Ask HN: How do I pursue an academic relationship with a professor?
I've recently discovered that the professor teaching my algorithms course is somewhat well-known in the cryptology field, which is exciting for me as an interest in and passion for crypto is what got me to go back to school and study CS. I would really like to pursue an academic relationship with this professor, but I"m not sure what the best way to do that would be, or even necessarily what that would like. I'm essentially thinking of someone from whom I could ask for a letter of reference, and ask for course/topic of study recommendations, that kind of thing; perhaps even as an adviser for the independent-study type credits that are offered. I feel like I have better-than-average interpersonal skills and perspective compared to the just-out-of-high-school students who make up most of my classmates, but having worked a full-time job for the last ten years and having only recently gotten into computer science, I don't really have side-projects of my own I can talk to him about, which seems like a disadvantage. I'm performing well in his class, though I'm not at the very top. Can anyone give some advice on how I might best make a good impression on him (aside from just performing well and being interested) and open a dialog with him?