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Professor
Lixia Zhang
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - To be honest, I didn't attend many of the class lectures. However, I did fine by doing all the assigned reading (which was a bit heavy but the textbook is interesting) and checking the slides to review the important topics. The lectures I did attend were interesting, but I had trouble paying attention because her voice is a bit quiet at times. However, you can definitely tell that the professor knows what she's talking about. Sometimes she tells funny stories, too! The homework questions are sometimes a bit vague, but the TAs do a good job of clarifying on Piazza. The homework assignments also took varying amounts of time, but none of them were too long. I thought the projects were really useful for learning about networking concepts. We got to have a group (1-3) for the second project, which was time consuming to debug but overall fine. For the midterm, you should be fine as long as you understand the slides and how to do the homework. I'm not sure about the final because we were allowed to opt-out due to COVID-19.
Winter 2020 - To be honest, I didn't attend many of the class lectures. However, I did fine by doing all the assigned reading (which was a bit heavy but the textbook is interesting) and checking the slides to review the important topics. The lectures I did attend were interesting, but I had trouble paying attention because her voice is a bit quiet at times. However, you can definitely tell that the professor knows what she's talking about. Sometimes she tells funny stories, too! The homework questions are sometimes a bit vague, but the TAs do a good job of clarifying on Piazza. The homework assignments also took varying amounts of time, but none of them were too long. I thought the projects were really useful for learning about networking concepts. We got to have a group (1-3) for the second project, which was time consuming to debug but overall fine. For the midterm, you should be fine as long as you understand the slides and how to do the homework. I'm not sure about the final because we were allowed to opt-out due to COVID-19.
Most Helpful Review
Learning networks from Prof.Zhang is pure pleasure. She is extremely knowledgeable and has been there done that. She is also concerned about student understanding and wont hesitate to repeat entire lectures if she finds that students are struggling a little with certain topics. The course is fairly heavy though not overly so. If you read the RFCs and lecture slides she posts, you will have no problem with the course. It is the kind of course that motivates you to learn more about networks. She is super busy though so dont expect your quizes to be graded in time. But when she is available, she wont blow you off if you go to her during office hours. Do try to attend her classes. They are definitely worth it.
Learning networks from Prof.Zhang is pure pleasure. She is extremely knowledgeable and has been there done that. She is also concerned about student understanding and wont hesitate to repeat entire lectures if she finds that students are struggling a little with certain topics. The course is fairly heavy though not overly so. If you read the RFCs and lecture slides she posts, you will have no problem with the course. It is the kind of course that motivates you to learn more about networks. She is super busy though so dont expect your quizes to be graded in time. But when she is available, she wont blow you off if you go to her during office hours. Do try to attend her classes. They are definitely worth it.