Playing With Your Professor

The day when students will finally be able to dress their professors in drag is drawing near, thanks to the bright minds in Computer Science 50, “Introduction to Computer Science I.”

CS 50 student Or Gadish ’10 created a program for his first problem set that enables students to put earrings, masks, and gaudy makeup on the course instructor, David J. Malan ’99. Friends want Gadish to expand the program to other professors, like Economics guru Beren Professor of Economics N. Gregory Mankiw.

“I’m definitely considering it,” Gadish says.

His program was made using Scratch, a computer programming language designed for children that Malan chose to ease students into computer science.

“I’ve always heard that CS 50 is really difficult,” says Ann Chi ’08, who created a keyboard version of Dance Dance Revolution for the project. “But Professor Malan has really been encouraging people to stay in the class—he wants to make it as accessible as possible.”

His encouragement has been working: CS 50 saw its enrollment more than double this year, from 132 students to more than 280.

“I think a lot of it was the first couple lectures,” says Head TF Thomas G. Carriero ’08. “In past years, we would teach the most intimidating topics during the first week. You can imagine a student being turned off.”

Malan, who created the text message shuttle service Shuttleboy as an undergraduate, assumed the teaching post this fall after Michael D. Smith became Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In addition to introducing Scratch, Malan now offers virtual office hours—the first in Harvard’s history.

FM is glad that CS 50 is more accessible. With more students, we’ve got a better chance of seeing N. Greg in eyeshadow and pearls.