CS 4457

This is a great CS elective if you want something that isn't too much work but still learn a lot. The course covers basically how every aspect of the internet works at every step of the way. Some of the lectures were kinda dense because there are lots of specific protocols that we covered but Professor Campbell is a pretty good lecturer and it never felt super boring or confusing - also he just seems like a really nice guy and is very approachable. He frequently does interactive lectures with the whole class that kept me engaged. The assignments weren't too bad we had 3 homeworks and 5 projects. The homeworks were pretty straightforward and you could just read over the slides. The projects involved some simple python coding and none of them took more than a few hours. Also, we got 6 free extension days that we could use across the semester for any assignment which was pretty nice. There were 2 exams that were both pretty doable - I recommend doing the exams from past semesters to study.

Overall: Solid CS elective, learned a lot but not super challenging material, good professor, not too much work outside of lectures

Campbell is passionate about the Internet, how it works, and who should control it. He often uses interactive activities in class, such as making students forward packets to each other. I've asked a lot of questions in his class and he usually has an answer even if the topic is not in the syllabus. You have to remember how many different protocols work in the class and the projects are confusing if you don't ask for help from TAs. That said, I missed a lot of lectures and still did well on the second exam, so if you're a more attentive student, you can still do well. I would recommend CS majors take the class if they're interested in web dev or just looking for a fun, not-difficult elective. In addition to the 5 layers of the Internet protocol stack, you also learn about basic cybersecurity, TOR, VPNs, WiFi, and censorship.