Course Sharing 2

A public disclaimer before reading
The following is personal opinion. Please do not choose courses based solely on my reviews. What seems easy to me does not mean it will be easy for you, and what seems difficult to me may not actually be difficult. Please consult multiple sources and consider your own interests when choosing courses.

Although course add/drop period is almost over this semester, I suddenly felt like finishing this article today, even though it has been in progress since July. It probably does not matter much anyway, since these are all courses for next semester.

Required Courses

Numerical Analysis (I) - Shi Yin-ze

This course is mostly about copying notes from the beginning of class to the end. The notes may not always be understandable or correct, since the professor can make typos too. The course covers numerical methods and their proofs, while the homework is to implement these methods in code. The professor provides the data, and you just run the program. Matlab, Scilab, Python, C/C++, Fortran 90… anything that works is fine. If you do not know how to code, there is a TA session teaching Scilab. Your grade depends on your actual ability: assignments are worth 40%, and the midterm and final are worth 60%. Attendance is not graded, but it affects whether the professor will rescue you if you are close to failing. Typing your notes in LaTeX for the final can add 1-10 points to your total grade (I got 8 points), so submitting both your assignments and notes is basically enough to pass. I probably will not take another course with this professor, since he said he is retiring.

Score range	0-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-100
Number of students	0	0	0	0	0	0	9	16	17	14

Introduction to Scientific Computing - Deng Junhao

This is the course where I learned the most this semester. It also teaches numerical methods, but the professor forces you to think instead of waiting to be spoon-fed knowledge like a pig. Most of the time, you are asked to figure out why something is done a certain way. The professor welcomes questions, but he will not simply give you the answer; instead, he guides you toward finding it yourself, teaching you how to communicate with spirits. If you want to take this course, be prepared to spend the equivalent of five credits of effort on it. There were originally 39 students, but only 18 remained by the end, which should give you some idea. Also, courses in the Applied Mathematics department are taught in English as EMI courses. They are difficult, but you learn a lot. As a side note, why did this class end up with one student? Because that person never showed up at all.

Score range	0-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-100
Number of students	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	10	6

Applications of Machine Learning and Data Mining - Tu Jing-ting

The professor’s course website is here. The course follows a set syllabus. There is a written midterm and a final paper report. In my year, the final required finding a paper, reading it, and applying it to the assignment given in class. The assignment was to train a facial expression recognition model. With the help of AI, passing this course is not difficult.

Score range	0-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-100
Number of students	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	15	20	12

General Education

Information Technology and Media Literacy

This is the best general education course I have taken at NCHU so far, and I highly recommend it. The course explains what is happening in the information-driven world today: how companies such as Windows, Apple, and Microsoft monopolize markets; how most social media platforms monitor and manipulate people; and how user data is exploited. Most importantly, it teaches you how to escape their control. It also introduces tools used by old-school computer users. They do not have fancy graphical interfaces and usually use plain-text interfaces. The advantage is that you can save a lot of tokens when talking to AI. Take this course and liberate your computer! See the official course website for details.

Score range	0-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-100
Number of students	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	3	11

Aesthetics of Photography

Take photos, take photos, take photos. If you have your own camera, you will get a lot out of this course, including a very high grade. If you only have a phone, that is fine too: you will still get a very high grade. The main point is to take beautiful photos every week. At the end of the semester, you submit a final portfolio, and that is it.

Score range	0-9	10-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-69	70-79	80-89	90-100
Number of students	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	10	20	14