Contact info

Spring Quarter 2007-08

This spring I'm taking a break from teaching, to spend more time with my munchkins and to work on developing new courses for the fabulous revision of the CS undergrad program which will be rolled out next academic year.

I plan to set up some regular office hours this quarter, but I haven't yet settled on when they'll be. In the meantime, you're welcome to drop by my office or send an email to set up an appointment.

A little bio

I left my rural hometown of Stevinson, CA (population: 262) to come to Stanford as a wide-eyed freshman in 1985. That tour passed through SLE, the LSJUMB, a half-dozen changes in my major, and I emerged with a Mathematical Sciences degree. A few years out in the "real world" were enough to send me running back for grad school in computer science and I segued into my current position as a lecturer in 1992 without setting foot off campus again. I teach courses in the undergrad systems curriculum, including programming methodology and abstractions, language paradigms, compilers, and object-oriented design and development, but I especially enjoy working with the section leaders in the CS106 courses. I have been the advisor to the Stanford SWE and ACM-W chapters and recently served on the Computer Science Advanced Placement development committee.

Advising

Thinking about declaring CS or CSE? The CS Undergrad Advising site has excellent information about the major, the minor, declaring, advising, and so on.

My CS undergraduate advising group is now big enough that I'm in danger of losing track of everyone so I'm currently not recruiting new advisees, but anyone, advisee or not, is welcome to come by and ask questions of me.

I'm also serving as a frosh advisor this year (my first time!). The talented Nikil Viswanathan is the Peer Mentor for our group. Meet my frosh advising group. Surf the UAL site for a great wealth of resrouces and information for undergrads.

My life

I'm married to Matt Vaska, medical device engineer, entrepeneur and all-around superhero. Part of his wooing involved a trombone serenade in the Flo Mo courtyard. We are the proud parents of two marvelous munchkins, Rein and Kalev.