MATH 164
Optimization
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisites: courses 115A, 131A. Not open for credit to students with credit for former Electrical Engineering 136. Fundamentals of optimization. Linear programming: basic solutions, simplex method, duality theory. Unconstrained optimization, Newton method for minimization. Nonlinear programming, optimality conditions for constrained problems. Additional topics from linear and nonlinear programming. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - It is a pretty decent class. The material covered is very useful, but the lectures often delve waaaaay too deep into the theoretical stuff. None of the exam questions were like that, as they all focus on application rather than theory. Speaking of the exam, the final exam was just like the one given as practice. I thought it was going to be harder due to the online format (since we're given 24 hours), but it was definitely doable under 3 hours (I did it in 2&1/2 lol). The grading is a bit... mysterious? I have a 97.2% cumulative total, and still not an A+. I don't really understand how the TA grades the homework too... Sometime he just marks off something without explaining, and didn't reply to my email inquiries. :( The TA was definitely NOT helpful, he was unable to explain any concepts concretely at all. However, he basically did most of the HW questions in discussion... So I find them helpful. :) Overall the class was decent, and I would take another class with him again (but not the TA).
Spring 2020 - It is a pretty decent class. The material covered is very useful, but the lectures often delve waaaaay too deep into the theoretical stuff. None of the exam questions were like that, as they all focus on application rather than theory. Speaking of the exam, the final exam was just like the one given as practice. I thought it was going to be harder due to the online format (since we're given 24 hours), but it was definitely doable under 3 hours (I did it in 2&1/2 lol). The grading is a bit... mysterious? I have a 97.2% cumulative total, and still not an A+. I don't really understand how the TA grades the homework too... Sometime he just marks off something without explaining, and didn't reply to my email inquiries. :( The TA was definitely NOT helpful, he was unable to explain any concepts concretely at all. However, he basically did most of the HW questions in discussion... So I find them helpful. :) Overall the class was decent, and I would take another class with him again (but not the TA).
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - I was pretty shocked by the low reviews. Prof. Kassab is a very fair and kind instructor. Some may complain that the tests were "proof-heavy", sure, but it's not like these proofs were hard at all. There were really only 6-8 of them that you needed to know, and she went over every single one in class (or left it as an exercise that can be found in the book). Really - not bad at all! She gave us a practice midterm which I found helpful. I didn't do too well on the midterm because it was rushed and I made some arithmetic mistakes. (Unfortunately, the exam rubric punishes arithmetic mistakes heavily, so be very careful in your calculations!) However, she has a fantastic, forgiving grading scheme that allows the midterm to be replaced by the final. During the final, there is wayyy more time than the midterm so you can do better. Another thing I found really helpful was that she gave us a list of final study topics. I don't know if it was just because we were online for 1.5 weeks this quarter, but she ended up cutting out a lot of content in the final, which made things super clear. (I think our final was lighter on content than the other 164 class.) She also gave an extra credit opportunity on the last homework! Pretty sweet. But, once again, idk if she only offered this to us because we were partially online. Finally, one more piece of advice: whenever Prof. Kassab recommends a proof, DO IT. Overall, Prof. Kassab is helpful and wants her students to succeed. It is really clear she cares about her students. She would even show us coding examples of some of the algos, which I thought was pretty cool. I am really glad I took this class.
Spring 2024 - I was pretty shocked by the low reviews. Prof. Kassab is a very fair and kind instructor. Some may complain that the tests were "proof-heavy", sure, but it's not like these proofs were hard at all. There were really only 6-8 of them that you needed to know, and she went over every single one in class (or left it as an exercise that can be found in the book). Really - not bad at all! She gave us a practice midterm which I found helpful. I didn't do too well on the midterm because it was rushed and I made some arithmetic mistakes. (Unfortunately, the exam rubric punishes arithmetic mistakes heavily, so be very careful in your calculations!) However, she has a fantastic, forgiving grading scheme that allows the midterm to be replaced by the final. During the final, there is wayyy more time than the midterm so you can do better. Another thing I found really helpful was that she gave us a list of final study topics. I don't know if it was just because we were online for 1.5 weeks this quarter, but she ended up cutting out a lot of content in the final, which made things super clear. (I think our final was lighter on content than the other 164 class.) She also gave an extra credit opportunity on the last homework! Pretty sweet. But, once again, idk if she only offered this to us because we were partially online. Finally, one more piece of advice: whenever Prof. Kassab recommends a proof, DO IT. Overall, Prof. Kassab is helpful and wants her students to succeed. It is really clear she cares about her students. She would even show us coding examples of some of the algos, which I thought was pretty cool. I am really glad I took this class.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - Professor Kovacova is very nice! She offers very organized lecture notes and explains them in detail in class. Her homework assignments serve as good practice for better understanding the concepts and preparing for the exams. Usually, she provides 5 questions each week, and we choose 2 of them to complete and upload. Nevertheless, homework only accounts for 10% of the grade (even though it should be graded based on completion), and the majority of the score depends on the 2 midterms and 1 final. The tests are straightforward and are similar to the homework questions, but currently, the midterms are out of 22 or 26 points, so even if you only got a few points deducted, the percentage decreases quickly. Not sure how the final grade will turn out, but I think taking the course with Professor Kovacova is still a very good experience! Another slight note is that she offers limited office hours (2 hours on odd weeks and 1 hour on even weeks) and didn't really accommodate when I said I have another class that requires attendance during her office hour time.
Spring 2024 - Professor Kovacova is very nice! She offers very organized lecture notes and explains them in detail in class. Her homework assignments serve as good practice for better understanding the concepts and preparing for the exams. Usually, she provides 5 questions each week, and we choose 2 of them to complete and upload. Nevertheless, homework only accounts for 10% of the grade (even though it should be graded based on completion), and the majority of the score depends on the 2 midterms and 1 final. The tests are straightforward and are similar to the homework questions, but currently, the midterms are out of 22 or 26 points, so even if you only got a few points deducted, the percentage decreases quickly. Not sure how the final grade will turn out, but I think taking the course with Professor Kovacova is still a very good experience! Another slight note is that she offers limited office hours (2 hours on odd weeks and 1 hour on even weeks) and didn't really accommodate when I said I have another class that requires attendance during her office hour time.
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Spring 2020 - Professor Li is not the best lecturer and I often found myself a little confused on where in the book we were. However, his tests are extremely similar to the homework and definitely manageable. The homework is in general pretty doable although you do have to code it with LaTeX which can be a little tedious and time consuming. In addition, some problems require you to use MATLAB which was a little difficult for me as someone who had never used MATLAB before. I would say expect to dedicate some time to this class early on in the quarter if you need a review on linear algebra or aren't familiar with LaTeX or MATLAB.
Spring 2020 - Professor Li is not the best lecturer and I often found myself a little confused on where in the book we were. However, his tests are extremely similar to the homework and definitely manageable. The homework is in general pretty doable although you do have to code it with LaTeX which can be a little tedious and time consuming. In addition, some problems require you to use MATLAB which was a little difficult for me as someone who had never used MATLAB before. I would say expect to dedicate some time to this class early on in the quarter if you need a review on linear algebra or aren't familiar with LaTeX or MATLAB.
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