Professor
Jonathan Kao
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2024 - Professor Kao was honestly a little overhyped. In terms of teaching it was pretty standard he would just go over proofs during lecture that often became math heavy. He seemed nice and considerate after our midterm with an average "lower than expected" and let us replace the midterm grade with our final. However, he only gave us false hope; the final was alot harder than the midterm with an average being around 20 percent lower. I felt like the question asked on the final were obscure and a little unfair given the last four years finals had similar format. Alot of the final also depended on thinking about a specific application that wasn't really emphasized. Also the grading rubric for the test was a bit questionable as it wanted us to solve the questions in a very specific way. Class was pretty interesting getting to learn about filters was pretty fun.
Fall 2024 - Professor Kao was honestly a little overhyped. In terms of teaching it was pretty standard he would just go over proofs during lecture that often became math heavy. He seemed nice and considerate after our midterm with an average "lower than expected" and let us replace the midterm grade with our final. However, he only gave us false hope; the final was alot harder than the midterm with an average being around 20 percent lower. I felt like the question asked on the final were obscure and a little unfair given the last four years finals had similar format. Alot of the final also depended on thinking about a specific application that wasn't really emphasized. Also the grading rubric for the test was a bit questionable as it wanted us to solve the questions in a very specific way. Class was pretty interesting getting to learn about filters was pretty fun.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - the workload is a bit rough, especially when your taking 2 CS classes concurrently. I would have two projects due, one for this class and another for a different CS class. So in total I would be spending 30+ hours on projects. The week that both my projects were due, I was in hell and pulling all nighters (maybe my fault for not starting ahead of time). But Jonathan Kao is very generous with his late days (4 days) for homework assignments. The content itself was pretty difficult, but honestly I am not a huge math person, so concepts were difficult for me to grasp. The professor had to be the best at explaining though, because I was able to get by with an 81 on the final, the mean was a 90 (and still managed to get an A in the class). This just shows that Professor Kao cares way more about learning, then the actual grade he gives his students. We get a project at the end for our final, so it was a lot easier to clutch in the end. Just the beginning of the quarter, is a bit rough starting out with this class....I seriously thought I was not going to make it.
Fall 2025 - the workload is a bit rough, especially when your taking 2 CS classes concurrently. I would have two projects due, one for this class and another for a different CS class. So in total I would be spending 30+ hours on projects. The week that both my projects were due, I was in hell and pulling all nighters (maybe my fault for not starting ahead of time). But Jonathan Kao is very generous with his late days (4 days) for homework assignments. The content itself was pretty difficult, but honestly I am not a huge math person, so concepts were difficult for me to grasp. The professor had to be the best at explaining though, because I was able to get by with an 81 on the final, the mean was a 90 (and still managed to get an A in the class). This just shows that Professor Kao cares way more about learning, then the actual grade he gives his students. We get a project at the end for our final, so it was a lot easier to clutch in the end. Just the beginning of the quarter, is a bit rough starting out with this class....I seriously thought I was not going to make it.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I don't have anything to say that others haven't already said, Professor Kao is truly one of the best lecturers at UCLA and I would highly recommend this class if you are interested in Neural Networks and Deep Learning. Also, the TAs for this class were amazing, especially Tonmoy Monsoor. Tonmoy is insanely knowledgeable about the topic and his discussions were super useful for the homeworks! Grading: Homework: 40% (5 homeworks) Midterm: 30% Final Project: 30% Extra Credit: 0.5% for filling out class eval, up to 1.5% for participating on piazza (in a useful way), and some extra credit given on the midterm (final question on the exam is optional extra credit)
Winter 2022 - I don't have anything to say that others haven't already said, Professor Kao is truly one of the best lecturers at UCLA and I would highly recommend this class if you are interested in Neural Networks and Deep Learning. Also, the TAs for this class were amazing, especially Tonmoy Monsoor. Tonmoy is insanely knowledgeable about the topic and his discussions were super useful for the homeworks! Grading: Homework: 40% (5 homeworks) Midterm: 30% Final Project: 30% Extra Credit: 0.5% for filling out class eval, up to 1.5% for participating on piazza (in a useful way), and some extra credit given on the midterm (final question on the exam is optional extra credit)
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - This is a interesting seminar that introduces you to the research of biomedical devices that interface directly with neurons (brain machine interfaces or BMIs), and you get to hear Kao discuss about his research as well. The workload is very light, lecture notes are posted on BruinLearn, and only has a final project (fairly easy to complete) assigned during the last two weeks of the quarter that for my year is completed in MATLAB (Kao has plans to update this to Python like he did for assignments for his ECE 102 class).
Fall 2022 - This is a interesting seminar that introduces you to the research of biomedical devices that interface directly with neurons (brain machine interfaces or BMIs), and you get to hear Kao discuss about his research as well. The workload is very light, lecture notes are posted on BruinLearn, and only has a final project (fairly easy to complete) assigned during the last two weeks of the quarter that for my year is completed in MATLAB (Kao has plans to update this to Python like he did for assignments for his ECE 102 class).
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - A great course with a great lecturer and TAs. The lectures are well prepared and Prof. Kao is really good at teaching. He's happy to stop anytime and answer your questions. TAs are very helpful in the discussions and OH. The exams are fair, and do please attend the midterm and final review held by the TA! The topics are very similar to what will appear in the exam so you definitely should spend enough time reviewing these topics. If you are interested in the neuroscience and have a strong knowledge base of probability, linear algebra and Python, the course is a perfect choice. A little bit of matrix calculus is involved but truse me, they just look scary. 40% 6 homeworks, 25% midterm, 35% final.
Spring 2023 - A great course with a great lecturer and TAs. The lectures are well prepared and Prof. Kao is really good at teaching. He's happy to stop anytime and answer your questions. TAs are very helpful in the discussions and OH. The exams are fair, and do please attend the midterm and final review held by the TA! The topics are very similar to what will appear in the exam so you definitely should spend enough time reviewing these topics. If you are interested in the neuroscience and have a strong knowledge base of probability, linear algebra and Python, the course is a perfect choice. A little bit of matrix calculus is involved but truse me, they just look scary. 40% 6 homeworks, 25% midterm, 35% final.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Be prepared to spend 20+ hours a week on the homework assignments. I learned a ton from this course. It makes it to where AI/ML is not a black box anymore. You can understand how things are working and how it all comes back to the math. The lectures are very good. The professor and TAs are very helpful. It is a great course which I would recommend if you are single and have the time.
Winter 2021 - Be prepared to spend 20+ hours a week on the homework assignments. I learned a ton from this course. It makes it to where AI/ML is not a black box anymore. You can understand how things are working and how it all comes back to the math. The lectures are very good. The professor and TAs are very helpful. It is a great course which I would recommend if you are single and have the time.
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