By: Alexander Kashpir

Salve Waikato, it’s me Alexander, back again. If you thought my Instagram post on the Waikato Global Experience account was the update to my exchange, with all the flare and enthusiasm that befits it, so did I. As enchanting as it would have been, apparently my communiqué from the antipode of New Zealand is not over, because I have to write another proper blog post. So, I will use this publication to talk about the less Instagram worthy topic that is nonetheless significant, my papers at the University of Alicante.

Let me preface this by saying that here in Spain, papers are called courses, and let me further say that I wholeheartedly agree with calling them papers. With that out of the way, here goes.

At the University of Alicante, I am studying Database Design, Game Theory, Physical Foundations of Computer Science and a beginners course in Spanish.

Of course, my Spanish course has nothing to do with computer science, but if you are going to go on an exchange, to Spain or any other non-English speaking country, I strongly believe that taking the language course is a must. At least for me, learning Spanish has been the key to encountering and better understanding the culture I’m surrounded by. I think there is a fifty-fifty split between how much Spanish I’ve learned in my day-to-day life through curiosity versus my two hours of Spanish twice a week, but the course provides me with some grammar to better understand the language, academic motivation to keep learning, and an environment to practice Spanish in with other students.

Database Design has to be the one exception to the overarching comment I made on Instagram that my classes are ‘taught with a passion’. This course, it is structured and presented like a guide to tick all the boxes of the curriculum while remaining as oblivious to the content as possible. We were given the opportunity to behold the slides in class for maybe a glorious 3 lectures, and then plunged into the deep end of endless EER diagram design practise, with every design utilising untaught patterns and the educative value of every subsequent lecture coming down to how we designed it wrong, and how there is this neat design pattern that fits the database description, which, by the way, will never come up again.

I have discovered a new branch of mathematics that I thoroughly enjoy, Game Theory. This field of mathematics is about analysing and evaluating strategic situations, like playing paper-scissors-rock, running for Prime Minister, or deciding whether to burn your ships when invading Spain (there is a surprising advantage to that!). Besides the fascinating applications, what makes this course my favourite is a discussion-based approach that is supplemented by apt examples, which are in turn supported with mathematical notation. The course assumes no prior knowledge in the field, and we have worked our way from analysing simple pure strategies in simultaneous games represented through the normal form, through evolutionary stable mixed strategies, all the way to considering continuous games like chess. And I am looking forward to what is next.

Lastly, Physical Foundations of Computer Science is by no means a simple course. We have been beelining our way through fundamental particle charges, electrostatics, nested capacitors, and electromagnetism, with a lot of ground left to cover until AC circuits. During lectures, new formulas are introduced or derived and solutions to practise questions are presented to solidify our understanding. Trouble is, at the rate we are going at, not even working through the optional practise questions is enough to comprehend everything taught. This makes the course quite challenging, and a lot of self-initiated study is required to keep up. Nevertheless, I am hopeful that these fundamentals will build up enough for me to make a link with computer architecture and have a better understanding of my field.

Maybe you are, in fact, “not entertained”, but I hope anyone who’s here before their own exciting overseas exchange to Alicante on the Costa Blanca, will find my brief description of these courses useful.

And now, really, I will reflect on my exchange, for you, back across the world. Adios:)