Jukka is an absolute legend. I wish all professors here at UCLA were like Jukka. He clearly cares about his students learning and well being. There are time where I had no idea what was going on, but when a I went to his office hours and when I did the homework, everything that I learned synced in. This class took the Ls 30 series to a new level, with linear algebra and multi variable systems, but Jukka made sure everything was smooth and he took his time on those difficult concepts to make sure that almost everyone understands what’s going on. He even would post summaries of kind of difficult lectures that he went thru to make it easier to understand. He extended the homework a bunch of times, probably because a lot of people commented in his suggestion box, yes! He takes our suggestions very seriously. The labs in this class are a bit more difficult than 30A. I had an amazing TA and LA that were always very happy to help. He drops the lowest lab, so wait until lab 7 (mangroves tree) because that one is so hard, I did half of it because I didn’t feel like doing the rest. The homework takes a really long time, but super duper helpful. Midterm was easy, the final was kinda hard because it was a take home (corona virus situation) but there was extra credit so that was nice. Generally, he prepares his students very well for both midterms and finals. I’m going to miss Jukkaaaaa. Best professor at UCLA. Thank you for an awesome quarter.

I took LS30A during my summer quarter and waited to take the LS30B until my winter quarter. At the beginning of the class, I was very nervous because I was not able to recall all the information that I had learned in LS30A, but since the first day, Professor Jukka was helpful and understanding by providing practice problems that would refresh my memory in case you could not remember all the information in LS30A. I believe that the reason I enjoyed this class so much despite it being a math class was due to Jukka's teaching style, he always found a way to make the topics easy to understand. At the beginning of every lecture, he would set time aside to revive the information from the lecture before, this way making it easier to understand the connection between each lecture. Overall he is a great professor and if you have to take this class, you better try to take it with him. His midterms and Finals are challenging but fair, there is nothing in the final that he did not go over in greater detail, besides he often hosts review sessions before the midterm and final to make sure that all his students are on track to get an A. It is clear by the way that he teaches that he actually cares about the education of his students and wants us to succeed

TAKE JUKKA!! I wanted to cry when I didn't get him for 30B :(((
-He genuinely cares that his students understand the content
-gives extra-credit
-and I think I love him
-hw is graded tho so that sucks and the weekly quizzes were hella hard & conceptual (midterm & final were not like that and way easier)
-I got almost full points for the coding section and idk wtf I was doing the whole time but if I can do good then you can too lmao

Would recommend & I'm pressed I did not get him for 30B

Overall this class is graded very easily, but that is probably the only upside to it. The whole class is fake math that is really inapplicable to real life sciences. Jukka’s lectures were okay overall, sometimes he made no sense but sometimes he did. There was a lot of homework and sometimes the labs were tedious and difficult, but it’s all doable and not too hard. The only reason the class performed well on exams was because Jukka tells you EXACTLY what’s on the exam at his review sessions, and gives good study guides. He cares a lot about us getting good grades, but he just wasn’t a very clear lecturer and gave a lot of work.

I cannot even begin to come up with a proper review for this gem of a human being. Words do not do Jukka justice, he is genuinely the best professor and person I have met at UCLA. Class is doable and he gives so much extra credit -- he explicitly says he wants his students to do well and everyone does because he's an amazing teacher. I honestly would do anything for this man. TA Yitian was so sweet and so kind -- he literally went out of his way to help his students and was SO responsive to emails. Please take this class with Jukka. Also the vibes in this class were elite, so if you were in lecture 2 for w21 y'all are so amazing thank you always being so kind <3!

Disclaimer: Taken Winter 2021 (Online Course)

Jukka is one of the best professors I have had. He is such an amazing person who cares so deeply for the success of each and every one of his students.

LS30B is definitely more challenging than LS30A but still is a very manageable mathematics course. Jukka also has many resources to make sure you do succeed in his class.

The class is graded on participation, weekly quizzes, labs, homework, midterm and final. The participation is basically free points. The weekly quizzes were probably the most difficult part of the class, but with a little review are very doable. The labs are pretty time consuming and can be frustrating but as long as you remember to use pseudocode to explain where necessary you should be good. The homework is pretty long and is graded on correctness but Jukka is very helpful in office hours and will go through very specific homework questions. The midterm and final are fair exams and Jukka will be sure to offer extra credit if the class does poorly.

I would highly recommend both this course and Jukka as a professor (also shout out to floppy and puffers)

*COVID Edition*

Professor Jukka is AWESOME. I detest mathematics, but somehow I always looked forward to attending his lectures. He is passionate about what he teaches, and genuinely cares about his students and their learning.

I don't know how different it will be when we're back on campus, but this is how it was for Fall 2020.

Learning Teams:
This quarter, we had a learning team where you are grouped with three other classmates. These are the people you work with on labs and the group portions of the midterm and final. With it being COVID, the learning teams were a great way to get to know other people, and the collaboration helped greatly on doing well on assignments and exams!

