Korf was a fantastic lecturer, definitely one of my favorites so far. He doesn't use slides, everything is done on the board by hand and he is very engaging with the class. It's kinda like a split between him asking us questions (once we get good enough) and us asking him questions. He likes to take a lot of student input during the lectures. As a class I thought it was pretty cool you learn how to design state machines like a simple vending machine or calculator all the way up to a basic computer. The material gets a bit more hand-wavy towards the end in terms of design but overall I got a pretty good foundation of the fundamentals which was his intention I assume. There is weekly homework which is kinda rough but also kinda fun if you work in groups on it. The midterm was pretty easy but the final was pretty difficult. Basically everyone I know got a B in the class but were all pretty satisfied with the course overall.

Prof. Korf was, for the most part, pretty awesome. He can be a bit of a grouch at times, but his sarcasm is often endearing, if you can learn to take it lightly.

My only real complaint is that our assignments were almost always too vague, so there were plenty of pitfalls, both for students who thought either too much or too little about the assignment. There were also a few times where the "correct" answers to homework were actually not possible in reality (such as NMOS gates that pull high, or PMOS gates that pull low). I was marked down for following the text book, and not using the "easy" (but also completely impossible) solution.

Overall, I think Prof. Korf is worth taking. Just realize right away that he's a bit sarcastic and his assignments can be tough.

(In case you’re wondering: there is zero Verilog in this course if you take it with Korf.) I would highly recommend taking this class with Korf. He’s a great lecturer; I found his lectures to be very clear and informative, and he does a great job answering student questions. He doesn’t post any lecture notes online, but as long as you attend lecture and take good notes, this isn’t an issue. I’d say my only issue with this class is that the instructions from the homework assignments sometimes leave you guessing more than you should have to, especially on the first assignment; this can usually be fixed by going to TA office hours, and in some cases Korf sent out a clarifying email or clarified the assignment during class. Despite these issues, I found the homework to be a helpful way of reinforcing and practicing concepts. Overall, I really liked having Korf as a professor, and he does a fantastic job teaching this course. If you’re wondering whether you should take this course with him, do it (unless you really want to learn Verilog).

Professor Korf is really engaging and great at fielding questions for the class, clarifying anything that is unclear. However, there seemed to be a disconnect between the assignments and the material covered in class. He doesn't post slides/notes on CCLE, and there were no supplemental materials for this class. I take good notes and went to every class, and while I could follow along with what was being taught in class, I struggled with the assignments. Let's just say there was a lot of guesswork involved. However, it seemed that everyone was struggling because for the last few assignments almost no one knew what they were doing, and when solutions were passed back, there was just general confusion and protest. So the assignments will probably be curved, and I definitely learned a lot, just be prepared to be very challenged. (Review written before the final and before grades released)

The BEST lecturer I have ever met in UCLA.