A very good professor. One of the smartest guys in the CS department. Homeworks are tough but he makes them optional (I would still recommend in doing them and frankly its a risk not worth taking). A very friendly professor. Hates Windows, loves open source and simple adores MAC's, so if at all this description intrests u.. go for it

Awesome Prof. He makes you work, but you actually learn the subject matter.

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good!

Amazing guy! Probably the best Prof. I've come across... He is what you get when an uberhacker comes to teach. Wish I could do his homeworks a bit better ... Warning: The course he is teaching at UIC is a misnomer - if you know nothing about networks and C programming - you wont survive the ordeal. But he is THE PROF, wish I could work under him!

Jacob is amazing with his teaching esp. the way he create the slides on the go. He is my role model and because of him I am loving networking more than the one when I had before attending his class. Jacob you rock :-)

Though tough in scoring, he was a motivating professor, whoes grading made one try hard till the last.He gave a nonstop guidance through out the course. On the whole a dedicated professor :)

Most important thing is not that he is a great professor but the important thing is 'he is a great person'. He is equally fair to all students and very gentle in his attitudes. Wish him all the success in his future endeavors.

Amazing professor. One of the best players in the game. Lectures are very well presented and complimented with helpful demos. Homeworks are plentiful, practical, fun, and force you to learn tools like svn, LaTex, gnuplot, Perl, shell scripting, awk, etc. If you're interested in Networking then make sure to take it with Jakob. He knows his stuff.

The course is challenging and involves a lot of programming, so those coming from other universities might want to be well prepared for that. Despite this, Eriksson takes time with his students and if you go to office hours, you will receive the assistance you need. Lectures are entertaining.

Cool, helpful professor with a good positive attitude. Makes you work for what you get. Interesting lectures.Lots of stuff to learn from him. Wish I could work under him too!

If interested in computer networks&programming, this's definitely a must have class in UIC. Very well prepared lectures, carefully designed homework are among the highest quality in CS depts. The homework are a bit of challenging. However, for those preparing careers in CS, I believe leaving the hard time in school is a better idea. ILoveThisCourse

He makes subject very interesting by giving hard and practical homeworks. It needs the right idea to hit on to do his assignments or exams. It makes one feel good about themselves once they do the work given. Its a very nice course and students will definitely learn the subject. It'll give motivation to learn beyond the syllabus.

Prof. Eriksson is funny, inspiring, and brilliant. Through hard work, you'll quickly learn the importance of each network layer and use a few RFCs to write your own network programs. The competitive nature of his class adds an extra incentive to excel in it. I recommend knowing at least a little C before taking CS 450 with him.

Sounds like a professor usually, but every so often he'll say something like one of your hacker friends (in a good way). He's always prepared and seems to know darn near everything. Tolerates your dumb questions/comments with a smile. Assigns C and shell scripting for homework. Take a course with him before he's deemed too good to teach.

The best professor you could ask for!

Jakob Eriksson is an inspirational professor who 'acts as your tour guide', in his own words; for this top-down course in Computer Networks. Live programming is combined with animated discussions in class, while the home-works give you something to brag about (like intercepting wifi packets or 180 hosts all pinging each other). Admire His passion.

Very time consuming class, homeworks once a week that take 5+ hours to complete. Class is extremely hard but very rewarding, was worth every moment. Great professor recommend any class he teaches, you will learn more with him then any other professor.

Truly a C/Linux Genius that want's to pass his knowledge to all students. A lot of C assignments but it will benefit you in the future. Lectures are online which is a great plus for commuting students, although I will recommend going to his classes.

Prof. Eriksson is excellent: the lectures are fast paced demos and concept mapping, illustrated top-down. Lectures are very current, and entertaining. He expects a little bit of class discussion, which helps with clarity. The homework and tests are difficult. He's not joking about how much of a load this class is. But classes with him are worth it.

