Contact information for Dr. Piotr Berman during Fall 2006
Office: 346H IST
Office phone number: (1-814-86)5-1611
Office hours: initially Tuesday and Thursdays, 11:00-1:00, changes
will be posted in this page.
e-mail: berman@cse.psu.edu
Course web pages: www.cse.psu.edu/~berman/NUM.html
where NUM is the course number. Homeworks, solutions, annoucements
and other
Honesty policy: there is a fine line between productive
discussions about the course (encouraged) and copying the work of
someone else (subject of heavy penalties). Two litmus tests may be
applied. First, on demand, an individual must be able to explain her or his
solutions. Second, often a person who is copying cannot differentiate between
correct and non-sensical part of a solution; if you copy a solution without
understanding it, you invite a well-deserved disaster. On the other hand,
if certain elements of your solution originate from a discussion with one
or more friends, a book or another such source, you should acknowledge it,
and the only negative consequence can be that you will be asked to explain
orally your solution.
In particular, if a homework problem alters a problem with solutions
posted on www and a student's solution is based on posted solutions
without regard to those alteration, the conclusion may be that the solution
was copied without understanding and the grade can be correspondingly low.
First name: It is a Polish name and it
comes from Greek Petros, like English Peter.
The pronouciation is roughly like in Russian and it requires two non-English
sounds: "t" that is not aspired (tongue almost touches the teeth) and rolling
"r" (tongue far from teeth, vibrating), so "P" "yo" "t" "r".
Russians put a little "e" (like in bed) between "t" and "r", so "Pyoter", but
this is very, very short vowel. Thus "Pyoter" is a quite acceptable, if not
correct, way to say Piotr. Still you can practice rolling your "r": immmitate
the engine noise, "Vrr, vrr, vrroom!"