Professor
Ying Nian Wu
1 of 2
Most Helpful Review
VERY concerned about his students. For stats 13, it seemed a little out of the ordinary that we focused almost entirely on proofs and derivations (rather than basic problems, which a lot of my friends told me they did in past quarters) - but it does really help you understand the material and its theoretical basis. most of our quarter was spent writing papers or proving certain formulas - and indeed, this is what the final was on as well. but, if you really study his proofs/derivations and understand how everything works, you can do very well on the final (the only exam we ever had).
VERY concerned about his students. For stats 13, it seemed a little out of the ordinary that we focused almost entirely on proofs and derivations (rather than basic problems, which a lot of my friends told me they did in past quarters) - but it does really help you understand the material and its theoretical basis. most of our quarter was spent writing papers or proving certain formulas - and indeed, this is what the final was on as well. but, if you really study his proofs/derivations and understand how everything works, you can do very well on the final (the only exam we ever had).
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Note: This review is for Fall 2020, a quarter conducted remotely for this class. STATS 100A with Professor Wu was a straightforward, easy class with little work outside of class time. Professor Wu uploaded his slides to the website before the lectures so that we could follow along, but he did mention some things during the lectures which were not present on the slides. I thought he explained things relatively well, but the class was a little slow in that he would spend the first thirty minutes of class reviewing the material from the prior lecture. This was the main drawback: I feel as if we could have gone more in depth in the material discussed or gained more breadth on other topics. The graded material for this class was relatively simple. The homework assignments closely mirrored the lectures; some of the problems were verbatim from the slides or extremely similar (i.e., the only change was the numbers used in the equations). The midterm and final were pretty easy as well: they expanded a little bit on the lectures, but most of the answers could be found after perusing the lecture notes (the exams were open book). TL;DR: Regarding grades, the class is a breeze. The material learned is easy to retain, but I feel as if we could have learned more.
Fall 2020 - Note: This review is for Fall 2020, a quarter conducted remotely for this class. STATS 100A with Professor Wu was a straightforward, easy class with little work outside of class time. Professor Wu uploaded his slides to the website before the lectures so that we could follow along, but he did mention some things during the lectures which were not present on the slides. I thought he explained things relatively well, but the class was a little slow in that he would spend the first thirty minutes of class reviewing the material from the prior lecture. This was the main drawback: I feel as if we could have gone more in depth in the material discussed or gained more breadth on other topics. The graded material for this class was relatively simple. The homework assignments closely mirrored the lectures; some of the problems were verbatim from the slides or extremely similar (i.e., the only change was the numbers used in the equations). The midterm and final were pretty easy as well: they expanded a little bit on the lectures, but most of the answers could be found after perusing the lecture notes (the exams were open book). TL;DR: Regarding grades, the class is a breeze. The material learned is easy to retain, but I feel as if we could have learned more.
Most Helpful Review
One of the best professors I have ever taken. He is genuinely concerned, nice, and very good at teaching and building on the concepts learned. Homework and tests are more or less based on the notes he eventually posts online. There is not a calculation emphasis, but rather a conceptual one. I would recommend taking any class with him. He also gives very generous grades!
One of the best professors I have ever taken. He is genuinely concerned, nice, and very good at teaching and building on the concepts learned. Homework and tests are more or less based on the notes he eventually posts online. There is not a calculation emphasis, but rather a conceptual one. I would recommend taking any class with him. He also gives very generous grades!
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2022 - Great class. Professor Ying Nian is one of my favorite professors in the Statistics department. His lectures are extremely clear and funny while his homework assignments (in R *and* Python!) were very helpful. Intuition was heavily emphasized, along with applications before the mathematical derivations. I would highly suggest any class with this professor!
Summer 2022 - Great class. Professor Ying Nian is one of my favorite professors in the Statistics department. His lectures are extremely clear and funny while his homework assignments (in R *and* Python!) were very helpful. Intuition was heavily emphasized, along with applications before the mathematical derivations. I would highly suggest any class with this professor!
AD
Most Helpful Review
He's a really nice teacher. His class is really easy too. He postponed homework due dates many times because the people would say it's hard (when it really wasn't). Sometimes I felt bad because he would get sad when people said his homeworks were too hard. He really cares about students understanding the material. Highly recommend.
He's a really nice teacher. His class is really easy too. He postponed homework due dates many times because the people would say it's hard (when it really wasn't). Sometimes I felt bad because he would get sad when people said his homeworks were too hard. He really cares about students understanding the material. Highly recommend.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Loved this class. The professor is super clear and concise in explaining difficult concepts, and it was the first presentation of machine learning concepts where I felt like I truly understood. We went over the basics including linear regression and perceptrons, but we also talked about more recent models including the architecture of diffusion models, transformer models, and even SORA. Homeworks include theory problems, which are fine if you pay attention to the lectures, and some coding problems to get some practice with the theory. The final exam was essentially like the last homework. Definitely recommend this class to anyone who's interested in learning more deeply about machine learning models.
Winter 2024 - Loved this class. The professor is super clear and concise in explaining difficult concepts, and it was the first presentation of machine learning concepts where I felt like I truly understood. We went over the basics including linear regression and perceptrons, but we also talked about more recent models including the architecture of diffusion models, transformer models, and even SORA. Homeworks include theory problems, which are fine if you pay attention to the lectures, and some coding problems to get some practice with the theory. The final exam was essentially like the last homework. Definitely recommend this class to anyone who's interested in learning more deeply about machine learning models.
AD
1 of 2
