My first rating on this website. Prof. Abdu is a fantastic teacher and a really nice person. Exams and homeworks were hard, but I did learn a lot. I would encourage you to go to his lecture. Hes very passionate in his lecture and he can remember your name if you ask/answer a bunch of good questions.

Great professor that listen to student's feedback

Professor Abdu is a great instructor who cares about his students and enjoys teaching. He is open to honest and critical feedback, continuously trying to improve his classroom experience. He likes his students to engage during lectures, often through Q&As. He tends to be quite active on Piazza, answering student queries. You won't be disappointed!

Prof Abdu cares about his students! Really great experience taking the course with him! Even though the exams and home works were tough, prof Abdu is one of the best professors I've ever had.

Professor Alawini truly cares about his students. This may seem cliche but he will actually listen to his students and actively make the class better as the semester progresses so his students get the most out of the class.

Best cs prof I ever met in UIUC.

Abdu is the man! I've never seen a professor care so much for student's success. I definitely recommend taking him for 411 as he is very knowledge and makes the course very relevant by teaching us NoSQL as well.

Best professor in UIUC. He answers more than 70% questions on piazza, and he really takes efforts. Homework is not easy, but not taking much time. Project has few restrictions, good chance to open your mind. Review sessions (most from TA) are also helpful, which save your time on homework and exam. Class is interesting and clear. Again, best prof.

This is the first course i've taken in CS department, this is a very good fundamental course even though it's in 4 level. He cares about students, tried very hard to answer every single question, even made a video after class when he finds out most of us cannot figure out some concepts in class. Highly recommend! Best professor I've ever met.

Abdu is a great professor. You can tell that he cares a lot about the subject and his students. It's a huge class and he does his best to make everyone feel welcome. Some other students seem to dislike his humor and the way he makes class interactive, but honestly I think its refreshing to have a CS professor who cares as much as he does.

Abdu is so cute and passionate. Jokes aside, definitely approachable after class if you need help, he listens to feedback and really wants his students to get their money's worth.

Cares about feedback from students and a great and compassionate professor. Definitely very approachable.

Great professor who genuinely cares about student feedback and is very approachable outside of class.

Honestly as a person who wishes to teach one day, Abdu is a role model for me. He is the perfect example of how a professor truly cares about his students. The course so far is great! It covers almost all the essentials you need to learn about database systems.

Great professor and great guy overall. Tries to keep lectures interesting with stories and jokes.

Fantastic professor. Honestly one of my favorite teachers I've had during college. Really listens to feedback and seems to care about his students and the class

Well Organized class. Great Professor, very clear. The only complaint is that this class further facilitates the scam that is the IClicker. Shame on you UIUC

Feel the Prof really cares about students and helpful. The exam was okay, similar to the examples and homework. But the group project is heavy.

A professor who really cares students, making you feel so worthy devoting your time to the class, having jokes and activities in class which help you focus, one of the best teachers I've ever had.

Best course taken so far as CS Graduate student at UIUC. If I happen to become a professor, I'd like to be as empathetic and approachable as he is. He LISTENS to students, and is always happy to help! He is the best professor. Period.

To put it shortly, Abdu is an amazing professor who makes the learning environment feel fresh with his character. He gives a lot of opportunities to help you understand the material better and provides extra credit to help students out. Homework may seem heavy but is easily doable with the appropriate time and effort.

Honestly Abdu is the ultimate homie. He is funny, smart, and actually wants his students to succeed. HW is fair and greatly prepares you for the exams. Also the final project really can be awesome if you want it to be. I've seen few other professors take feedback as seriously as Abdu. He wants his class to be top tier, and frankly, it is.

Abdu is nothing but helpful. I would give nothing but respect for this man. His teaching style reminds me every day of what it means to be an engineer. His work ethic, his character, his respect for truly teaching students-all of it creates an atmosphere of constant inspiration. Especially with the times of this semester, Abdu carried me threw it.