Truly an asset to the computer department at UIC. His assignments, although overwhelming at times, make the best use of your time. The programming assignments are there not only to learn the topics in class, but to exercise your programming skills in order for you to gain the appropriate skills to a be better programming

This course has weekly programming assignments. They are meant to be challenging, but you're rewarded with hands-on networking experience. Lectures are all recorded online. The professor is very enthusiastic about teaching and does a great job at explaining real-world concepts. He makes the challenging assignments all worth it in the end.

Great class. Challenging/rewarding assignments. Exams are like trying to deactivate a bomb in the movie Speed. Attendance is not mandatory but the professor is great eye candy ;).

All lectures are recorded. Ten homeworks allow to practice in C, scripting and even latex. The professor is very friendly and fun. I would recommend taking even for students not pursuing networking or systems development.

Best professor you can ask for considering super-hard homeworks each week.

His course is challenging, but he helps a lot.

Liked his style of teaching.

Interesting lectures. Lots of homework though. About one assignment per week

Really cool prof who will make you strong in networking basics in just 3 months!

Best teacher I've ever had. Makes you apply what he teaches and you really LEARN how things work.

Great course! Awesome professor! Should teach more courses! love coding and he gives lots of it in assignments!

awesome

Excellent course !! I learnt a lot from this course and I love learning from the assignments he gives.

He is THE best professor one could dream of. Makes you work your ass out, true. But in the end, when you look back, you'll feel you've accomplished something. My time in UIC- will be remembered the most for Prof.Eriksson.

Great prof!

He is THE best professor one could dream of. Makes you work your ass out, true. But in the end, when you look back, you'll feel you've accomplished something. My time in UIC will be remembered the most for Prof.Eriksson.

Excellent course

Hands the best CS professor in UIC. Very effective teaching strategies, live coding, use of visuals, C language. He is a very knowledgeable person, I learned a lot in his classes. I wish other professors were like this.

One of the best prof at UIC. Take this course if you are looking for programming intensive course.

Took CS385 and CS450 with Eriksson, have to admit it was the best choice I made while at UIC. Eriksson is the GREATEST professor at UIC. Very intelligent guy, definitely knows his stuff and makes class fun. Class is very challenging but you LEARN a lot! If you have a chance of taking a class with Jakob do it!!!!

a nice way to learn about networking

Awesome!! particular about grades. If you want to learn Networks, go to him. He's the man..

Excellent course. Has home-works every week, which require good programming skills. Posts video lectures and attendance not mandatory. Possibly, the toughest and most useful course in CS dept. :)

My friends and I have a rule, if Eriksson is teaching a class, we have to take it! Yes, his courses are challenging, but it's the challenge that makes learning the material so rewarding.

.Very fair in grading. Extremely smart teacher,explains everything as clearly as possible. Likes student participation and questions. Is always willing to help people in the class.

Difficult but you learn a lot

Extremely challenging class but I learned a lot. Professor Eriksson is one of a kind. His teaching style is very unique but engaging. His class is extremely organized. But his homeworks and exams will be the hardest things you'll do in undergrad.

Eriksson's courses are brutally challenging, but are equally rewarding if you put in the effort. I would gladly take any course he teaches.

The course is excellent and the professor is very direct and crisp in class. If you pay attention and work on the exercises, there is no way you won't learn a ton. Also, its nice to have a CS professor who isn't afraid of code!

His homework/projects are brutal and half the class often gets 0 points on them, but is one of the most brilliant professors I've had at UIC. Became proficient in C in one semester with this guy. The grade you get is not as important as the knowledge you learn in this class, you just need to put in effort.

I started this class with low confidence, got really less in homeworks, but can't deny how much I learned in it. He is really good. He gives plenty of chances to make up for any lost scores. You may not get good grades, its okay, you will learn a lot and every minute of his lecture is totally worth listening.

Professor Eriksson is extremely brilliant. He know C like the back of his hand. You will learn a lot from his class. However, the homeworks are punishing, especially if you have a heavy course load. The grades you receive can be disheartening but there is a curve. Even still, you will learn a lot from his class.

