I am currently enrolled at The Johns Hopkins University

I am currently enrolled at The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) for the Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) program in the Department of Computer Science

Fall 2002
Distributed Systems (3 credits) - by Dr. Yair Amir - TA: Claudiu Danilov	Excellent course on Distributed Systems from the ground up, including the design of various research systems such as Spread. The course is highly intensive with respect to C programming, and is very performance oriented. This means that, for the professor to be satisfied, the program must not only run correctly, but also efficiently. It has an awesome final project.
Storage Systems (3 credits) - by Dr. Randal Burns - TA: Zachary Peterson	This course initially teaches the basics of storage systems, and then gets more and more into the design of generic and specialized systems. Another fine course, and its a pity he's not offering it this semester (Fall 2003). Regardless, it also has C as its anchor. The C usage here is much more low-level, and touches on aspects of OS. There's a mid-term and a final exam, AND a research proposal that you must write involving an idea that can turn into a paper. One of the strongest points about this course is the dynamism of the professor. His energy and joviality are now legendary. Same goes for the TA!
Machine Learning (3 credits) - by Dr. David Sheppard - TA: Debnath Bodi	This is a great course if you want to know the theory behind machine learning. Two technical papers are discussed every week (read beforehand by each student) and each person has to lead the discussion on one of the weeks. (Thankfully, you are told which week is yours in advance ;-)). Another tough course if you do it properly. It has a big final project, because you are supposed to come up with an original idea and implement it. Great TA.
Theory Of Network Communication (3 credits) - by Dr. Christian Scheideler - TA: Chris Riley	This course was offered for the first time, and included stuff that was not to be found in any book. It explains the various models of networks and goes into depth about overlays and their models. This is an easy course if you do the assignments on time and grasp the concepts. It has a mid-term exam and a final project. Another outstanding TA.
Spring 2003
Advanced Distributed Systems and Communication (3 credits) - by Dr. Yair Amir - TA (Mine): Ciprian Tutu	As the name suggests, this is the advanced version of the above DS course. This course is run as a project-oriented course, with all efforts directed towards a final project. People work in groups of 2-3, and the class strength was 8 students (!!). This is one of the most rewarding classes I have taken, but is more research-oriented than application-oriented. I was part of the group that worked out a way to make the current DNS architecture more resilient to attacks and failures. DNS was picked up as a topic because it is the heart of the Internet, and its failure will bring the Internet down.
Information Retrieval and Web Agents (3 credits) - by Dr. David Yarowsky	This is a course on the various techniques of information retrieval. The concepts discussed in class are applicable to all forms of data, but are geared towards text analysis and the internet. There were periodic assignments and constant discussions. The final project was again excellent.
Peer-to-Peer Networks (1 credit) - by Dr. Andreas Terzis	A course that had more workload than was justified for a 1-credit course, and was very discussion-centric. Each week, a couple of existing P2P systems were discussed, and reviews on some were to be submitted. Very amiable professor, and very approachable.
Embedded Computer Systems - Vulnerabilities, Intrusions and Protection Mechanisms (1 credit) - by Dr. George Kalb	The aim of this course was to teach students how embedded systems were different from other (desktop) systems with respect to security. Various attacks on embedded systems were explained, along with devices to detect/avoid these attacks. The course was interesting throughout, and the assignments were dead easy. A final exam wrapped things up.
Introduction to Sensory Engineering (1 credit) - by Dr. Robert Massof	This course taught the basics of sensory engineering, and was an exploration into yet another aspect of computer science. More related to robotics than to pure computer science, the course ended in a design proposal for a real-world application. Good professor, and very supportive of ideas.
Fall 2003
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TBD