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Lara Dolecek
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Based on 55 Users
She doesn't upload any lectures or slides on CCLE, but she writes down everything on board, every concept from basic to advance, every proof even with the baby steps. She's really good at teaching and her lectures were amazing, were after taking her class I started to do a minor in math as well. Her class is based on weekly hws that involves matlab coding, a project at the end which she gives you at least 3-4 weeks to do it, and a midterm and final which is really similar to her leture examples not the hws.
This class quite challenging.Be prepared for a lot of math (matrix calculus, probability, convex optimization). Professor Dolecek goes through all the mathematical proofs in detail. But you still need to spend some extra time to learn and understand them. (Also her handwriting makes her slides unreadable, so do take notes during lectures otherwise you won't understand what she was writing).
The homework is usually 5-6 problems, with 1 or 2 asking you to implement an algorithm you learned in class with python or matlab. It is definitely time consuming, especially the programming problems. I personally spent ~10hrs per week for the homework (partially because I'm not familiar with python and matlab). However, after struggling through all the problems, I did learn a lot.
The midterm was a lot easier than the homework. So don't get too stressed for that. (I can't speak for the final though bc I opt-out of it).
Overall I'll recommend this course. It's challenging but you learn a lot.
Since I've already taken Math 170 sequence courses, I walked into this class without expecting to learn much. However, this was not the case. I thought I've already learned probability extremely well, but Professor Dolecek's teaching truly made my understanding clearer than ever. One of the highlights of this course was definitely the coding final project since we were able to simulate probabilistic scenarios with computation, and I had tons of fun with it. The professor was also pretty accommodating by creating an additional midterm to alleviate the pressure of depending on a single midterm. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this course with Professor Dolecek.
Overall this is a math class, with minimal programming questions sprinkled in. Midterms, final, lectures, and 75% of the hw questions were all math proofs/questions. However, the exams were pretty easy and straightforward. They were open book, which was a lifesaver since the questions were heavily based on her lectures. Recommend taking 10/10
Overall, I'm very happy with this class and its instructors (Lara Dolecek, Lev Tauz, Mitra Debarnab). I come from a CS background and have taken 1-2 machine learning classes (a few years ago) where they never really delved into the mathematical details of distributions, their origins and properties. This class helped fill that gap for me and I feel more confident in my understanding of the maths behind ML.
As for the class itself, it covers pretty much everything from the initial axioms that define probability up to common statistical measures such as covariance, squared error and correlation. I took this class remotely via the MSOL program and had a grade breakdown as follows:
-25% Homework (8 in total)
-25% Midterm (open book)
-25% Assignment (solo)
-25% Final (open book)
10 weeks is not a lot of time for this and it shows: the class moves at a fast pace, particularly towards the end. Even in the week of the final, a sizable number of new topics were introduced (fortunately, they did not feature in the exam). I personally did not do as well in the final exam, but got good grades otherwise, ending up with 88% overall.
Some tips for new students:
-The following concepts are useful to know: set theory, multivariable calculus (partial derivatives, double integrals, limits, convergence), convolution, Fourier transform, sums and sequences, complex numbers, gamma function and delta function. You don't need to know all of them, but most should be familiar.
-The textbook is your friend: it covers the content of the lectures at a higher level of detail and has useful examples when you're struggling with the homework.
-The discussions are helpful, as they will go over more advanced problems that the lectures do not address. Also, they are usually a bit more difficult than the exam, so if you take the time to solve and understand those you should be fine.
-The assignment is an easy way to boost your grades as the concepts are not particularly difficult. However, it does take quite a while to write up the MATLAB programs and report, so make sure to start it before the last week so you have some idea of how long it will take you.
