This is really why I teach

Tyler Hutchison did a wonderful drawing of himself, Brian Ohs, and me for possible use as an illustration for a UMM piece on our best paper award at EuroGP 2008 in Naples.

Teachers all have their answers for why they teach, and it’s certainly not the pay. We’re very adept at sharing all the expected responses (the importance of education, helping shape the future, etc., etc.), and I’m no exception.

But I’m here to tell you that the real reason we teach is for the cool drawings!

Nic, Tyler, and Brian on the Geneticorn

This gem was just penned by Tyler Hutchison for possible use as an illustration for a UMM piece on the paper Tyler and I wrote with Brian Ohs that won the best paper award at EuroGP 2008 in Naples earlier this year. I’m the distinguishedly disheveled fellow in the middle, Brian is steering the ship up front, and Tyler is the terrified fellow on the back (which is in stark contrast to his cool, composed presence at the conference!).

I’ve been fortunate enough to have students generate quite a few cool drawings of me over the years, ranging from notebook doodles to projects for art classes. I really need to pull all that stuff together sometime and post a little “show”. In the meantime we can all bask in the glory of the three of us riding the wondrous “Geneticorn” off into the sunset!

Thanks to Brian and Tyler for their fine work on this research project, and thanks to Tyler for the super cool drawing!

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I tend to scribble a lot

A photo demonstrating how much I scribble on papers when I’m editing.

I tend to scribble a lot
Creative Commons License photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

When I edit, I tend to scribble a lot, even when it’s my own stuff (or the writing of people I really like). Last January, for example, I took a set of photos after scribbling all over a paper that Riccardo and I were working on for GECCO. This paper went on to win the Best Paper award in the genetic programming track at GECCO last month, so I’d like to think that all this editing had some value :-).

I posted the full set over in my events account, and I plan on using some of them to show my students that I’m not just being mean to them — I’m mean to everyone, myself included!

This showed up here now because a publisher contacted me about using it in a college writing textbook. I figured I’d clean it up and post the full size version.

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