EC ENGR M16
Logic Design of Digital Systems
Description: (Formerly numbered Electrical Engineering M16.) (Same as Computer Science M51A.) Lecture, four hours; discussion, two hours; outside study, six hours. Introduction to digital systems. Specification and implementation of combinational and sequential systems. Standard logic modules and programmable logic arrays. Specification and implementation of algorithmic systems: data and control sections. Number systems and arithmetic algorithms. Error control codes for digital information. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Don't know why she got such a bad rating here. I thought Cabric was a good professor. She explained the concepts clearly in lecture. I always left feeling like I understood the material better. In addition, her homework and tests seemed fair to me. Cabric gets the job done, and I would recommend her.
Don't know why she got such a bad rating here. I thought Cabric was a good professor. She explained the concepts clearly in lecture. I always left feeling like I understood the material better. In addition, her homework and tests seemed fair to me. Cabric gets the job done, and I would recommend her.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - As a transfer student to UCLA I wouldn't expect ECE department to assign an unexperienced professor assistant for such important class like this. I loved the material of this class but this instructor made the class HORRIBLE. He didn't know what his doing and all he did was to upload lectures online and just put them on screen in class with absolutely no explanation. He didn't even put an effort to make his own hw sets, he just gave us one his colleges hws from few quarter ago without even changing his name, and obviously more than half of the class had the solution. Our midterm was way to hard with so many question and instead of having 2 hour of lecture time for the test we only got 70 min so no one could finish the test and when everyone complained the TA's said the instructor didn't informed us that you don't have the whole lecture time for midterm. Overall this class is the worst class I ever took in my entire life. My recommendation: if you see "X. Chen" listed for any class in ECE department just avoid taking that class even if you get behind for a year.
Winter 2020 - As a transfer student to UCLA I wouldn't expect ECE department to assign an unexperienced professor assistant for such important class like this. I loved the material of this class but this instructor made the class HORRIBLE. He didn't know what his doing and all he did was to upload lectures online and just put them on screen in class with absolutely no explanation. He didn't even put an effort to make his own hw sets, he just gave us one his colleges hws from few quarter ago without even changing his name, and obviously more than half of the class had the solution. Our midterm was way to hard with so many question and instead of having 2 hour of lecture time for the test we only got 70 min so no one could finish the test and when everyone complained the TA's said the instructor didn't informed us that you don't have the whole lecture time for midterm. Overall this class is the worst class I ever took in my entire life. My recommendation: if you see "X. Chen" listed for any class in ECE department just avoid taking that class even if you get behind for a year.
Most Helpful Review
He's pretty alright. His way of teaching doesn't work for everyone—the whole "I'll keep asking until someone says the answer" during lecture. Overall though he did teach us the material pretty thoroughly, and (thankfully?) he doesn't cover any of the low-level transistor stuff that some M16/M51A professors cover. He does go pretty in depth elsewhere though, and the midterm/final are pretty difficult. He did mention that this was his first time teaching M16, so perhaps that explains the difficulty of the exams but he's overall pretty fair. One midterm, one final project, one final exam. Start on the project early—it's not actually that hard once you get started, but it's a lot to wrap your mind around.
He's pretty alright. His way of teaching doesn't work for everyone—the whole "I'll keep asking until someone says the answer" during lecture. Overall though he did teach us the material pretty thoroughly, and (thankfully?) he doesn't cover any of the low-level transistor stuff that some M16/M51A professors cover. He does go pretty in depth elsewhere though, and the midterm/final are pretty difficult. He did mention that this was his first time teaching M16, so perhaps that explains the difficulty of the exams but he's overall pretty fair. One midterm, one final project, one final exam. Start on the project early—it's not actually that hard once you get started, but it's a lot to wrap your mind around.
