diff --git a/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/cur_decomposition.h b/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/cur_decomposition.h
index 4b3e6b4d31..7c286dad9c 100644
--- a/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/cur_decomposition.h
+++ b/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/cur_decomposition.h
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ class CURDecomposition {
     Matrix q_factor_mat, r_factor_mat;
     success_t flag = QRInit(a_mat, &pivots, &q_factor_mat, &r_factor_mat);
 
+    // Check to make sure that QR decomposition has succeeded.
     DEBUG_ASSERT(flag);
 
     // Compute the Frobenius norm of each row of R matrix.
diff --git a/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/matrix_factorized_local_expansion_impl.h b/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/matrix_factorized_local_expansion_impl.h
index db5a803388..0c2bb53c7e 100644
--- a/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/matrix_factorized_local_expansion_impl.h
+++ b/fastlib2/mlpack/series_expansion/matrix_factorized_local_expansion_impl.h
@@ -184,6 +184,7 @@ void MatrixFactorizedLocalExpansion<TKernelAux>::TrainBasisFunctions
 
   // Compute the evaluation operator, which is the transpose of the
   // evaluation operator computed from the decomposition.
+  evaluation_operator_ = new Matrix();
   la::TransposeInit(evaluation_operator_transposed, evaluation_operator_);
 
   // Allocate space based on the size of the incoming skeleton.