Intense C programming. The assignments are refreshingly original compared to CS107/201/202/340 where the focus is on boring games. I loved the discussions we had on Piazza. I think it's important to mention Tim Merrifield (TA) because he was a lifesaver with assisting on homeworks etc etc. Erikssons a pretty cool Professor. Dedicated and Original.

One of the best professors at UIC. HW assignments are fun and challenging.

This class seems to have a hype surrounding it as being the most difficult CS class. It was definitely challenging, but always fair. Professor Eriksson gives out more than enough extra points to receive a decent grade. If you put the effort into this class, getting an A won't be difficult.

Great class. Homework assignments are challenging(for most), but really help the student develop a deeper understanding of how user applications and operating systems interact. The professor does a good job at explaining difficult concepts and is always open for questions during lectures.

Great professor!

Great Professor. Super helpful during office hours. You will learn a lot in his class. Extremely fair grader, gives you plenty of opportunities to improve your grade. An A is possible if you complete all the assignments and do decent on the exams. I highly recommend this professor and course. Hopefully I get a chance to take more classes with him!

Professor is one of the best professor in UIC Computer Science Department. I had taken CS450 Introduction to Networking when he taught. His Lectures are really interesting. Time just goes and the homeworks/assignments he gives is programminng intensive mostly in C , some ib bash scripting. A lot of learning.

Great professor. You will learn plenty. Interesting topics. Don't think about it, if you can take a class with him do it.

Awesome Professor, awesome course and interesting homeworks! Glad I took it!

One of the best courses ever. If you ever want to learn about Comp. Nets in theory and practice, this is the course. A tough course so plan accordingly. Worth the effort you put in. You'll never regret taking this course, be whatever grade you get. I've seen courses where your interest is wrecked by the professor, this is not a place for that.

Extremely knowledgable in all areas covered in class. He codes a lot in class, shows off many useful UNIX and C tricks. If you have an opportunity to take this class with him, just register ASAP.

Best professor at UIC. The guy is brilliant yet super helpful and approachable. Extremely engaging lectures consisting of on-screen C hackery and puzzles. Homeworks are original and very applicable in the "real world". Give a solid effort and you will learn a crazy amount. Can't recommend enough.

Great professor, workload was almost brutal but incredibly rewarding and worthwhile. Definitely a course I learned the most in and was not the bane of my existence. If you get the chance to take a course taught by him, just do it. If a class conflicts with a course taught by him, drop it.

One of the hardest classes I've taken at the school, but I don't think you can get through the class and say you haven't learned anything. Well thought-out homeworks that teach you everything you could want to know about low-level programming and more. You should take at least one Eriksson class before you graduate.

Very few professors teach so well that you learn to love what you're studying. Eriksson did that. Definitely the hardest class I've taken so far but also the most beneficial and most worthwile.

Eriksson is a very passionate professor, but his projects are very straining for the average student. Naturally, the experienced find the class tough but completable, But %85 of the class really has a hard time keeping their head above water. For some the end grades make the over-ambitious set of projects worth-while. But truly less would be more.

Great class. One of my most rewarding CS classes for sure. I think the prof is too quick to assume a students' questions are trivial, but he'll own up to it when he's wrong. Lectures are worth re-watching online, and assignments are very valuable learning experiences.

Every week, I spent 15 hours on struggling with homework. Exams are too tough.

World class teacher and brilliant hacker

Great class, but requires a lot of work and a lot of understanding of the materials. He said on the first day that we'd be spending around 15 hoursweek on this class, and he was not wrong. The weekly projects are tough, but manageable. Exams are just as tough as the projects, but really are there to show what you've learned throughout the term.

Probably second hardest class I have ever taken in my 4 year university career. The class revolves around learning important OS concepts by adding features to xv6 (a learning unix-based OS from MIT). Programming all in C and a little in Assembly. HW will take VERY LONG hours learning the code of xv6 and debugging. Recorded lectures. Great prof!