Professor Dolecek has very engaging lectures and she challenges you just enough to make the class interesting and challenging but not overly challenging. Her tests were very fair and her homework were interesting. Although her rubric was a little harsh if you were trying to go for partial credit. Overall she was a very good professor in my opinion and this was my favourite class during the quarter
This class is fine. The exams weren't too hard, the homework load was fine. Homework was so light at the beginning and then became very time consuming at the end. The class for me was easy in the beginning(with combinatorics and stuff) but at the end it got much more complicated. The lectures are good and the professor aims to connect the material to real life applications with example problems which is good. Handwriting on the notes is sometimes hard to read, but just ask the professor if you don't know what she wrote and she'll tell you. The project is fine, but try to start on it early and ask lots of questions about instructions if you are unsure.
class is very approachable and projects are pretty handhold-y, so I had a good time. though if you plan on taking m146 and don't need the intro I'd say just take m146 and don't take this class (m146 encompasses all of m148)
In my opinion, Professor Dolecek is severely underrated on bruinwalk, and I definitely enjoyed her class the most this quarter.
Dolecek's lectures reminded me of those MIT open-class videos that I have seen on Youtube. She was very organized and explained the concepts pretty well. She always answered questions that people had and encouraged class participation. This is why even though her lectures were recorded, most people still preferred to show up in person. I think the biggest downside about her lectures was that she handwrote all her notes on the whiteboard and it could be hard to read sometimes. Regardless, you could always ask her to clarity what each symbol meant.
The exams were okay. I went over her past exams in the test bank, and I realized that her exams used to be a lot harder. Maybe that is why she has such bad reviews on bruinwalk. Anyway, our midterm and final were pretty well designed and similar to the HW, with maybe one or two questions that were kind of challenging/tricky. If you understand the HW, you should get at least a 90 on the exams. Be sure to check your answers though, we did not get to use a calculator during the exams and they did not grade our exams very nicely (you would lose a lot of points for making an algebraic error).
Some of the HW questions involved coding in matlab and there was a matlab project. I did not find coding in matlab particularly difficult with the help of the internet.
Prof Dolecek is one of the best lecturers in the ECE department. This is one of the few upper div classes where I feel that I can fully absorb the content taught in the 2-hour lecture, and be immediately able to do most homework problems (without having to do too much of my own mental gymnastics). Her approach of writing on the whiteboard, having us take our own notes, and asking us lots of questions really helped me stay engaged, but this might not work as well for those who learn better with slides or by watching recordings. She does, however, upload PDF notes from a previous quarter.
She doesn't upload any lectures or slides on CCLE, but she writes down everything on board, every concept from basic to advance, every proof even with the baby steps. She's really good at teaching and her lectures were amazing, were after taking her class I started to do a minor in math as well. Her class is based on weekly hws that involves matlab coding, a project at the end which she gives you at least 3-4 weeks to do it, and a midterm and final which is really similar to her leture examples not the hws.
This class quite challenging.Be prepared for a lot of math (matrix calculus, probability, convex optimization). Professor Dolecek goes through all the mathematical proofs in detail. But you still need to spend some extra time to learn and understand them. (Also her handwriting makes her slides unreadable, so do take notes during lectures otherwise you won't understand what she was writing).
The homework is usually 5-6 problems, with 1 or 2 asking you to implement an algorithm you learned in class with python or matlab. It is definitely time consuming, especially the programming problems. I personally spent ~10hrs per week for the homework (partially because I'm not familiar with python and matlab). However, after struggling through all the problems, I did learn a lot.
The midterm was a lot easier than the homework. So don't get too stressed for that. (I can't speak for the final though bc I opt-out of it).
Overall I'll recommend this course. It's challenging but you learn a lot.
Since I've already taken Math 170 sequence courses, I walked into this class without expecting to learn much. However, this was not the case. I thought I've already learned probability extremely well, but Professor Dolecek's teaching truly made my understanding clearer than ever. One of the highlights of this course was definitely the coding final project since we were able to simulate probabilistic scenarios with computation, and I had tons of fun with it. The professor was also pretty accommodating by creating an additional midterm to alleviate the pressure of depending on a single midterm. Overall, I would highly recommend taking this course with Professor Dolecek.
Overall this is a math class, with minimal programming questions sprinkled in. Midterms, final, lectures, and 75% of the hw questions were all math proofs/questions. However, the exams were pretty easy and straightforward. They were open book, which was a lifesaver since the questions were heavily based on her lectures. Recommend taking 10/10
Overall, I'm very happy with this class and its instructors (Lara Dolecek, Lev Tauz, Mitra Debarnab). I come from a CS background and have taken 1-2 machine learning classes (a few years ago) where they never really delved into the mathematical details of distributions, their origins and properties. This class helped fill that gap for me and I feel more confident in my understanding of the maths behind ML.
