. The message board is set up so that all of the course staff can help you, which will make it more likely for you to receive a quicker response! Course staff look over the Ed Discussion board periodically throughout the day, and we aim to get a response time of about 3 hours during “business hours” (roughly 10 am - 9 pm).

Ed Tips

  • If you are asking a general question about the course logistics or content, you can make a public post. This way other students can benefit from seeing your question, and you can even answer each other’s questions to share your perspectives!
    • If you want, you can choose to post anonymously so that other students in the course can’t see your name. Note that anonymous posting does not hide your identity from the course staff.
  • You’re encouraged to answer each other’s questions as well! Explaining a topic to someone else (even on a discussion board) is a great way to help you better understand the material The course staff will still look over student answers and can nicely point out some misconception if there is one so that everyone benefits.
  • If you have a question that’s pretty specific to your homework solution, or, is about some personal details that you would not want to share with the class (e.g., DRS accommodations), you can make a private post on Ed that is only visible to the course staff. This way, any member of the staff can respond to get you the help you need!
  • For personal sensitive matters that you only want to discuss with Tanmay, you can instead email Tanmay if that makes you feel more comfortable. Note that the response time for Tanmay’s email is longer than posting on the Ed board.

Instructor

Photo of Tanmay Shah

Tanmay Shah he/him

tanmay@cs

Hello Everyone! I am Tanmay. This is my second time instructing CSE/STAT 416 and I am super excited for that. Outside of work, I like to try new restaurants, do hikes and play badminton. Looking forward to meet you all!

Teaching Assistants

Photo of Krish Jain

Krish Jain

jkrish@cs

Hi, I’m Krish, a second year CSE and Math student here at UW. In my free time, I enjoy playing basketball, watching the Mariners, and skiing. I’m really excited to TA with you guys, feel free to reach out if you have any questions.


Photo of Mahtab Bigverdi

Mahtab Bigverdi

mahtab@cs

Hello everyone! I’m Mahtab Bigverdi, a second-year PhD student working on computer vision. When I’m not studying, I enjoy hiking, swimming, and painting.


Photo of Mingyu Lu

Mingyu Lu

mingyulu@cs

Hello!


Photo of Oscar Liu

Oscar Liu

yliu297@cs

Hello Everyone! I am Oscar Liu. I am a Phd student with research interest in Computational Social Science and Natural Language Processing. Outside of work, I like to play tennis. Looking forward to a great semester with you all!


Photo of Sehaj Dhillon

Sehaj Dhillon he/him

sehajd@cs

Hi! I’m Sehaj, an undergrad senior studying computer science and mathematics. I’m doing research in computational biology to pursue my interest in the intersection of machine learning, biology, and medicine. I love to travel, try amazing food, and explore the city. This is my first time TA-ing this class and I’m excited for a great quarter together!