Lectures/Participation:
Lectures weren't mandatory, but it is better to attend them live so that you are kept accountable. Participation was graded based on completing clicker questions from lecture on CCLE up to a week after the lecture took place. Slides are posted every week. Easy points!

Homework:
Graded half on accuracy and half on effort/completion. The number of problems varies from 15-30 questions, and some weeks were more difficult than others (do NOT procrastinate because it WILL come back to bite you), but 2 of the lowest homework assignments were dropped, so that was nice.

Labs:
I had some difficulty with the labs later on in the course, but overall they weren't too bad. You can collaborate with other classmates on lab assignments and you can reach out to your TA about it. Our lowest lab was dropped.

Quizzes:
Weekly quizzes on the weekend. Super short, like 4-5 questions. Sometimes a little difficult because the questions can be super conceptual, but as long as you paid attention in lecture and went through the slides, you could do well. About halfway through the course, Jukka let us have two attempts on the quizzes and took the average of the attempts as our grade. The lowest quiz is dropped.

Midterm and Final:
Both were similar in terms of structure. There were 3 stages:

Stage 1) Composed a study guide with our Learning Teams
Stage 2) Individual exam on CCLE
Stage 3) Group exam consisting of 3 questions that were more in-depth and built upon questions from Stage 2

Stage 1 is basically a good chunk of free points as long as you thoroughly complete the study guide and have all of the components!

My advice for success on these exams is to look at the Practice Midterm/Final Template, and do the corresponding problems, which are pulled from homework assignments or the several practice midterms and finals he gives out. They are more or less like the problems you will encounter on the exams. Additionally, Jukka holds a couple of exam review sessions on the weekend before the midterm or final, which were super helpful in further clarification and he provided more guidance with what to focus on, so go to those!

Almost everything is recorded for your convenience, but interact with him when you can/if you feel comfortable!

As a general note, Jukka's dedication, warmth, humor, and grace makes this class bearable, and the content is much less daunting when you have him as a professor. If you have any concerns, you can rest assured that he will listen and find a solution. You have a voice in this class, so don't be afraid to use it! Go to his office hours when he will usually go through homework problems, and go to at least one of his social hours, when he talks about anything and everything besides actual course content. He is not only a great professor, but also an interesting, warm human being who has great stories and insight to share! You should 100% take this class with Jukka (and Flippy & Puffers) if you can!

I took Jukka during covid and I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed the class! He is literally so understanding, willing to help, and clearly cares a lot about his students. Some good things about the class: attendance is NOT mandatory since he records his lectures, he has an anonymous suggestion box, the weekly quizzes were averaged based on two attempts, and the book (which you don’t have to buy since it is provided to you) is actually helpful.

I am not a math person but his teaching and clarity made me want to attend lectures. The material will get confusing, but he will answer any questions during his very valuable office hours. The midterm and finals other people have gone into depth about so I won’t do that and just say that there is three parts, two of which you can collaborate with your group so your individual score can’t weigh your overall grade too much. In conclusion, TAKE PROFESSOR JUKKA IF YOU CAN!!! He is literally the best and I’m so sad I didn’t get him for 30B.

EASY CLASS!

I took Jukka's LS30A class during COVID times. He is honestly a great professor, I'm so glad I got him as one of my first professors here at UCLA.
In terms of what his class looked like, it was well structured. You're assigned into a learning group with a few students in your same class and lab. You work with them during the coding labs that you're assigned weekly. The actual coding labs weren't too hard as someone who has no experience coding. There was a homework that was assigned weekly that had to be turned in by Friday 5pm. Two times during the quarter we all asked for an extension on the homework and he gave it to us so there's that. Also, go to his office hours and ask questions about the homework, or at least review his office hours. He honestly goes over a lot of homework problems during those times so that's helpful. Each module we covered came with a weekly quiz (honestly, the answers were in the slides that you had to go over before and after class so the quizzes weren't a big deal if you paid attention. They were participation quizzes). Then there were weekly quizzes, those were a little more of a big deal. He was nice enough to drop the lowest grade on your homework, participation quiz, weekly quiz, and lab. What a great guy. There was one midterm and one final. The midterm and final were broken up into three parts: a study guide that you make with your assigned learning group, a test you did by yourself, and then a test you did with your assigned group. As you can see, there was collaboration in your final and midterm that helped you NOT fail.
If you're worried about going into this course because you didn't take calculus in high school, seriously do not worry. The concepts themselves are really easy and I'd say 14% of what we covered was "math" math, stuff that you would've learned in high school. Either way, he goes super slow when we're learning calculus stuff and he's very through. If you did take calculus and you know what a limit is, how to take a derivative, and euler's method, and integrals, you're pretty much set for the "calculus" portion of this course. I want to emphasize though that at least the first half of this course is not calculus. You will be okay.
The course is not extremely hard, and Jukka himself is such a wonderful professor. He is kind, and helpful, and makes you feel welcome. It's easy to ask questions in class, and even if you type a question in the zoom chat, someone is bound to answer.
Last thing, if you do take this class, say hi to Flippy and Puffers for me :)