Impressions about Open Class

Computer Science for everyone: the "Open Class" lectures were a big success

2 February 2006

Juraj Hromkovic has been full professor for Information Technology and Education at the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich since January 2004. From October 2005 until the end of January 2006 he held a series of public lectures called "Open Class, Seven Wonders of Computer Science”. This introduction to computer science was open to a broad public aged 15 or older.

Katja Abrahams attended some of the classes and relates her impressions

Apart from high school and college students choosing, for the most part, to sit in the last rows of the auditorium, many senior citizens can be seen in the first couple of rows, primarily men bending over their desks eagerly taking notes. The lecture room is almost full and today the last lecture of the popular "Open Class" series is being held.

Professor Hromkovic is obviously enjoying his original lectures which he likes to flavor with a good pinch of humor. The fact that Hromkovic is able to explain highly complex theories using simple words is certainly another reason why his "Open Class" series is so successful. In the lecture about quantum mechanics - not really a very accessible topic for people like you and me - the professor draws such trivial items as a sun and a billowing ocean on the overhead transparency. He apologizes for his "rudimentary drawing skills" and then starts to explain in comprehensible words one of the laws of quantum mechanics using his colorful sketch...

Most of the listeners are regulars, e.g. a couple around 50, both of them teachers, who have attended six or seven lectures. They read about „Open Class“ in the newspaper and find the talks "funny and well done" even if the transition from concrete examples to mathematical formulas, with Hromkovic oscillating between his two overhead projectors, is sometimes too fast for them.

Wiebke was told by her flat-mate who studies computer science at ETH that "Open Class" was worthwhile.

She is studying food technologies and originally only wanted to attend the two lectures about quantum computing and bioinformatics. However, enthusiastic about the lecturer and his teaching methods, she ended up coming to all of the remaining lectures. Among other things she appreciates the interdisciplinary approach: "It is very interesting to see how you can combine biochemical technologies and theories from physics with computer science", the 24-year-old says.

Tobias (17) and Daniel (18) are especially zealous "Open Class" fans who were told about the lectures by their math teacher. The two high school students from Zurich who perpetually chose to sit in the last row attended each of the eleven talks and always did their homework. "The lectures are really good fun, much better than the boring math and physics classes in school", Tobias says. Daniel likes the "step by step" approach of the native Slovak. "Too bad that today’s lecture is the last one", both agree. Tobias and Daniel would like professors of other ETH departments to follow Hromkovic’s example and hold lectures of this kind.

More articles about "Open Class":

Interview with prof. Hromkovic

Further reading:

You can find some articles about the role of computer science in school education on the web site of the ETH Chair of Information Technology and Education.