Yavuz Oruc

This professor has taught: EDSP652, ENEB345, ENEB346, ENEB354, ENEE244, ENEE350, ENEE446, ENEE646

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Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/27/2026	Ok I took this course Fall25, in which semester he decided to implement his own AI to help you with the course. This AI is moderately helpful at best (asking things like “what does this instruction do” works about 9/10 of the time) to out right idiotic. Do not trust any code it gives you. Homeworks were alright, but incredibly long about half the time (anywhere from 4-15 hours every week and a half, and it’s a crapshoot on which side it falls even after you look at the questions). But overall graded pretty easily as long as you attach an output that looks somewhat right (but even tho he doesn’t tell you to give the output, you have to upload a separate picture of your output). Homeworks were 35%, midterm was 35%, and final was 30%. Plus one extra credit homework worth ~5% (1 hw). You get one printer paper sized note sheet, double sided on the exam. For the midterm, he gave one example midterm with AI created answer key (multiple answers were wrong) but the actual midterm was so close to that we averaged 89%. Then he decided “the AI was working too well” and gave us this bs ass final with a 68% mean. But that mean was artificially raised by people who did the “optional final project” that meant you didn’t take the first half of the final, that most people did really well on. He did end up curving a bit or changing the cutoffs tho, so my A- was an A in testudo Now, after ranting about the physical structure of the course, I would like to rant about the content. In my semester, Oruc was teaching at the same time as Franklin. And anytime anyone from one teacher heard about the content of the other, each side was flabbergasted. As I heard one student describe it, Oruc’s class is “the most CS course I have taken at this school, as a CS student.” You spend the first 2/3 or so of the semester learning his own made up assembly language/s/. Yes that’s right, there are… 5 I think(?) different versions of this language, most of which are in hexadecimal form for some reason. There are no resources on this beyond his slides (pretty mid) and his AI. He invents his own definition of things, own implementation, etc. You spend like half a week on MIPS (the only real language in the course) and are never tested on it. You also use C++ (not a prerequisite for this course) to implement it. Yes. You use C++ to implement assembly. The last 1/3 of the course is some random bs that he like somewhat throws some code at you related to it. Now if you are an electrical engineer not hoping to continue on this path, this will be an annoying problem and more coding than you have ever done, but it won’t screw you over. If you are a CE, you will be utterly screwed going into 446 (not taught by Oruc) with half your knowledge wrong, and the other half is oh wait that last third of the course of “random bs” is the actual important part of the course to your further progression. If you must take Oruc for 350 and end up with someone not Oruc for 446 (specifically Uzi Vishkin in my case), I highly recommend reading Computer Organization by Patterson and Hennessy (free online) and/or the appendices to Computer Architecture by Patterson and Hennessy before starting, otherwise the entire class will feel like catch up. Of course not to mention dry af lectures, but at this point, that’s to be expected of an EE professor. I will admit my opinion is not helped by my terrible TA who Oruc had to send out corrections after class multiple times bc he told us blatantly incorrect information. He also could not answer questions, and would often just be like sitting on his phone while we worked on the homework in discussion, so even if I had wanted to ask a question, he couldn’t see you raising your hand. Two stars instead of one for relatively chill grading scheme, and Oruc one-on-one was a chill dude who did seem to want you to learn, but god this class was a waste of time and a massive time suck at once.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/03/2025	The only material for this class is Oruc's old unpublished self-written textbook. The slides are literally just the textbook in bigger font and all he does in lecture is mumble-read the slides. The language of the book is incredibly dense and has confusing grammatical errors. You can't use other textbooks or online resources to self-study because Oruc makes up his own definitions and terms. Homework questions were confusing and I regularly got things wrong because I just completely misinterpreted the question. I really hope I never have to take a class with him again.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/28/2025	This class felt extremely disconnected. The homework's were great for really diving into the material, as I found myself really understanding what was going on after I completed them, but then the exams felt like I was taking a completely different class. It makes sense in a way, since the exams were testing what you can't exactly quantify in a homework assignment, but it still felt weird that almost nothing from any of the homework's ended up on the final. His lectures were extremely boring, and even though I was there in person, I might as well have been at home, since it was impossible to pay attention. I think that his Code-A-Peel software has gotten too much dislike from past reviews, it really wasn't that difficult to work with, although definitely annoying to try and figure out something that was wrong, given that there are very few online resources for it. The TA, Parth, really made the course bearable, as he had great discussions and provided help with the homework's. Overall, I would recommend taking someone else for 350, although I have heard that the other options are also not great, so good luck!
