Summer School半程总结

今天是7月12日，研究生新生暑期学校第二周的星期五。再过一周，大学本科的最后一个暑假就要来了。

暑期学校选了两门课，“Information Retrieval & Information Extraction” 和 “R and Data Mining”，都是英文授课，分别由可爱的李蕾老师和澳大利亚知名学者 Yanchang Zhao 老师讲授。自从看了许多外国大学的 MOOC 之后，自己一直对西方的课程和教学方法趋之若鹜（不含贬义），又对国内大学普遍的应试型授课方式捶胸顿足（但又无法改变）——因此这次暑期课对于我可以说是正中下怀。另外，这两门课的内容也正对我胃口：IR&IE 这门课讲了自然语言处理的一些算法和数据检索与数据抽取的经典算法，算是帮自己入门了一直想了解的 NLP 领域；RDM 这门课面面俱到地讲解了 R 语言在数据挖掘方面的使用，可以说是绝佳的 R 入门课程。

然而事情并非总能按照预想的情况发展。由于自己垃圾的英语水平和一概以来的懒惰习惯，上课时很多时间都没有在认真听讲，导致只能课后自学……最后只能安慰自己条条大路通罗马了。

最后，两门课程的考核方式都是留一个 assignment（俗称大作业- -），分别如下：

• IR&IE：使用网络爬虫获取某类信息，运用自然语言处理方法和 TF-IDF 等算法自己实现一个信息检索模型。
• RDM：使用 R 语言实现三个任务的经典算法：data clustering、classification with decision tree和association rules。

如果有机会的话，也许会在下周写几篇博客记录一下自己的实现过程。

假期前立Flag环节

在学校的时间总是充实的，但也因为没有大把的整块时间所以导致没法去做想要做的事情。正巧今年赶上刷墙（wz：每年都是这么说的），暑假期间研究生宿舍不能提供住宿，所以，40天长假已经近在眼前。这样长的假期，自然不能荒废——虽然大家都说假期前制定的计划等于白给——但是换个角度想想，Flag 只有立起来才有坚持的动力嘛~（事实上我已经养成了每个假期前列一个假期清单的习惯，而且由于强烈的执念完成度似乎不错？）

接下来，就要聊一聊我那几个还挂在心头的想法了。

最近对很多网络相关的技术产生了兴趣。起因是，6月份自己的 VPS 挂掉了，但是 Google 还是要上的，文献也还是要查的，因此为了寻找稳定的科学上网方法，自己开始了解 SSR。在看 SSR 和其他一些技术的原理的时候，我发现对一些涉及到计算机网络的知识细节还是很模糊——都是因为大二时没有好好听蒋砚军老师讲的计算机网络课，现在真的全是泪啊！因此，这个假期要好好恶补一下计网相关的知识。

另外，这个假期还想要尝试一些自己一直想学但是还没怎么学的东西。例如 iOS 编程——以前对其朝思暮想但又没有设备条件，如今入手 Mac 快一年了，这件事似乎还没什么进展（还真是人之常情）。事实上，去年的确学习过一段时间，但因为其他事情的繁杂，所以被搁置到了一边，自此逐渐淡忘。这个暑假就是读取存档的最佳时机。

当然，这个假期肯定不能放下手头的工作，趁大把时间多读读论文吧 - - 。

最后，假期还有一些其他的计划，但是没什么写出来的必要，它们都已躺在我的清单里了~

“挂在嘴上的未必是能做到的，真正放在心上的往往是绝口不提的”

后记

其实自己一直都是一个内心想法很多的人，虽然有时因为太懒让自己错过而遗憾，但所幸对现在的自己还是比较满意。Anyway，很多事情完全不必在意他人的眼光，所有心中的执念和坚持，都是为了成为自己想要成为的样子。

Piddnad：我想像 KD 那样打球！(被众人拖走

Summer School: Halfway Report

Today is July 12th — the end of week two of the graduate school summer program. In one more week, the last summer break of my undergraduate years arrives.

I signed up for two courses: Information Retrieval & Information Extraction and R and Data Mining, both taught in English. Having spent a lot of time with MOOCs from Western universities, I've always envied that style of teaching — problem-driven, discussion-heavy, far from the test-prep grind that dominates Chinese undergraduate education. So these felt like exactly the right fit. The content helped too: IR&IE got me properly into NLP for the first time; RDM was a genuinely good intro to R and data mining, taught by Yanchang Zhao, a well-known scholar from Australia.

In practice, things didn't go quite as planned. My English listening comprehension is worse than I'd like to admit, and the laziness that's followed me my whole life made itself known in class. For a lot of sessions I zoned out and ended up teaching myself the material afterward. All roads lead to Rome, I suppose.

Final assessments for both:

• IR&IE: Build an information retrieval system — use a web crawler to collect data, then implement search with NLP methods and TF-IDF.
• RDM: Implement three classic data mining algorithms in R: clustering, decision tree classification, and association rules.

I'll probably write a few posts about the implementations next week.

Goals for the Break

Time at school always feels full — but paradoxically, it's hard to find big uninterrupted blocks to work on personal projects. This year, the graduate dorms happen to be closed for renovation during break (allegedly an annual excuse), so I've got a solid 40 days at home.

A 40-day break shouldn't go to waste. People say plans made before a holiday might as well not exist — but I've always found that writing things down helps, even if the execution isn't perfect. I make a list before every break, and by sheer obsessive force of will, the completion rate is… actually not bad?

A few things on my mind:

My VPS went down in June. Getting back online without it was stressful — I rely on it for accessing research databases and tools. While figuring out a replacement setup, I started digging into how SSR and related protocols actually work, and realized how patchy my networking fundamentals are. That's on my sophomore-year self for not paying attention in Computer Networks class. This break: fix that gap.

I also want to finally pick up iOS development. I've wanted to try it for years but never had a Mac. I've had one for almost a year now and haven't touched it — very on-brand. I actually started last year, got somewhere, then let life get in the way. Summer is the perfect time to resume from that save point.

And of course — reading papers. With all this free time, no excuse to fall behind.

There are a few other items on the list, but they don't need to be written here. They're already in the notebook.

“What you say out loud isn't always what gets done. What you keep quietly is often what matters most.”

Afterword

I've always had more thoughts going on inside than I show. Sometimes laziness makes me miss things I'll regret — but on balance, I'm pretty happy with who I am right now. A lot of things don't need to be justified to anyone else. All the persistence and fixations are just for becoming the version of yourself you actually want to be.

Piddnad: I want to play like KD! (carried off by the crowd)