Algorithms & Complexity
In many ways, my indebtedness to Professor Subhash Khot
I took Honors Analysis of Algorithms during my first semester at NYU, and it was one of the first times I experienced the glories of algorithms at full blast. It has truly been an honor to have been his student.
The class had a very large and positive effect on my life and career. I learned how to struggle, to take bigger risks, only to realize how much more interesting life simply gets. The ethos of problem solving is timeless, and the output may not be visible immediately, but somewhere down the line, as he put it, it will always show.
I am currently taking his Complexity course and I'm a bit less proud to say I've been struggling through most of it, but I still try putting as much effort as I can, hoping to develop my mathematical and theoretical maturity as I progress through. I don't really know when, or even if, I'll continue doing theory in my career, but this is surely something I shall hold close to my heart.
I hold very fond memories of grinding through the homeworks throughout the week and preparing for finals, much of which I shared with few of my classmates.