Amazing professor. One of the first professors that I've had that actually attempts to connect with his class in ways that aren't just related to the material. I would highly recommend anyone take a class with him if they have the chance! Abdu has clear lesson plans, clear grading criteria, and makes sure to adjust deadlines if needed

Gives off good vibes. Very nice guy too and he teaches the class pretty well.

I have both been a student and a TA for this class. When I took this course as a student, I felt the course was challenging. When I worked as a TA for this course, I got to know how much effort the instructors have put into this course(Yes, we put A LOT OF time into this course). Abdu is a passionate, hard-working, and caring professor.

Professor Abdu very well knowledgeable in his field and is also very approachable. He takes immense feedback from his students and changes the course to make sure that all of the concerns people have are taken care of. Take his class if you decently challenging class with a great professor, take his class.

Excellent prof!!!

He is very responsible and kind. Always willing to help. The lectures are interesting and helpful and I truly recommend this class!

Quite honestly the most effective course I've taken at the U of I, thanks to Prof. Abdu. Not only is he hilarious, but his lectures are extremely clear and he's very approachable before and after class. The lectures are faster-paced, so you may benefit from reading the textbook beforehand. Not mandatory, though. AND he memorized our names! WHAAT

Prof. Alawini is a humor professor really helps students. The class is very useful and colorful. I really appreciate his patience and instruction for the whole semester. He helped me at the beginning of this semester. When I said "thank you" to him, he is so kind and said, "good luck". Best wishes to you, Abud and CS411 Database Systems!

Willing to discuss class structure outside of class, accessible. Group project - start early (not hard, but very stressful if delayed)! Class is easy. Textbook is rarely required. Homework wasn't too long / difficult. Covers 3 different types of databases types. Strongly recommend any CS student to take as the material of the class is important.

Prof. Alawini definitely knows how to run a course. The course is extremely organized and he continuously takes feedback even during the middle of the semester. However, I found this course to have quite heavy workload. On top of the big project, time consuming homeworks kept coming each week as well as prelecture-vids, in-class activities, quizzes

Great professor. I think as a lecturer, he is adequate, but the real reason I think his classes are great is that he genuinely cares about the learning experience. How he formats his class is interactive and really makes you learn the material. He is also not afraid to change things around and takes feedback seriously

very good

Great professor and great course

He is a really great professor who genuinely cares about helping people learn. The entire course is very interactive. The prelectures and group activities help to introduce you to the material. The course project is a great way to learn new skills and use course content in a more realistic setting. Course has office hours 5 days a week :) 10/10

Best professor ever. The class is informative and all the contents are elaborated clearly so that I found really enjoyable to understand them. I sincerely don't know why some students complain about the exam. The purpose we are here is to study not to compete with each other. The rules are made clear and fair to me.

Great professor! He especially did well when it came to adapting to certain problems throughout the semester. He developed two options to resolve a problem with the scheduling of exams and allowed students to choose which option to select. He was even understanding enough to allow for one lower grade on the exam to be dropped which is very nice!

Commitment to encouraging students to learn was clear. Very helpful in answering questions throughout the semester.

An amazing professor who actually cares about their students and wants them to try their best. This past semester was a little weird with grading, but the professor tried his best to keep everything fair as the semester kept going. Truly a gem and highly recommend taking his class if you are interested in databases/database design.

Good Professor. A great group project for practice frontend & backend skills. Though a lot of people are complaining about the exam policy, I think that's not a big deal since the exam is quite easy and straightforward.

Prof. Abdu's class was very useful and I learned a lot. I would say in the past I wrote SQL, MongoDB on my resume but I actually didn't know them well but after taking this course I found myself confident in SQL, MongoDB, and neo4j queries!

The professor is really nice. The workload of the course is acceptable.

Abdu is a great prof that cares about his students and others that works with him. I find this course extremely useful since I have three years of work experience already, and I know that some course material will be used during work, such as SQL, Neo4J and MongoDB. A good prof with humor and dedication, can't see what is not to like about him.