Probably one of the best CS professor I ever had. The course is work-load heavy, but the lectures helps a lot.

One of the best and hardest classes that I have taken. He forces you to fully understand what is happening in an operating system to be able to solve the homeworks. Homeworks are usually weekly and make sure that you start them early. I would recommend this class and this professor to any in CS at UIC

Professor Eriksson was one of the best professors I've had at UIC. Always willing to answer questions in and out of class, enjoyable lectures, and learned a ton. Learned a lot about operating systems in general and picked up some useful Linux skills on the way. Exams were extremely hard, but was a fair grader. Very knowledgeable. Awesome af.

Very hard class with a lot of work. If you devote the required time you will pass and you will learn an incredible amount doing so. Eriksson is a great professor and knows his stuff. His lectures are engaging and interesting. He is sometimes condescending to us lowly students but that's understandable given his academic level. Great prof and class.

A great course that will help you get a well rounded understanding of how a basic operating system functions. I would highly recommend everyone to take this course. Although it may be difficult, you will also have other students struggling with you (which means you'll be saved by a curve.) Do every single homework and visit the TA if needed.

385 with Eriksson was one of my favorite classes at UIC.

I have taken Operating Systems course with Prof Eriksson and liked it very much! The course was hard! Professor is very competent, accessible, professional, caring.

10/10 would take again.

Amazing course structure and very practical approach. Video recordings are a real help.

Operating systems is a difficult topic but Professor Eriksson really strives to make sure you can understand the material. He regularly has office hours where you can ask for help on homework or more explanation on a topic. His lectures are available if you miss a class, but I personally recommend you attend class, then re-watch the lectures.

Key points of the course: 1. Professor is very knowledgeable and passionate about teaching this course 2. Challenging n exciting homeworks 3. Rather than being another memory test, exams were efficiently designed to test students' understanding of the subject 4. After finishing this course, you will be in a position where you can make your own OS

He teaches the course in a way that makes something as arcane as operating systems and kernels approachable. Always up for a great discussion during the office hours and a fun person in general.

He's a passionate guy who really enjoys teaching. OS won't be a black box to you after taking this course. It is like taking the red pill (of "The Matrix" movie fame) and staying in the Wonderland, while the Prof. shows you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Definitely a rewarding class. Tip : Don't miss the homeworks and class lectures.

The professor has a deep knowledge of the topic and is able to transmit it during lesson and with some challenging homework. Lessons are very practical: usually a new concept or tool is introduced and discussed with some code examples. Highly recommended if interested in performance topic.

Professor Eriksson is one of the most brilliant professor's I've ever had the pleasure of taking a course with. He does live examples and is so knowledgeable about his field. While many professors who are doing research don't focus very hard on the courses they teach, Eriksson does. He even wrote a book to go along with the course! Highly recommend

The best course I took at UIC. The professor has in-depth knowledge of the topics and is passionate about teaching them. The assignments are relatively hard work but very interesting and challenging. Definitely recommended!

Awesome professor, need to go to class to get the most out of lectures. He records them, though, so all is not lost if you miss. Make sure to keep up.

Good Professor.

Enjoyed my time in his class.

I took cs461 (OS) last fall under him and took a new class covering performance this semester. Both were the most challenging classes I'd taken up till that point. At the end of the class, I felt like I genuinely learnt something new which changed the direction of my future studies. I would highly recommend this class.

It's not very often you find a class that you can attend, digest knowledge, and not be so stressed out about getting every last detail in a notebook. If you're willing to do a little work, you will get whatever grade you are shooting for.

Pros: Great professor and class, lectures and projects teach a lot about networking. Office hours are helpful. Lectures recorded Cons: Very Difficult projects, Need a good grasp of low level programming + networking to complete. No lecture slides Verdict: Take if you're willing to work hard and want to learn about networking, Don't take if not

Professor Eriksson is enthusiastic about the material and you will learn a lot if you keep up with the class. Some of the homework assignments were a ton of work, but if you do them, you will really understand the material. The exams do not require weeks of preparation and memorization, but they do require you to go to class (or watch lectures).

