Professor
Robert Gould
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2016 - Gould is really nice and emphasizes understanding the intuition rather than the mathematical detail. The class is basically a walkthrough of many of the most popular machine learning algorithms. The downside is that you don't really learn how the algorithms are derived from. (You need another class for that) Homework and midterm were very easy when I took it. My favorite part about the class is the Kaggle competition which involves teaming up with classmates and competing to come up with a model that best predicts a dataset. There was no written final and the grade was based on your team's performance and the group presentation. I learnt the most from working on the project and there was no restriction on what models you could use. Fun times.
Spring 2016 - Gould is really nice and emphasizes understanding the intuition rather than the mathematical detail. The class is basically a walkthrough of many of the most popular machine learning algorithms. The downside is that you don't really learn how the algorithms are derived from. (You need another class for that) Homework and midterm were very easy when I took it. My favorite part about the class is the Kaggle competition which involves teaming up with classmates and competing to come up with a model that best predicts a dataset. There was no written final and the grade was based on your team's performance and the group presentation. I learnt the most from working on the project and there was no restriction on what models you could use. Fun times.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Gould generally appears not to know what he is talking about if it deviates from his lecture plan; doesn't appear to communicate well with the TAs (i.e. doesn't know about where missing homeworks are or that they even went missing). He tries very hard, but never answers questions directly in class. I ask "How does this work?" or for further explanation, and his replies usually stem from "we'll discuss it later in lecture" but it never happens. The homework is very difficult and seems to have nothing to do with the exams. The homework is graded very nit-picky and is very problem-solving based. However the midterm exam was all theoretical and interpretation. There never is a clear standard given for correct interpretation, and everybody is always getting points marked off for having incorrect interpretations. The labs are easy, and the TAs help you through it. Stats 112 is a joke. Its basically the same concepts in elementary statistics except with "sociological" examples.
Professor Gould generally appears not to know what he is talking about if it deviates from his lecture plan; doesn't appear to communicate well with the TAs (i.e. doesn't know about where missing homeworks are or that they even went missing). He tries very hard, but never answers questions directly in class. I ask "How does this work?" or for further explanation, and his replies usually stem from "we'll discuss it later in lecture" but it never happens. The homework is very difficult and seems to have nothing to do with the exams. The homework is graded very nit-picky and is very problem-solving based. However the midterm exam was all theoretical and interpretation. There never is a clear standard given for correct interpretation, and everybody is always getting points marked off for having incorrect interpretations. The labs are easy, and the TAs help you through it. Stats 112 is a joke. Its basically the same concepts in elementary statistics except with "sociological" examples.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - You just meet once a week for an hour. A guest speaker comes in and talks about their job, and Gould gives you a week to briefly answer 1-2 simple questions about the guest lecture (e.g., what did you find interesting about the presentation, does this job appeal to you, etc) and upload to CCLE. "Final exam" is to just submit a resume. Only caveat is that attendance is mandatory (there's a sign in sheet). If you're in need of units, this is pretty much a free P/NP 1.0 unit to tack onto your schedule.
Winter 2020 - You just meet once a week for an hour. A guest speaker comes in and talks about their job, and Gould gives you a week to briefly answer 1-2 simple questions about the guest lecture (e.g., what did you find interesting about the presentation, does this job appeal to you, etc) and upload to CCLE. "Final exam" is to just submit a resume. Only caveat is that attendance is mandatory (there's a sign in sheet). If you're in need of units, this is pretty much a free P/NP 1.0 unit to tack onto your schedule.
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