Coming back to campus after Spring Break got you feeling down? Get outside and enjoy the fresh air on this easy hike of the Arroyo Seco trail in Pasadena with Computer Science Lecturer Michael Shindler! Professor Shindler is famous for making difficult concepts easy through his jokes about that school on the other side of LA. More importantly, he also appreciates a good meme, especially featuring the USC Computer Science department.
We will start out near the NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory, just outside Pasadena. Our hike will take us away from the highway into the thick of the Angeles National Forest. We'll stop about halfway to ponder the applications of discrete math and eat a snack, and head back the same way.
ARROYO SECO
DIFFICULTY: 3/5
SCENERY: Starting by the famous NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we'll pass creeks and hike through the forest
FUN FACT: This trail is heavily used by mountain bikers!
MICHAEL SHINDLER
DEPARTMENT: Computer Science
RATE MY PROFESSOR: "Easily one of the nicest, funniest, most relatable professors I've ever taken. He's a great mentor, accessible outside of class, and hosts student events/sponsors ACM. His lectures are funny, interactive and intuitive and he really wants you to succeed. Stop by his office to chat even as his alum; he's great."
Professor Shindler's recent research focuses primarily on educational issues in computer science; in the past, my work touched on computations on large datasets, machine learning, approximation algorithms, streaming algorithms, and data mining. His Erdos number is three, and he loves USC football.
HIMA RAJANA
Computational Neuroscience, Social Entrepreneurship '19
Contact Hima: hrajana@usc.edu
Read Hima's bio here.
ADDRESS: Arroyo Seco Trail, Northeast Los Angeles, CA