Professor Eriksson is clearly knowledgeable about the subject matter. It was tough at times but you get out what you put in. It was interesting to go through different techniques of tracking a programs performance. Understanding how a program interacts with memory and interpreting it's performance are important skills to have as a programmer.

For the first time teaching Rust, Professor Eriksson gave great lectures and assignments to supplement learning a new language. Graciously offered extensions when needed and checked in to make sure students were understanding the concepts. Not an easy class, but would definitely recommend taking a course with him.

Professor Eriksson is extremely experienced on what he teaches, so the live coding you see in lecture teaches you a lot (unlike other professors who are not so nimble live). The lectures contain all of what you'll need to know for this class, so take notes there. To take advantage of the course play with bash and come with questions/challenges.

CS294 was LINUX/UNIX Bootcamp this semester. Professor Eriksson is a great lecturer and will give you all the info you need for assignments but he goes FAST so you will definitely need to pay attention.

I took this class for a free elective as a CS major. Professor's lectures are very helpful for homework but it usually requires a little bit extra looking up to do the homeworks. This class is definitely worth taking if you're a CS student, easy to understand concepts and will be useful for learning about different BASH commands. Good class/prof.

Professor Eriksson is really nice and knowledgeable! But be prepared that he likes to have a huge curve in the class - so don't feel too bad if you get like 50% on the exam, it will probably be about the average grade. HWs can take a long time (and maybe make you suffer a little), but they are interesting

Attend class, start homework early, study for tests, and take notes. Forget one and may God have mercy on your soul. Enthusiastic enough in lectures to keep my attention.

I really enjoyed his lecture style however the lack of slides makes studying for his exams difficult. The lecture style is loosely structured and allows for experimentation. Attending lab sections is optional and you could receive up to 13% EC by attending. His homework assignments are challenging but they help you learn a lot. Starting early helps

Dr. Eriksson is the most knowledgeable professor I have ever had at UIC. His lectures are structured in such a way that if you do not take advantage of this fact then will not do well. The reason is because like many have stated his lectures are completely improvised hence you need to ask questions to get the most out of them.

One of the best and most knowledgeable CS professors at UIC. He is tough but fair. All the relevant material was covered in class with great detail, his lecture style gets criticized but I vastly prefer it to slide reading. His in-class coding shows you how he debugs and uses tools which in turn has helped me become better at C/Rust and Linux.

Very clear in presenting lectures, and helpful in answering questions

Eriksson is very smart though be warned that if you are hoping for a braindead class where all you have to do to get an A is memorize a bunch of slides and take an exam where all this info is just recycled then this professor is not for you. Deeply thinking about the concepts is a requirement if you want to do well which I very much appreciated.

He's interesting and chill

Jacob is a really good professor, he cares about his students. Though the homework is hard, we got extension for most of the homework. Also, I suggest reading the textbook before coming to the lecture, if you don't read the textbook, it's definitely hard to follow his lecture. No lecture slides and good exam review, I think he need to improve.

I felt like Prof. Erikson cared about how the students did in his class. The lectures consist of him coding live and you need to ask a lot of questions and attend live to get the most out of them. This was an issue with a lot of fellow students, a lot of people didn't attend live (admittedly, I am one of them). Overall I learned a lot in this class

I learned a lot in this course and have a better understanding of low-level programming than I did in CS 261. It is noted that you should probably take 15 credit hours or less with this professor, but if you are willing to put in the work, you will surely receive a good result. I love the lecturing style even though most people disliked it.

- Exams based on homework - Labs help directly with homework - Lectures help directly with homework - Homework challenges you as a programmer, but in the systems domain - This semester, if final was better than midterm, then final took place of midterm. - All labs were extra credit (up to 10% total) - 10% end-of-semester participation bonus

A was achievable with some effort. HWs could be done easily if you knew what lecture and lab code were doing. Lectures were very helpful and professor was open to answering all questions, but you had to attend in person. Reading the textbook was a huge help for the exams.

