A. Wood
Lecturer: Prof. Zürcher from the Bernese Fachhochschule at Biel, specialising in Wood. Received woodblocks to play with, especially the Swiss Stone Pine (Pinus cembra) sample that I sniffed every night before going to bed. Visited wood labs in school. Witness wood welding twice. Started paying attention to trees at the sidewalk, and observed them grow. Cesko baked a cake out of pine nuts, and shared it with the class. Prof. Zürcher is calm and rational in disposition but betrays a disturbing affinity to crackpot theories (thankfully on things not concerning wood). Open book exam. Outcome: Most probably no flunk.
B. Seminar Series
Lecturer: Various. Monday afternoon seminars after lunch, mostly from materials experts, attended mostly by professors, doctorate students, etc. Prof. Niederburger from Zürich, whom we had met earlier in Materials Science Students' Day, appeared again to us one of those Mondays. The no-stick ketchup bottle group from Harvard gave a seminar. The guy who came from the place I was born in gave a seminar. Was tested on the contents of seminars. Outcome: Probably flunk.
C. Photovoltaics
Lecturer: Various, but mainly the Ballif. Exciting and edifying lectures on photovoltaics, scientific advances thereof, market dynamics thereof, and ergonomics and use thereof. Migraine-inducing review of semiconductor physics. Free train tickets for a visit to EPFL's labs at Neuchâtel. The Ballif has 'boss' written all over his face, and his teaching assistants (the Jonas, the Lorenzo, the Benedicte and the Andrea) are without exception dashing geniuses. Highly suspect that the exams is actually a recruitment pitch to the Neuchâtel labs. In any case... Outcome: Most probably flunk.
D. Project Presentation
Supervisor: Kislon. Made a program to count polymer-coated gold nanoparticles. Tough because the AFM and STM images look like porridge. Spent long hours on MATLAB and philosophising, even on my customary long trips around Europe. Working algorithm was achieved. People seem to be impressed by results. Looking for options for doctorate studies / contributions to the open-source STM image analysis software / any other logical next step. Outcome: Did not flunk.
E. Biomaterials
Lecturer: Various, but mainly the Lutolf. The Lutolf is now EPFL's favourite poster boy for Biomaterials, according to co-lecturer Kontos. The Lutolf has started a company selling activated gel with co-lecturers Drs. Rizzi and Sanctuary. Co-lecturer Prof Klok's super-exciting roller-coaster Computational Biology lecture was cancelled (which was bad, just to clarify). Crammed biology concepts in spare time. Critiqued a paper for homework. Open book exam. Outcome: Probably no flunk.
F. Lithography
Lecturer: The Muralt. The Muralt mumbles and laughs at his own jokes. The Muralt is like an angel / Santa Claus during exams, and is prone to small talk and laughter. The course featured labwork heavily, where we built microhotplates. Doctoral students Nachi and Emilie were our guides. Successfully handled hydrofluoric acid wet etch without dying or sustaining griveous injury. Did lab report and learned about a smashing new data analysis tool used by teammate Mohammad. Outcome: Most probably no flunk.
G. Graph Theory
Lecturer: Prof. Pach (Erdős number 1). Prof. Pach comes to every class with a window wiper, which he used to wipe the blackboard clean after running out of space (high-efficiency lifehack pro-tip). Teaching assistant is Filip, a gentle soul with an IQ that is up in the clouds. Relief teacher for two sessions is Bartosz, whom I might have seen one fine Sunday in church (not confirmed). Bonus questions at each exercise formed part of contest, as well as some of the posts on this blog. Less than 50% of the class are native math students. Less than 50% is also the score average of the mock mid-term paper. Highly recommended for EPFL juniors from their seniors for its high passing rate, but one should not let their guard down. Exam was noticeably easier than mid-term. Outcome: Probably no flunk.
H. Numerical Analysis
Lecturer: Ricardo. Ricardo is a nice guy who couldn't teach / gave up trying. The Godfather of Numerical Analysis in EPFL is Alfio Quateroni, who worked at NASA until EPFL lured him across the Atlantic with high pay, but is still nowhere to be seen. Our course materials / textbook are all Quateroni's work. The course used to be taught by him until he gave up trying and re-delegated all that sh-t to poor Ricardo. Skipped most Friday morning lectures / attended only when I need to update myself on the progress. The course is the only one in my list that is taught in French, and is (to some relief) more similar to Engineering Math than to Pure Math. Bonus test happened near the end of school term, where I came in third in a class of 91 people. Final exam coming next Thursday.