Professor Alawini is a great professor. His lectures are informative but light-hearted, and he provides a lot of resources to succeed. The group activities in the class are also very helpful! Would take a class with him again!

Loved the class, the professor is phenomenal and it really shows how much effort he puts into teaching. The provided slides are excellent and perfectly cover all topics, the prelecture/GA format is well thought and very useful to learn. Overall not a hard class, but you definitely need to put a lot of work in, especially for the project

CS411 is an incredibly broad and rigorous course on database systems, and it has helped me tremendously outside of class. Highly recommend this course and the professor

Really nice professor.

Great professor! I would like to take his course if I have a chance in future

His lectures were enjoyable and interesting. The homework, exams, and project are manageable and graded very fairly. I would recommend this course

I wonder why someone rated 1/0 points for Abdu. He's really the most humorous professor I've ever seen at UIUC! The Q&A part during the class is practical too as long as you FINISH LEARNING the Prelecture. DB is really important technique during work for CS students also... But the course can be better if they decreased the volume of homework...

Abdu taught Database Systems (CS411), which turned out to be one of my favorite CS classes at UIUC!! He and his TAs are super helpful (just show up to OH and they'll help, or post on Campuswire and someone will respond with an answer in less than 1-4 hours)! I learned a lot!! Not an EASY A, but if you learn the stuff, you'll get an A or A+!!

Fun class, I found the topics covered interesting and useful

I'm not that into databases, but good class, fun teacher

I've learned a lot from CS411. Prof. Alawini is really nice.

You can learn a lot through this course regarding the database and get a chance to develop a web app with help from TAs. Course arrangement is great and organized. Pre lecture quiz feels a little bit extra, but some may find it useful to practice.

Beat prof I have ever meet.

Took Fa21. The course material itself was fine and I think there were plenty of resources available. Though they need A LOT more guidance and clear expectations for the team project. This course doesn't even count for the CS degree team project requirement. Ends up being one or two people experienced with web dev to take over the whole project.

Probably the best professor in the CS department and an overall great experience taking this course. There is a lot of work to do but its pretty manageable. His lectures are very good and the content in the class is relevant so that nice.

Great professor. Lots of chances for extra credits. Workload is a little big.

Lectures cover a wide range of topics and I truly learned a lot. The professor and TAs are very nice and help a lot. Very detailed feedback for your homework and projects. - Weekly Pre-lectures are very important to catch up. - Actively participating in group activities matters. - CBTF with cheat sheets.

He's... interesting

The instructor has a clear, humorous, and interesting teaching style. Abdu will discuss pre-lectures and extra practices during the lecture in detail. There are even relaxing activities during the class lol. But the professor does not reply to my email :( By the way, TA should balance their grading criteria among critiques.

The instructor has a clear, humorous, and interesting teaching style. Abdu will discuss pre-lectures and extra practices during the lecture in detail. There are even relaxing activities during the class. The course content is really good.

Abdu is an understanding, fair and funny instructor. I feel like I learned a lot in his class but certain things (indexing, relational algebra) were rushed through very quickly. You have to be on your toes because the questions on his quizzes are not easy, but I feel that the group activities and honeworks prepare you well for those.

Wonderful professor and very well run class. Very doable if you put in the work. My advice is PRE's are not enough to do well on HW+quizzes so make sure you come prepared and listen during GA lecture+activity. And if someone in your project group does not know web dev you will have a very difficult time with that because they don't help with that.

After the first half of the semester you don't have to go to class. When there is class there is always groupwork. Material is decently interesting but the final project is the highlight.

They call this man "da legend" for a reason–the course is useful for gaining insight into DMS, how DMS operate under the hood, learning how to write basic SQL, and other aspects of database systems. Class is very fair, group project is very educational but not hard, and the professor is overall very funny!