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2025	Past reviews seem a little ruthless, in my opinion this class was one of the nicest I took over the semester. 9 homework assignments, one midterm, one final. Each of the homework assignments relate to what was taught from the slides and we're usually given 1-2 weeks to complete them, though I will admit sometimes the date inconsistency was annoying. Our TA was absolutely amazing and made going to discussions actually useful, which made these homeworks pretty easy if you attended them or read the discussion notes. Dr. Oruc often will extend deadlines for the whole class and if you need a personal extension, he is more than willing to give it. He is extremely approachable, though he goes off on occasional tangents, but he's very well meaning. The midterm was a breeze for students who used the past midterms on their formula sheets, as he allows one double-sided sheet to put ANYTHING. Code-A-Peel can be a pain sometimes and I wish we did more with the MIPS architecture, but the skills you learn can still directly be applied. There is a heavy emphasis on content learned in 244 for connecting code to the actual architecture. Overall chill class, my biggest gripes were with Code-A-Peel and having to use C++ (minimally) despite being taught C.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2025	Honestly not that bad, genuinely cares that his students are engaged and understanding the content but holy moly this man yaps. He’s very anti industry (talks a lot about encouraging free thinking) so expect to learn his own architecture, CodeAPeel, which is pretty cool but can sometimes be confusing. I’m not sure why but a lot of people scored low on the midterm, just remember he keeps his exams very consistent so you’re ok if you know what to add to your formula sheet. Definitely also make sure you have a good C++ compiler.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/23/2024	Oruc is a terrible professor, but let's be honest, if you're reading this you probably already know that; you're just trying to figure out if he's better or worse than whatever other terrible professor happens to be teaching 350 this semester. Let me try to help you out. I would rather get a root canal than sit through his lectures. They bored me to tears every single time and often weren't really all that helpful for learning. His slides are just pages and pages of code in teeny tiny font (most of the time there aren't even comments) and he constantly mumbles off on tangents about Bill Gates or other random stuff that's not relevant to the course. Homework assignments were poorly designed; there were a few that I got bad grades on because I just completely misunderstood what the assignment was even asking for. They also didn't always align well with what we were covering in class. As other reviewers have mentioned, he uses his own learning software called CodeAPeel and his own architecture called Vesp. It's not a very well-designed language or architecture, and the software itself is hard to use. Also, because literally nobody else uses it, you won't be able to find any resources online that can help you. Oruc had some health issues this semester, which made him move lectures online for the majority of the semester. Maybe the course would have been better if it was actually in person, but somehow I doubt it. The only saving grace were the TAs, Herbert and Parth, who are literally the only reason I learned a single thing in this class. Overall, I'm not going to say "avoid at all costs" because your alternative is probably someone just as bad, but definitely don't rush to take his class.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/21/2024	He seems a nice guy but is the worst lecturer. He should not be teaching considering his age and health problems. Almost half of the lectures throughout the semester were online. Yes, he is knowledgeable but he should retire by now. Just because he didn't wanna grade it he made the final ALL multiple choice with no partial credit like wtf man. The class itself is very interesting especially if you are CE you NEED this class. Your options are either this guy or Manoj (both are bad). Good luck.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Anonymous 10/20/2024	The lectures are not very helpful as he would go on random tangents. Another engineering professor who is out of touch because they are so knowledgeable on the topic that they no longer understand how it feels to learn these concepts for the first time. Course material is very dense, and at one point starts talking about code in C++ despite the fact that this department teaches only C.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/09/2024	I cannot put into words how much I disliked the required software (Code-A-Peel) that he wrote. This software is straight out of 1995, written in the shittiest java you have ever seen. Many of his exam questions are of the form "how do you use the made up computer on the software I wrote". I did not write or learn a single bit of industry grade assembly code. He did not communicate with his TAs, which honestly is sometimes the worst thing a professor can do. I wish I had not taken Oruc.