CS 4710

This class was absolutely incredible!! Professor Floryan is someone who clearly enjoys teaching the class and just interacting with the students. I was sincerely impressed by the kind of community that was built in the class for it being fully online. During lectures the Zoom chat would be buzzing both about class material and going off on fun tangents from the material, and Floryan would engage with all of it which I thought was super cool.

The homeworks were not the easiest but they were super fun, especially the second half. HW3 involved writing an algorithm that would play Ticket To Ride (the board game) and everyone who wanted could enter their bot into a class-wide bracket. We got to watch the final round of the bracket live on the last day of class and cheer on the bots while the owners explained their algorithms which was a really great way to end the semester.

There were probably a few hiccups with the grading system, in particular the quizzes could feel a little subjective, and you needed to pass each quiz to some extent to get a good grade (each quiz/hw corresponded to one of nine modules and you were graded based on how many modules you passed). Overall there were plenty of retake opportunities (HWs could be resubmitted as many times as you want even after you received feedback) and the TAs were really good about keeping up with grading.

If you're looking for a fun and interesting CS elective I would highly recommend this class!

Floryan is a great lecturer, his assignments are enjoyable, and he is a mostly fair grader. Taking AI with him was very enjoyable. Most of the lectures were fascinating and he explained everything well enough that I didn't have to study a great deal for the tests to get an ok grade. The assignments were great because he introduced an element of competition to them, as well as allowed us to do them however we wanted. My only suggestion for him would be to let us share how we did each assignment so that we can learn from our fellow students.

This class was one of the best I've taken so far at UVa. The subject matter was interesting and Professor Floryan is great at explaining complex concepts and answering students' questions. The most difficult part of the course for me was the homework. Due to the fact that I took this course over the Summer there was little to no downtime between assignments and some would be due 3 days after they were released. It is crucial that you start early, get help from a TA or Floryan if necessary and choose a good partner. I worked without a partner but if you are able to find someone that will work equally hard and is at a similar skill level, your life will be a lot easier. Some parts of tests were quite difficult but fair given you were well prepared. Highly recommend the class but be prepared because it won't be easy.

N.B.: I took this course the first semester Floryan taught it; thus, some things were "bumpy" that should be worked out by the second semester.

Regarding Floryan: Awesome professor. He's super approachable, and is really helpful during office hours. His lecture style is pretty laid back and engaging. Class discussions were a fairly large part of this course, so certainly go to class.

Regarding the course content: We start with Expert Systems, then move to Local Search/Path Planning, and wrap up with reasoning under uncertainty and machine learning. There were four homework assignments and four takehome, open-book exams.

The homeworks were fairly easy (I spent not much more than ~5 hours on each; perhaps more for the first). Each had a window of about 2 weeks to complete. There's one for each major topic of the course; I've heard he may add another, which would *not* be a big burden at all.

The takehome tests were also really easy. He cancelled class on those days and held office hours instead; if you go to his (crowded) office at that time, he's really helpful in answering any questions you may have about the tests. No, he doesn't give you the answer, but he's more helpful than most professors are.

Some people mentioned grading issues; I'm tempted to think that this is because they either didn't pay attention to his last-minute modifications during class, or because they didn't read the assignment document thoroughly--I never lost a point on the homeworks. He holds office hours; I'd recommend hanging out even if you don't have exact questions. Some of the best help I received was when other students asked questions and I listened in to his answers.

Yes, the class was a bit disorganized this semester--the assignments were constructed "on the fly," and many important decisions were made offhand and in-class. That, however, should be resolved by next semester, now that Floryan knows what he's going to cover/assign.

Was an okay class, felt more like algo part 2 than anything AI. 4 homeworks, 4 take home exams, 1 hour long final during finals week.
Homework and exams were a mess. Personally, I had to go back and get each assignment regraded because the grading did not follow the key.
All assignments including exams were pretty ambiguous, either with wording or goals. That can be a pro or a con depending on who you are.
Floryan is a good professor, helpful and laid back. He teaches from the slides, so lectures were a bit boring.

If you're not 100% with AI, DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS.

Floryan is a great, laid back teacher. He teaches from the slides and sometimes does stuff on the board. One thing I disliked about this class was that his slides had a /lot/ of variables and if you didn't note down what they were they were hard to decipher later.

Midterms were take home, final will be in class. Homeworks could be done in groups of 2, but were sometimes frustrating to do.

Pros: Floryan. Interesting topic if you like AI. Homework groups. Take home midterms.

Cons: Slides are very example light. Lots of variables in the notes. Midterms can be tricky. Homework sometimes is very hard. Homeworks prepare you for nothing on the midterms and later in the semester feel less AI than some of the earlier topics.

Something to note as well: This is the first time Floryan taught this class so while we kept on track lecture wise, the homeworks suffered.

Floryan is a really engaging lecturer and a really chill guy. This class is a nice overview of several topics in AI and was really informative while not being too work intense. Homework assignments were up to you to make the most out of them which was pretty nice.