ENEE429Z | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Zhambyl Shaikhanov ENEE429Z Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2025	A great class and a great professor! The work load was very manageable, divided between simulation assignments where you analyze the behavior of simulated wireless networks and problem sets that are calculation based. I’d recommend having a strong foundation in probability before taking this course. Dr. Shaikhanov is a great guy and it is obvious that he really cares about the success and the well-being of his students. He was often more than willing to stay after class and answer questions, and he is very responsive to email. If you are at all interested in communications, I would highly recommend taking this course and getting to know this professor.
Zhambyl Shaikhanov ENEE429Z Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2025	This was a really cool class with a really cool professor. I'll list some of the topics before writing any notes. - Unslotted and slotted ALOHA - Poisson process and its application to modeling unslotted and slotted ALOHA - CSMA - 802.11 (Wi-Fi) transaction timelines - Markov chains and their application to modeling the 802.11 backoff procedure - Problems in wireless networking (e.g. hidden node problem) - Modulation coding schemes - Cellular networks - Fairness (max-min, proportional) - TCP congestion control - Routing (link-state, distance-vector) - Cryptography crash course - Radar The majority of what we covered falls into layers 2 and 4 of the OSI model. Every other week, we had an assignment working with ns3, a discrete network simulator where simulations are written in C++. For all of them but the fourth, we maybe had to fill in a few lines of C++, and the emphasis was entirely on the results of the simulations. Part of the reason I took this class was because I wanted to learn ns3, and these assignments didn't quite do it for me. Simulation 4 was the exception where we pieced together portions of previous assignments to analyze a scenario in terms of fairness, though I know some people had issues with it, so I don't know what the solution for these assignments would be. On weeks we didn't have a simulation assignment, we had a problem set. These were chill for the most part, though there were a few instances where something was needed to solve the problem which wasn't discussed in lecture, and a few more instances where the goal was difficult to decipher initially. It sometimes felt like points were taken off due to a lack of clarity in lecture and/or the problem description, and I don't know if that was just me or a universal experience in the class. On that note, lectures were in-person whiteboard lectures. These tended to go very quickly, particularly towards the back half of each class period, and it was honestly hard to keep up with them if we didn't already have background knowledge of the topic. I think these will improve with time, and part of this might have been because we had a lot of content to cover in a relatively short time. The two exams were take-home, and they were pretty chill. The only note I have is that the multiple choice questions, particularly the ones regarding which people were featured in the "wireless spotlights" the professor likes to do, are a little cheap. With all this said, my biggest praise for the class is that the professor's main goal was for us to learn. I loved the way this course was run this semester. I enjoyed my interactions with the professor. My criticisms still exist, but especially given that this is the first time this class was taught, they aren't enough to bring down my overall experience. The professor expressed interest in running the class again next year, so I highly recommend it for those with even a tangential interest in wireless networking.
Zhambyl Shaikhanov ENEE429Z Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2025	Goat. My favorite professor and favorite class this semester. Love this guy. As a cherry on top, there were only take home exams and no final. Felt like I actually learned a lot, the class was engaging, and he made sure to tie the content to real world applications and give us a bit of the history as well. This class is by far the best special topics ENEE elective course.

Zhambyl Shaikhanov
ENEE429Z

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2025

A great class and a great professor! The work load was very manageable, divided between simulation assignments where you analyze the behavior of simulated wireless networks and problem sets that are calculation based. I’d recommend having a strong foundation in probability before taking this course. Dr. Shaikhanov is a great guy and it is obvious that he really cares about the success and the well-being of his students. He was often more than willing to stay after class and answer questions, and he is very responsive to email. If you are at all interested in communications, I would highly recommend taking this course and getting to know this professor.

Zhambyl Shaikhanov
ENEE429Z

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2025

This was a really cool class with a really cool professor. I'll list some of the topics before writing any notes. - Unslotted and slotted ALOHA - Poisson process and its application to modeling unslotted and slotted ALOHA - CSMA - 802.11 (Wi-Fi) transaction timelines - Markov chains and their application to modeling the 802.11 backoff procedure - Problems in wireless networking (e.g. hidden node problem) - Modulation coding schemes - Cellular networks - Fairness (max-min, proportional) - TCP congestion control - Routing (link-state, distance-vector) - Cryptography crash course - Radar The majority of what we covered falls into layers 2 and 4 of the OSI model. Every other week, we had an assignment working with ns3, a discrete network simulator where simulations are written in C++. For all of them but the fourth, we maybe had to fill in a few lines of C++, and the emphasis was entirely on the results of the simulations. Part of the reason I took this class was because I wanted to learn ns3, and these assignments didn't quite do it for me. Simulation 4 was the exception where we pieced together portions of previous assignments to analyze a scenario in terms of fairness, though I know some people had issues with it, so I don't know what the solution for these assignments would be. On weeks we didn't have a simulation assignment, we had a problem set. These were chill for the most part, though there were a few instances where something was needed to solve the problem which wasn't discussed in lecture, and a few more instances where the goal was difficult to decipher initially. It sometimes felt like points were taken off due to a lack of clarity in lecture and/or the problem description, and I don't know if that was just me or a universal experience in the class. On that note, lectures were in-person whiteboard lectures. These tended to go very quickly, particularly towards the back half of each class period, and it was honestly hard to keep up with them if we didn't already have background knowledge of the topic. I think these will improve with time, and part of this might have been because we had a lot of content to cover in a relatively short time. The two exams were take-home, and they were pretty chill. The only note I have is that the multiple choice questions, particularly the ones regarding which people were featured in the "wireless spotlights" the professor likes to do, are a little cheap. With all this said, my biggest praise for the class is that the professor's main goal was for us to learn. I loved the way this course was run this semester. I enjoyed my interactions with the professor. My criticisms still exist, but especially given that this is the first time this class was taught, they aren't enough to bring down my overall experience. The professor expressed interest in running the class again next year, so I highly recommend it for those with even a tangential interest in wireless networking.

Zhambyl Shaikhanov
ENEE429Z

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/04/2025

Goat. My favorite professor and favorite class this semester. Love this guy. As a cherry on top, there were only take home exams and no final. Felt like I actually learned a lot, the class was engaging, and he made sure to tie the content to real world applications and give us a bit of the history as well. This class is by far the best special topics ENEE elective course.

Reviews for ENEE429Z