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Expert Programming and Mathematics Tutor (MIT graduate)
Misha Z.

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Hourly Rate: $130
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About Misha

Bio

I am an MIT graduate with a Masters degree in Computer Science (having specialized in Computer Security) and a Bachelors in pure Math. I base my teaching not only on theory but also on many years of hands on experience working at three successful hedge funds (D.E. Shaw, Millennium and Balyasny) and a highly successful global technology firm (Bloomberg).

I give lessons in several programming languages, Python, C++, and Java being the main ones, however, my teaching approach is language...

I am an MIT graduate with a Masters degree in Computer Science (having specialized in Computer Security) and a Bachelors in pure Math. I base my teaching not only on theory but also on many years of hands on experience working at three successful hedge funds (D.E. Shaw, Millennium and Balyasny) and a highly successful global technology firm (Bloomberg).

I give lessons in several programming languages, Python, C++, and Java being the main ones, however, my teaching approach is language agnostic. Whether you are new to programming or are a seasoned programmer and are looking to quickly pick up one of these languages, I can help you get started and have you writing your own code very soon. I will teach you not just the syntax of the programming language(s), but more importantly how to think like a software engineer. I will teach you the concepts that will allow you to quickly pick up any programming language on your own. In addition, I focus on teaching data structures (hash tables, graphs, trees, Tries, linked lists etc) and algorithms that should be part of any serious software engineer's arsenal. I cover concepts such as recursion, dynamic programming, backtracking, and graph algorithms, among others. These are topics that are heavily emphasized in software developer interviews.

I have been giving computer science lessons for over 20 years to people of all ages, from precocious middle schoolers, to high school students, college students and professionals. Most of the tutoring that I have done has been one on one, but I have also taught in larger group settings. While a graduate student at MIT, I taught a Probability course for computer science majors. I ran biweekly recitation sections for a group of about 30 students. I also gave exam review sessions for the entire class of roughly 300 students. I enjoyed teaching this class so much that I taught this course two times.

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Education

MIT
Computer Science
MIT
Masters

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Approved Subjects

AMC (Competition math)

AMC (Competition math)

My love for mathematics began as a freshman at Stuyvesant High School and has continued for the rest of my learning and professional career, as I went on to receive a degree in pure Mathematics at MIT and worked as a quant at several successful hedge funds. I represented Stuyvesant High School in city wide math competitions on "Team A", the top 5-person team at Stuyvesant, and successfully competed in AHSME, AIME and other national math exams. I have been helping students prepare in various advanced topics of mathematics, which are not typically taught in classrooms but which appear in math competitions. If you are a mathlete and are looking for a coach to help you prepare for math competitions, contact me, so that we can work out a training plan and schedule.
C++

C++

The majority of my software development experience has been in C++ and Python. I wrote high performance systems in C++ for the Bloomberg Terminal that is used on Wall Street and by financial institutions around the world. C++ is a complex and powerful language, and I can help you master it and harness its full potential. Whether it's the fundamentals of the language, memory management using smart pointers, STL containers or concurrency / multithreaded programming that you're looking to brush up on, I can help you understand these concepts.
Computer Science

Computer Science

I am an MIT graduate with a Masters degree in Computer Science (having specialized in Computer Security) and a Bachelors in pure Math. I base my teaching not only on theory but also on many years of hands on experience writing software systems at three successful hedge funds and a highly successful global technology firm. Over the years, I have worked with students of all ages and all levels of experience, from school children to working professionals. My goal is to teach you to think like a programmer and to give you the confidence to learn any new programming language that you wish to learn, rather than having you simply memorize syntax.
Data Science

Data Science

I have worked as a quant at three successful hedge founds over the last 20 years, where I used data science and machine learning to try to solve real world problems, such as building effective trading strategies. I studied both computer science and theoretical mathematics at MIT, which gave me the grounding in theory, as well as the practical knowledge that I needed to become a successful quant. I teach students the skills they need to become successful data scientists or quants, which includes mastery of essential Python packages such as Pandas, Numpy, and Scikit-Learn, as well the various machine learning algorithms (Logistic Regression, Random Forests, SVMs, Decision Trees, Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning etc). Over the years, I've worked to keep up with advances in machine learning, and have obtained several Coursera certifications in Advanced Machine Learning Algorithms.
Data Structures

Data Structures

My teaching of Data Structures and Algorithms is based on first hand experience writing real world software systems at three successful hedge funds - something that cannot be learned merely from text books. I balance teaching theory (closely following the classic "Introduction to Algorithms" text by Cormen, Leiserson and Rivest) with the practical aspects and implementation details, which are very important when building robust, high performance software systems - different data structures have different pros and cons and performance implications. Over the years, I have helped many people prepare for software development and quant based interviews, which focus on testing your knowledge of data structures and algorithms. If your goal is to prepare for dev / quant interviews, I will build a customized study plan for you and will help you to gain the data structure knowledge needed to do well on such interviews.
Discrete Math

Discrete Math

Mastering discrete mathematics is a prerequisite for becoming a successful software engineer. It's an essential area of mathematics that allows you to come up with computer algorithms, as well as to analyze their complexity. As a software engineer and quant, thinking about big-O notation has become second nature for me, and I will help you develop that intuition, as well. Having majored in pure Mathematics and Computer Science, I can balance out the theory with the practical details, and I will make sure that you understand both, as well.
Linux

Linux

I began my career as a Systems Engineer at D.E. Shaw, one of the top quant hedge funds in the world. There I spent seven years working on a state of the art Linux and Unix infrastructure. Over the years, as a software engineer and quant at several other successful hedge funds, Linux has been an indispensable part of my workflow. As an advanced Linux power user, I am happy to share my knowledge of this wonderful operating system, to allow you to be productive in this environment, as well.
Machine Learning/ AI

Machine Learning/ AI

I have worked for nearly a decade as a quant at two successful hedge funds. In my day to day work, I used machine learning to build quantitative trading strategies. In my spare time, I have helped many students master the concepts of machine learning, both theoretical and practical. In addition to my hands on experience using ML in quantitative finance, and my computer science education at MIT, to stay up to date with the latest ML advances, I have obtained several certifications in Advanced Machine Learning techniques from Coursera.
SHSAT (NY HS admissions)

SHSAT (NY HS admissions)

Stuyvesant High School provided me with excellent early education, and it prepared me well for my studies in computer science and mathematics at MIT. Over the years, I have maintained a connection with Stuyvesant by tutoring Stuyvesant students in mathematics. I have also helped many students prepare for the SHSAT exam, sometimes working for several months in a row preparing a student for this exam. Most recently, I was delighted to learn that a gifted young lady I had worked with was accepted to Bronx Science - the hard work we put into preparation had paid off (I'm happy to provide a reference letter from her family)!
UNIX

UNIX

I began my career as a Systems Engineer at D.E. Shaw, one of the top quant hedge funds in the world. There I spent seven years working on a state of the art Linux and Unix infrastructure, which included a cluster of several thousand Solaris machines. Over the years, as a software engineer and quant at several other successful hedge funds, Linux and Unix have been an indispensable part of my workflow. As an advanced Linux/Unix power user, I am happy to share my knowledge of these wonderful operating systems, including topics such as file systems, memory and CPU management tools, and command-line tools to help your productivity (grep, ls, find, awk, sed etc)
Algebra 1
Algebra 2
Calculus
Computer Programming
Elementary Math
General Computer
Geometry
Physics
Precalculus
Probability
Python
SAT Math
Statistics
Trigonometry
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Hourly Rate: $130
Contact Misha