As for the class itself, it covers pretty much everything from the initial axioms that define probability up to common statistical measures such as covariance, squared error and correlation. I took this class remotely via the MSOL program and had a grade breakdown as follows:
-25% Homework (8 in total)
-25% Midterm (open book)
-25% Assignment (solo)
-25% Final (open book)
10 weeks is not a lot of time for this and it shows: the class moves at a fast pace, particularly towards the end. Even in the week of the final, a sizable number of new topics were introduced (fortunately, they did not feature in the exam). I personally did not do as well in the final exam, but got good grades otherwise, ending up with 88% overall.
Some tips for new students:
-The following concepts are useful to know: set theory, multivariable calculus (partial derivatives, double integrals, limits, convergence), convolution, Fourier transform, sums and sequences, complex numbers, gamma function and delta function. You don't need to know all of them, but most should be familiar.
-The textbook is your friend: it covers the content of the lectures at a higher level of detail and has useful examples when you're struggling with the homework.
-The discussions are helpful, as they will go over more advanced problems that the lectures do not address. Also, they are usually a bit more difficult than the exam, so if you take the time to solve and understand those you should be fine.
-The assignment is an easy way to boost your grades as the concepts are not particularly difficult. However, it does take quite a while to write up the MATLAB programs and report, so make sure to start it before the last week so you have some idea of how long it will take you.
Professor Dolecek has very engaging lectures and she challenges you just enough to make the class interesting and challenging but not overly challenging. Her tests were very fair and her homework were interesting. Although her rubric was a little harsh if you were trying to go for partial credit. Overall she was a very good professor in my opinion and this was my favourite class during the quarter
This class is fine. The exams weren't too hard, the homework load was fine. Homework was so light at the beginning and then became very time consuming at the end. The class for me was easy in the beginning(with combinatorics and stuff) but at the end it got much more complicated. The lectures are good and the professor aims to connect the material to real life applications with example problems which is good. Handwriting on the notes is sometimes hard to read, but just ask the professor if you don't know what she wrote and she'll tell you. The project is fine, but try to start on it early and ask lots of questions about instructions if you are unsure.
class is very approachable and projects are pretty handhold-y, so I had a good time. though if you plan on taking m146 and don't need the intro I'd say just take m146 and don't take this class (m146 encompasses all of m148)
In my opinion, Professor Dolecek is severely underrated on bruinwalk, and I definitely enjoyed her class the most this quarter.
Dolecek's lectures reminded me of those MIT open-class videos that I have seen on Youtube. She was very organized and explained the concepts pretty well. She always answered questions that people had and encouraged class participation. This is why even though her lectures were recorded, most people still preferred to show up in person. I think the biggest downside about her lectures was that she handwrote all her notes on the whiteboard and it could be hard to read sometimes. Regardless, you could always ask her to clarity what each symbol meant.
The exams were okay. I went over her past exams in the test bank, and I realized that her exams used to be a lot harder. Maybe that is why she has such bad reviews on bruinwalk. Anyway, our midterm and final were pretty well designed and similar to the HW, with maybe one or two questions that were kind of challenging/tricky. If you understand the HW, you should get at least a 90 on the exams. Be sure to check your answers though, we did not get to use a calculator during the exams and they did not grade our exams very nicely (you would lose a lot of points for making an algebraic error).
Some of the HW questions involved coding in matlab and there was a matlab project. I did not find coding in matlab particularly difficult with the help of the internet.
Prof Dolecek is one of the best lecturers in the ECE department. This is one of the few upper div classes where I feel that I can fully absorb the content taught in the 2-hour lecture, and be immediately able to do most homework problems (without having to do too much of my own mental gymnastics). Her approach of writing on the whiteboard, having us take our own notes, and asking us lots of questions really helped me stay engaged, but this might not work as well for those who learn better with slides or by watching recordings. She does, however, upload PDF notes from a previous quarter.