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/25/2023	Oruc is not a very good professor, and his class is rather disorganized. Starting off with lectures, his lectures are not very helpful. Oruc ran lectures both in-person and online through Zoom, and because of this latter option being available, he decided to move class online at random points throughout the semester. We spent about half of our semester online and half in-person. For his in-person lectures, you will only be able to hear him if you sit in the front two rows. He mutters and drones about his own programming interfaces and is overall not very engaging. Online, you are actually able to hear him, but he has no consideration for note-takers. He has very bad handwriting and would scroll through his notes at an incredibly fast pace, so it was difficult to take notes; also, the notes he would release after class were pretty unreadable at times. The supplemental lecture slides online were made over 10 years ago. His homeworks were kinda vague but easy, and our TA was able to clear up expectations on what to submit. We only had one midterm during the semester. We got to bring in a cheat sheet, and it made a seemingly tough exam really easy; the average was around 86%. The final, on the other hand, was rough and poorly designed. It was 25 multiple choice questions of random trivia from throughout the semester with the 5th option for most questions being "all of the above" or "none of the above." Even with a cheat sheet, the average was in the upper 60's with the high being an 88%. It's such a shame that this course is so disappointing; I really enjoyed some of the topics in the course, but Oruc doesn't really make any of them very enjoyable.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2022	It was an interesting class, but the lectures are very disorganized and do not help a lot. He also uses us to beta test his code or use his code for a lot which is kind of confusing, but I feel like I learned a decent amount.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/25/2022	Cool guy, but yet another ECE professor that's well past caring about educating students. One can compare his lectures over the years and see how he's increasingly prioritizing having his students beta-test his learning software over teaching a structured course. To be even more depressed, look at other university's courses and see what well-organized, mistake-free, and clearly delivered material looks like. Average on midterm was a 60, entirely due to poorly designed time constraints. Hopefully one day ECE courses at UMD won't be full of old profs teaching increasingly disorganized material from 2008 following no educational principles whatsoever who pretend their course structures aren't abject failures by having outrageous curves breathes, but I can't see that happening any time soon. If you're somehow reading this deciding whether to go to umd for ece, go to a university program that cares about actually educating undergrads. Waste of time.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Anonymous 06/21/2022	He's very nice, although the course is a bit messy. He typed up notes for us as we went along, which is good, but also bad because all the homework problems came from the notes and these often had errors or were unclear which wasted a lot of time. Our final was quite difficult and covered concepts we hadn't practiced at all, but was also curved a lot. Also he had the class online even though I took it Spring 2022. Overall not a bad experience. He's a cool guy and eager to share more about the material if you're interested.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/24/2022	Oruc is very nice and easygoing. His homework are straightforward, but the lectures do not help out much. The class structure is a little lazy.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 09/21/2021	Awesome teacher for ENEE350 since he wrote his own program to simulate machine code and assembly, and assigned those for homework. You get to learn a lot since you get to see how the machine works and what changes step by step in the simulation. The lectures are also recorded online so you can always look at those. Taking off a star because his test contains materials not taught in class. You can do perfectly on the homework but pretty bad on the test.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a P Anonymous 07/28/2021	Dr Oruc is a nice person but not the greatest professor. He rambles during class and his homework assignments are confusing and time consuming. TA was rude and unhelpful.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/01/2021	Personality-wise, Oruc's a kind person for sure. This semester we had the pandemic so he moved the due date back for like half of the assignments. His lectures are useful, but he a glosses over important background information when doing examples (especially vesp early on). That being said, a lot of what I learned this semester came from the TA's who were pretty amazing.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2019	Had him for ENEE350 as well, which he was a little better for. Oruc rambles a lot and doesn't explain anything clearly, which was ok in ENEE350 because it was a coding class and you could learn more by just running tests on the code, but ENEE446 is a theory class that actually requires a good lecturer. He's nice and it's not too hard a class, but you won't learn as much as you might with someone else.