He's a great teacher that would happy to discuss and explain, though his hw/quiz/exam are super hard, you'll need to spend a lot of time on it. Even though I didn't do well in class, I'm still like his lecture and would rewatch them again and again to understand the class.

An amazing professor. Super knowledge and helpful. He really want's his students to learn and understand the material. His exams are tough, he expects 50% average on his exams, so don't beat yourself up about a bad score. He doesn't make lecture slides, he really dives into the code which I think is valid for an OS class. Always up for discussion.

He's one of my favorite if not my favorite professor at UIC. He emphasizes learning the material throughout the class and grades based on how much you understand. It is a difficult class, but the curves are generous (A - 70%, B - 50%, etc.). He is a very knowledgeable person and an excellent professor. I really learned a lot from this class.

First of all this course will give you the full understating of kernel, which is going to help you in long run as computer engineer/developer. Professor is very experienced and have designed the homework, quizes, exam very carefully. His lectures are well thought and full of core concepts. He is always open for discussions, inside or outside class.

The professor is very unique in his way of teaching in a good way ofcourse. I would suggest taking any class with him

Great professor, great course

Awesome Professor. Class is very difficult, and takes a lot of hard work to understand the material, and dig through the code to finish the homework. The professor is Brilliant, passionate about teaching, and cares about his students.

Challenging but rewarding course. Professor is knowledgeable and engaging. Highly recommend utilizing resources like the textbook, study sessions, and tools like unstuck study to succeed.

Get ready to WORK. If you think you have the “A” formula, you are incredibly wrong when it comes to this class. Learning can only come from work, and I have not learned so much in a semester for a very long time. Very worthwhile class if you take it seriously. If you don't have the time, it is not for you.

The most important thing in this class was the generous grading criteria. Important is to score good on final so you focus more on learning the concept rather than sole aim of getting a good grade on the quizzes. Professor took time to explain the doubts and even some off topic questions without rushing through the lectures.

he is a really good professor if you want to take charge of your own learning. lots of hands-on work during lecture. make sure to take notes and do your own assignments. the quizzes and exams are the toughest parts of the class, but just learn the "tricks" to answer his questions and pay close attention to his wording.

A very technical professor, you would learn a lot watching him work.

Textbook for this class is a xv6 unix source code. Quizzes and exams difficult, but they curve grades and grading policy is very generous. Great teacher, seems to actually know what he's doing, not reading from the powerpoint all the time like others. Take a class with him.

captivating lectures, engaging homeworks, more focus on learning than on grades, exams are tough, difficult to get an A

By far the best professor at UIC. Class is taught in a way that encourages self-learning and rewards curiosity. Lectures is essentially the whole class browsing and examining source code; extremely interesting and engaging. Course is graded entirely on exams with optional HWs acting as the study material. Every course should be an Eriksson course!

The content is difficult but interesting. The professor does do a good job teaching, though I may be biased on this.

Eriksson can't be beat if you want to learn about systems performance or operating systems and can put in the work. Asking questions and studying the source code will teach you a lot, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Don't be discouraged by tough grades on assignments - there's usually a big curve at the end.

One of the best professors at UIC. Took his CS 463. The course is on the harder side with 5 tests (4 quarterly and 1 final). Going to his office hours helped with the homework. Is really knowledgeable and passionate.

CS 463 (Systems Performance) with Professor Eriksson has been a great class! If you're genuinely interested in the topics and are willing to put in the time and effort, you will learn a lot. The average for quizzes/exams has been around 50%, so don't worry if you do bad on a quiz or two! A very difficult but worthwhile class with a great professor.

Really great and knowledgeable professor. A lot of learning is done outside of class via the homeworks but his grading is fair. One of the best professors at UIC.

Prof. Eriksson is super knowledgeable. Just wished he had more structure in the class - otherwise he is great