CS 6501

Definitely not the most interesting course - a lot of review from undergrad OS & Comp Arch courses - but also not particularly difficult. The course had a pretty straightforward homework assignment every other week and 4 mini-projects that build on itself throughout the semester, which involved programming a low level microcontroller (it's all in C which is a bit annoying). The mini-projects culminated in a final group project that was very doable if the work was split up between group members. Each student also gives a presentation about a related research paper. There was a final exam which was pretty straightforward if you study the past exams she provides. Overall, there is a good amount of work but none of it is very difficult and a lot of the course content is likely review from undergrad courses.

CS 6501 - Advanced Embedded Systems with Homa Alemzadeh. Awful course. This is simply a rehashing of an undergraduate operating systems course, except the material is explained in a far worse manner. The course involves programming an embedded systems microcontroller using Keil, a frustrating and unstable IDE. When it does work, the assignments are vague and aren't conducive to learning anything new, especially for graduate CS students. Alemzadeh's methods of explanation are so poor and inadequate compared to CS professors teaching OS courses that basic OS questions become difficult to answer when she poses them. During lectures, she was rarely able to answer questions asked by students; answers typically included phrases like "yes, that is something to consider" or "I'm not sure about that". Other students in the course often proposed answers in the absence of one from Alemzadeh. During lecture, she accused students of being rude simply for shaking their heads and even tried to refuse a student the opportunity to take the mid-term exam because they rarely came to class (recordings of lectures were posted, so coming to class was not strictly necessary). Do yourself a favor and steer clear of Alemzadeh until these issues are resolved.