How to be a Great Lecturer (and Professor)
cs.cmu.edu
cs.cmu.edu
Von Ahn has some pretty good lectures, but that's due, in no small part, to the fact that the courses are "Great Theoretical Ideas in Computer Science"/"Science of the Web"/"Artificial Intelligence". He gets to cherry pick from some of the coolest stuff out there, and though he presents it very well, I wouldn't describe him as the best lecturer at Carnegie Mellon.
One complaint I have about his excellent TAs is that, though many of them are stand-up guys, a lot of them perpetuate a long standing Carnegie Mellon tradition of dickish undegrad TAs (Full disclosure: this is also true in one of the courses I've TAed, and is a much stronger influence in the Systems side of things at the school).
Von Ahn is a pretty good professor, and he's pretty funny too. I just wish that people would realize that things like the "Luis Von Ahn Awesome Classroom" in the Gates Center are him poking fun at his own image (I hope) rather than the foundation of some sort of Cult of Von Ahn.
The fanboyism to which I am referring is common among undergrads at Carnegie Mellon. Though I applaud Von Ahn's efforts with Human Computation and think the awards and rewards (namely, the acquisition of reCaptcha by Google) are well deserved, I question the apparent need to discuss his greatness on a regular basis. Hundreds of thousands (if not millions) oughta be enough approval for anyone.
Simply look at the poster's comment and submission history to see what I mean by fanboyism.
However, Von Ahn doesn't get to pick any class to teach. He received 251 while still a Grad Student and was rather "forced" to teach it. He created Science of the Web so I think he deserves to teach it if he wants to correct? And he absolutely hates AI and didn't, by any means, choose to teach it. What's interesting is that even you admit he's a great teacher, but he himself admits he hates teaching. Guess that means he must have some talent.
(as for TAs in Systems being dicks, I completely agree with you. 251 TAs too.)
I was mainly giving you crap about the fact that allll of your submissions have been VA-related. You have to sneak it in to comments and stuff, like I do with FAWN :)
And as always, Systems >> Theory :P
(And in saying that, I realize how far I've come from my undergrad days.)
This is supposed to be one of the top universities in Japan. Undergrad courses here are very hit or miss...
http://www.thelastlecture.com/
Although I never took a class with either, I was at the Last Lecture and went to the Entertainment Technology Center (the program Randy built with Don Marinelli). Every time I saw Von Ahn speak he did not hold a candle to what I saw Randy do.