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Most Helpful Review
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. You will learn nothing from her lectures. THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN SOMETHING IN CLASS IS TO READ THE BOOK. I, personally, read the entire book. That is the only reason why I got an A in this class. Otherwise, her lectures are a plain waste of time. Besides, her quizzes are just silly and ridiculous. She gets carried away sometimes, speaking of her personal life. Also presentations at the end of the quarter are stupid because no one prepares anything useful and you end up sitting there browsing the web on your laptop. Just buy a book other than the one she assigns. Because that one won't teach you anything as it is a reference book, and NOT a coursebook. Care about the material? Don't take her. Waste of time. Good luck! Btw, her exams are really difficult.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. You will learn nothing from her lectures. THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN SOMETHING IN CLASS IS TO READ THE BOOK. I, personally, read the entire book. That is the only reason why I got an A in this class. Otherwise, her lectures are a plain waste of time. Besides, her quizzes are just silly and ridiculous. She gets carried away sometimes, speaking of her personal life. Also presentations at the end of the quarter are stupid because no one prepares anything useful and you end up sitting there browsing the web on your laptop. Just buy a book other than the one she assigns. Because that one won't teach you anything as it is a reference book, and NOT a coursebook. Care about the material? Don't take her. Waste of time. Good luck! Btw, her exams are really difficult.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Since COM SCI M51A has no tests, the class itself has no tests (no final either) and only requires you to do two projects and homework sets. Initially, we were told that there would be eight problem sets, but for some reason the professor changed that midway through to six problem sets and also made the projects required for passing (they originally were not). Miscommunication is a recurring theme in the course. A more serious issue was when the professor confirmed that the class would be curved, but not downcurved (he promised our grade would not go down from the curve), yet at the end, gave all students a significant downcurve. The difference between an A (98.4%) and a B+ (97.8%) was only 0.6% in the end and filling out an optional extra credit course evaluation (worth 1.125%) could literally mean the difference between a B+ and an A. Homework assignments were also initially due on Friday morning, then were clarified to be due Tuesday at midnight, then ended up being due Sunday at 11:59 PM for some reason. The problem sets in the class essentially consist of challenge problems and it can take hours sometimes just to figure out how you would even approach a problem. TAs were very helpful in this regard as they would respond in minutes and they would give a lot of helpful hints during office hours There are anywhere from four to six problems in the problem sets and usually ask you to design some sort of circuit (e.g. make a full adder with logic gates, make a multiplexer with logic gates, etc.) by hand. Professor He's lectures were not helpful or very clear in this regard (they are essentially an overview of the textbook), but his slides (which were from Stanford, MIT, or even the textbook manufacturer) would help you out with solving the odd problem on the problem set. Overall, Neso Academy on YouTube was significantly more useful in getting an understanding of the material than Professor He. The projects were relatively straightforward and the TAs did a fantastic job of leading us through it. It is self-learning for Verilog for the most part although with the TAs help it wasn't too bad. The amount of time given is (around four weeks for the first project, and three for the second) is significantly more than you need to finish them. TL;DR - Poor communication throughout the course, Professor He's lectures were not clear/helpful, TAs were fantastic, no tests so only problem sets/projects for your grade, HEAVY downcurve, problem sets were hard
Winter 2021 - Since COM SCI M51A has no tests, the class itself has no tests (no final either) and only requires you to do two projects and homework sets. Initially, we were told that there would be eight problem sets, but for some reason the professor changed that midway through to six problem sets and also made the projects required for passing (they originally were not). Miscommunication is a recurring theme in the course. A more serious issue was when the professor confirmed that the class would be curved, but not downcurved (he promised our grade would not go down from the curve), yet at the end, gave all students a significant downcurve. The difference between an A (98.4%) and a B+ (97.8%) was only 0.6% in the end and filling out an optional extra credit course evaluation (worth 1.125%) could literally mean the difference between a B+ and an A. Homework assignments were also initially due on Friday morning, then were clarified to be due Tuesday at midnight, then ended up being due Sunday at 11:59 PM for some reason. The problem sets in the class essentially consist of challenge problems and it can take hours sometimes just to figure out how you would even approach a problem. TAs were very helpful in this regard as they would respond in minutes and they would give a lot of helpful hints during office hours There are anywhere from four to six problems in the problem sets and usually ask you to design some sort of circuit (e.g. make a full adder with logic gates, make a multiplexer with logic gates, etc.) by hand. Professor He's lectures were not helpful or very clear in this regard (they are essentially an overview of the textbook), but his slides (which were from Stanford, MIT, or even the textbook manufacturer) would help you out with solving the odd problem on the problem set. Overall, Neso Academy on YouTube was significantly more useful in getting an understanding of the material than Professor He. The projects were relatively straightforward and the TAs did a fantastic job of leading us through it. It is self-learning for Verilog for the most part although with the TAs help it wasn't too bad. The amount of time given is (around four weeks for the first project, and three for the second) is significantly more than you need to finish them. TL;DR - Poor communication throughout the course, Professor He's lectures were not clear/helpful, TAs were fantastic, no tests so only problem sets/projects for your grade, HEAVY downcurve, problem sets were hard
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