Reviews for FIRE198

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Cherisse Hall FIRE198 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/31/2024	I'm leaving this review here since I'm in the FIRE stream that Dr. Hall runs, Bacterial Pathogenesis. However, she was away on maternity leave for most of the semester when I took this class. In her absence, the lecture part of this class was taught by Dr. Weiner and Dr. Zeidan. But the lab is way more important than lecture, so it shouldn't matter that much. This class is not hard at all, but it is deceivingly time consuming. When you sign up for this class on Testudo, you only see a 1-hour lecture once a week. What they don't tell you is that you're required to a spend an extra 3-5 hours a week in the lab. That means that in terms of time commitment, this class is at least as much as an entire lab session. Some weeks, it might end up being like two whole 3-hour labs! You have to plan to go to the lab whenever its open, but you aren't told the hours until 2 weeks into class. So if your schedule and the lab's schedule don't fit together, you're in trouble. If you're taking a lot of credits, or you're taking a hard class where you have to do lots of studying on your own time, you will struggle to get stuff done because of how much time this class eats up.
Shannon Hilton FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/15/2024	She's very nice and gives a very manageable amount of work.
Patrick McGurrin FIRE198 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/06/2023	good
Cherisse Hall FIRE198 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/03/2023	Nice Person and decently helpful when in lab. However, she waited until the end of the semester to grade most of the assignments in class, including our final lab report which significantly lowered my grade. In general the stream is what you make of it, but Dr. Hall, despite being a very nice person, is a terrible grader.
Jaclyn Bruner FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/09/2023	She is, without a doubt, the kindest and most understanding professor I have ever had in my life. this woman is a GEM. in visualizing social justice she tried to teach us about public memory concepts which were pretty difficult to grasp but she really engaged us and understood that this new material would be difficult for us. after i had to submit assignments late for personal issues, she told me that it didn't matter to her that the work was late, what mattered was that it was turned in. and some people may say that she sounds like an easy prof to take advantage of, and in theory yes, but the thing is that no one really wants to take advantage of her because we respect her and want her to be proud of our work. if you are in fire and considering the VSJ stream, i heavily recommend it b/c even tho this was bruner's first semester with the program and i'm sure some things will change for the future as she settles in, she is an incredible person to know. and i guess she teaches comms too lol i'd probably take anything she teaches. JB 4EVER!
Patrick McGurrin FIRE198 Anonymous 03/29/2023	Not that great. Not clear with expectations or feedback.
Thanicha Ruangmas FIRE198 Expecting an A filthyitalian 05/11/2022	Professor Ruangmas is super intelligent and knowledgeable on course material. Having a lab to work on coding is super helpful and I'm glad that they exist. CODING IS HARD! But, you will get through it.
Sharon Colvin FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/24/2022	Sharon is by far the best professor at UMD! Please take her class its the best one ever, is super informative, and is so well-planned out.
Raymond H Tu FIRE198 Anonymous 03/10/2022	DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE!!!! Each week you have to copy down his code on his slides, and while this may seem easy, there is ALWAYS MANY mistakes in his slides. It is so frustrating debugging his code when you have zero clue what is going on in his code. This class takes me more effort than both CMSC132 and CMSC250 combined. Do yourself a favor and take Autonomous Unmanned Systems.
Azieb Kidanu FIRE198 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/24/2021	The workload was adequate for this course and graded generously. Class time was reserved for education on public health concepts (like SPHL100 content). That being said, it was kind of redundant for PHS majors so you could get away with not attending lecture. However, you were not expected to complete any work outside of class time. All assignments were made to be completed during class in teams.
Catherine Spirito FIRE198 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2021	Great professor and really understanding and caring for her students. The MD stream can be challenging but she makes sure to give students enough resources to really understand the research we are pursuing.
Alexandra Jones FIRE198 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2021	Professor Jones is great. She is super understanding, I had to miss class due to being sick a few times with no problems. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Cloud Computing stream, even with it being online. It's been challenging but I have learned a lot.
Benjamin Huffman FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/29/2021	Global Development and Design is an interesting stream as it discusses the SDGs and how we can solve issues under that. I know a lot of kids in this stream had no other choice cause their original choice had no more spots. But I chose this stream cause I thought it'd be interesting and sort of covers social issues. (most people in this stream are govt/politic majors) (Background: had him for FIRE120 and I was in the marketing + outreach module and govt accountability seminar group) -First half of semester, super easy, few assignments and they were very easy -One downside: After spring break, it was a HUGE mess. So you get assigned to 1 module and 1 seminar group (it's weird to explain what these are but once you're in them for 2 weeks you'll get it). Once we were put into our 2 groups they dumped a huge load of work and gave us short deadlines. It was especially confusing when no one knew the difference at the time. It just disorganized and very overwhelming. -I will say the second half of the semester is very collaboratively and HAVE to work with your groups to get assignments done. I kinda enjoyed it though. I really enjoyed the module and seminar topics. -Also I guess ur mentor for your groups could affect how you enjoy this course. My PRM Maddy was so great and supportive and very much organized so that definitely was a plus. I would recommend this stream for sure. Especially if want to learn about human interaction, global development, marketing, and stuff along those lines, this is definitely the stream for you. Also would say that even if this is your last choice there's so many elements in this stream that sort of has other elements that other streams have. Like I know one group has to code and my group had to make graphics. So it has a wide range of appeals.
Derrick Yeo FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/09/2020	Awesome guy. Really chill and friendly. Take him if you can!
Derrick Yeo FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2020	Great professor. Class is super laid-back and I would highly recommend his research stream to anyone interested.
Jonathan Goodson FIRE198 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2020	Dr. Goodson is probably the most considerate professor you'll ever have. You can tell that he genuinely wants you to succeed. Plus, he's super approachable outside of class, and he's more than ready to give you an extension if you're having trouble with an assignment. Definitely choose the Transcriptomics of Disease stream if you're interested in computational biology.
Kyungjin Yoo FIRE198 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/02/2020	I have not experienced any of the things mentioned in the other review. Sometimes he doesn't make expectations clear and he can be a little bit intimidating at first but he's chill and will pretty much give you 100% as long as you do what you're supposed to. I have not been frustrated with him at all.