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/23/2018	Im not exactly sure how useful Dr. Orucs class is in the real world, since a lot of the material is stuff he wrote. His explanations can sometimes be unclear but luckily he posts lecture slides as well as the lecture videos so you can listen to it multiple times until you understand it. Midterm was average, final was difficult. Curve of around 6% at the end.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/21/2014	Oruc is an incredibly interesting guy. He is extremely knowledgeable, very personable, and rather considerate. I would recommend actually talking to him, even if you don't take a class with him. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed ENEE350 with him and thoroughly disliked ENEE446. I thought 446 was uninteresting and rather difficult, as homeworks were long and REALLY tested your understanding of the material (as opposed to your ability to apply it) by asking you to design algorithms or methods. His notes seem to be incomplete, and there is hardly enough information to complete the homework. The first exam was difficult as the questions were unclear, and the final was a takehome, which took a very long time to complete. On top of that, I hardly feel like I learned anything from the class, and am extremely relieved that it is over. Oruc is a great guy and 350 is an interesting class that isn't very difficult IF YOU CAN PROGRAM WELL. However, I would recommend taking 446 with someone else.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/25/2013	I felt like this class was a waste of my time. The textbook was just a series of PDF files and slides that he wrote himself, and the material we ended up covering for the semester was not what he said we'd cover in the syllabus. I was able to do decently well on the homeworks and tests, but I definitely did not learn anything from this class. On a positive note, Oruc is an extremely nice and friendly guy. He was also responsive to student concerns, and extended the homework deadline once when no one could finish. I just wish he had been a better teacher.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2013	He's not the best professor, but teaches a reasonable amount. His wording is terrible: homeworks and test problems are often unclear. If you really need to learn ENEE446 well, I would probably recommend against Oruc. You can get an A in the end, but won't learn as much as you should.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE446 Expecting an A- unspokenkibbles 05/09/2013	Professor Oruc is one of the most agreeable and pleasant people you're likely to have the pleasure to meet. He's friendly, understanding, and takes interest in the well-being of his students. Also, if you have any interest in European history or culture, be sure to ask. As a professor, Oruc is what I like to call "aggressively competent." He really knows the material, and communicates it effectively and clearly, for the most part. He's also not prone to rambling or wandering off-topic like some other professors. Importantly, he doesn't take things too seriously, and has a sense of humor. That means that lectures can be downright enjoyable in addition to being fun. In summary: even though it wasn't the easiest, 446 was probably the most fun class I took this semester. If you've got a chance to take a class with Oruc, jump on it.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/08/2010	Oruc is a really great guy and is very nice and personable. I really don't like programming at all, but ive had a little more experience that some other EEs i think writing C (even though id rather cut off a foot than program something) so i guess i have a little bit of an advantage. not a whole lot though. none of the material is all that terribly difficult, and the class really doesn't have a particularly heavy workload. the second half of the class isn't really as relevant to electrical engineering as it is to computer engineering so its hard to stay motivated i guess you could say. i would with out a doubt take oruc again.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/29/2009	...If you are taking this class as EE, and Umer is the TA for this class ->TAKE IT. ....If not, you might want to consider other options ...In any case, good luck ! ... I think Dr Oruc is a great professor, but it's somewhat difficult understand the subject he is teaching.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Anonymous 12/05/2009	Uruc caters to computer engineers who have some familiarity with this material. For those who are EE beware unless you have an awesome TA such as Umer. Otherwise this professor is way past his prime and fails to communicate well with the stuents
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Anonymous 04/12/2009	He's among the best prof's I ever had. He actually cares about his students. It's a pity though that he uses vesp and a little programming that most of us actually hate. But either way, he's the best. Hands down.
Yavuz Oruc ENEE350 Anonymous 01/22/2009	Good teacher. He puts a lot of effort into making sure his students understand material during lecture. Also his homework assignments are not very difficult.