Short reviews for some of the courses I've taken.

Spring 2022

First fun term?

CS 230 - Introduction to Computers and Computer Systems

Assembly was pretty cool.

CS 245 - Logic and Computation

Taught by Jonathan Buss. Very cool, wish I had spent more time studying it.

CS 371 - Intro to Computational Mathematics

Taught by Leili Rafiee Sevyeri. Only took it because I thought I was going to do CM. The couse was very AMATH-y and thus boring to me, but I'm surprised how many courses this one led to.

MATH 239 - Intro to Combinatorics

Taught by Kanstantsin Pashkovich. My gateway class to C&O. I thought: "Finally. This is the kind of math I was expecting".

STAT 231 - Statistics

No comment. Please fix this course.

Fall 2022

CS 136L - Tools and Techniques for Software Development

Taught by Nomair Naeem. Useful linux class.

Winter 2023

CHEM 120 - General Chemistry 1

Taught by Germán Sciaini. Great prof, sadly I didn't go to lectures that often. Material was easy but some questions on exams were tricky.

CO 255 - Intro to Optimization (Advanced)

Taught by Walaa Moursi. Interesting course. Learning about linear programs and duality is a lot of fun, especially considering its wide range of applications. This course also made me realize that I prefer working with discrete things rather than continuous ones. The second half of the course was on convex optimization, and it felt very PMATH-y, in a bad way. Walla is an amazing prof. She talks fast but is very patient when it comes to answering questions and explaining concepts.

My notes are not comprehensive as it only contains statements of important definitions and results. Do note that every instructor's CO 255 offering cover different topics, so how useful this will be to you is uncertain.

CS 476 - Numerical Methods for Financial Modeling

Taught by Yuying Li. Apparently a very hard course since the majority of the people had been struggling with assignments. A lot of content to go through, but the material is interesting and very applicable.

PMATH 331 - Applied Real Analysis

Taught by Ali Abdul Assem.

The "normie" version of other analysis courses (333/351). Confirmed that I have no interest with analysis. The prof was very helpful. His lectures are very clear and understandable. Probably the best lecturing voice I've ever heard.

PMATH 334 - Introduction to Rings and Fields with Applications

Taught by Ethan Kowalenko.

Great experience and assignments were challenging. Midterm was hard but I think it's just that I did not prep well. I don't know where Ethan went tho. Bro disappeared after teaching the course.

You can download my notes here. Proofs are omitted and only notable definitions and results are included.

Spring 2023

GER 101 - Elementary German 1

We basically have to learn on ourselves based on a book. Materials were not easy but manageable given practice.

Fall 2023

CO 330 - Combinatorial Enumeration

Taught by Olya Mandelshtam. A nice extension on MATH 239. Started with the basics (combinatorial classes) and went all the way to exponential generating functions. Didn't have enough time for midterm, but over all it was a good experience.

CO 450 - Combinatorial Optimization

Taught by Bill Cook. Lectures were very fun and relaxing, but the assignments were very hard. Luckily collaboration is encouraged.

CO 456 - Intro to Game Theory

Taught by Martin Pei. Martin prepared well for every lecture, and were helpful when it comes to answering students' questions. However, the topic is very new to me and I struggled to solve problems in test.

CO 485 - The Mathematics of Public-Key Cryptography

Taught by David Jao. Very mathy cryptography course. David freestyled every lecture but it worked well. Final project was fun.

My notes are not comprehensive as it only contains statements of important definitions and results. Do note that every instructor's CO 485 offering cover different topics, so how useful this will be to you is uncertain.

KOREA 101R - First-Year Korean 1

Taught by Yanggong Kim. Prof was very passionate in teaching and responsible to students. Course staff put in a lot of effort to ensure we are given enough practice (verbal and writing).

Winter 2024

CO 331 - Coding Theory

Taught by Alfred Menezes. The perfect online course. The course material haven't changed in a decade, because it works perfectly. The course is all about very nice algebraic results and their applications. Great experience.

CO 430 - Algebraic Enumeration

Taught by David Wagner.

Be nice to him, he's kind of a character. David Jao, ex-CO Undergrad Officer

I enjoyed the course a lot. Considering my interest in enumerative combinatorics, this isn't a surprise. Some topics covered are:

He has since retired, making this one of the last courses he's ever taught. The other one being Design Theory, which Yun took and liked.

CO 481 - Intro to Quantum Info and Processing

Taught by Michele Mosca.

Very fun. Quantum info is entirely new for me and it was exciting to learn about it. The prof talks kinda vague sometimes but will happily clarify any questions students may have. The course also had amazing TAs. They helped me a lot with the assignments. The last few lectures for the course were guest speakers working with quantum information and quantum physics who came and spoke about the current cutting-edge stuff, including

I'm by no means a physicist or an expert in the field so there might be some mistakes. Overall, 10/10 course. Would recommend to anyone.

COMM 101 - Intro to Financial Markets

Taught by Peter Blake. Horrible course. The material was fine I guess, but the instructors and TAs have been ghosting students for the entire term. Learn discussion questions went months without reply.

Wasn't a bird either. Not recommended.

Spring 2024

CO 739 - Proof Formalization

Taught by Peter Nelson. This is a brand new course which attracted a lot of attention from students across different math majors. Unfortunately, I had to drop it because when I was trying to do the exercises, it felt like someone was grating my brain with a cheese grater.

Fall 2024

Last research term was great!

CO 342 - Introduction to Graph Theory

Taught by Jim Geelen. People have been saying a lot of marks have been taking off on assignments for not enough clarity in the proofs, but I feel like they are fair. The TAs this term are Matt and Ceci.

By convention this course covers some extra topics, different depending on the lecturer. The extra topic covered in the last week was matching via linear algebra, very interesting and an appetizer for algebraic graph theory.

CS 234 - Data Types and Structures

Online course. Oftentimes assignment question wording was vague and markings were arbitrary. Ideas from the course could have been explained better with more concise and much simpler wording, making going through the convoluted online lectures a huge waste of time. This course is a disgrace to the faculty and proof that CS department doesn't care about CS courses non-CS students take. Not recommended.

PMATH 336 - Introduction to Group Theory with Application

Taught by Wentang Kuo. I'm updating some notes here.

Very enthusiastic lecturer but sometimes talks too fast and proofs are hard to follow. Assignments are okay. Compared to PMATH 347 this course covers a lot more examples and is definitely not easier.

LAT 101 - Introduction to Latin

Taught by Ron Kroeker. I definitely don't regret switching Japanese for this. Much more interesting. Prof goes on a tangent every 2 minutes but it's all good.

GRK 101 - Introduction to Ancient Greek

Taught by Andrea Faulkner. Very calm lecturer with ASMR voice. Heavy reading, for a math student at least. Recommended if you're interested in classics. You can download my final study guide here.

Winter 2025

My last term, consisting of only one course due to scheduling mishaps :/

CO 739 - New Frontiers in Combinatorial Design

Taught by Luke Postle. Covering a new proof by Delcourt and Postle for the Existence Conjecture. It's probabilistic methods in disguise of hypergraphs in disguise of design theory in disguise of sudoku. Interesting, but sometimes very calculation-heavy.

This concludes my undergraduate career.