Dude, he is awesome. People never get to know him in person. Thye just judge him by his first impression. I think he is one of the easiest professors ever. He is willing to help people with engineering as well as other subjects realating to engineering.

He is awesome!!

Great Professor!

he's a playa.

Gosh he is so hot. I have a secret crush on him.

Hey, he wasn't that bad. He taught well, was an okay guy and graded fairly. But yeah, what the hell was up with those sweaters?! Also, he had a lame sense of humor. Still, I've had much worse.

He does have have gay sweaters, but he is only doing his job. Weed out the losers that can not make it in the engineering program or field.

Exams: straight forward, but you have to know the stuff. Taught VERY well and you learn a lot,he is very fast paced,and there is a decent workload.Personality: he is a little wierd, always smiling,but he helped out when needed. Only bad thing:he is a grading NAZI. Watta if you read this,lighten the **** up on the grading all ready. Id recommend him

If you have trouble getting an A in his class let alone passing you should reconsider your major because you won't be a competent engineer. Sure he's kind of a quirky guy and a picky grader but you should still get an A. All exam questions come straight from quizzes and in class examples. Very straight foward nothing tricky. Show up and you should ace his classes.

I think he is fine. He is not easy but he is not hard. He tells you what he wants on the tests, he says explain everything. You shouldn't have a problem getting a B in the this class. In lecture he doesnt explain everything clearly but if you go to his office, he will explain it better. If you are still have problems go talk to Shridhar.

VERY eazy course, e100. I personally disliked the teacher. he is a hard grader. somewhat unclear on what he actually wants in his assignments.

probably one of the best professors I've ever had. Had him for 3 classes (undergrad and grad). He is a tough grader but it isn't hard to get an A in his class. He is very supportive. Great over all!

Picky grader is true, likes to take off a few points here and there. When I went to his office, he sort of helped, but don't expect too much. Don't really need to buy the textbook, only was required for one small take-home quiz. If he's the only one teaching the class, it is NOT necessary to avoid him. This cannot be said of ALL professors.

Piece of Cake =)

The class is straightforward. The first few weeks are a joke if you know any HTML at all. Watta seems to know what he's talking about, but most of the real learning takes place in the lab. He does stupid things like he hands back papers to all 100 students in the lecture individually, which takes about ten minutes.

Good proffesor. Goes over material way too many times. Very easy to get an A.

He is a good proffesor. His grading is crazy though. But if you do exactly what he tells yo to do in class, you will b fine in the exams. And hey, you have to attend every single lecture because if u miss one, u miss a lot! he shows you that he's harsh and stuff, but he's a nice person to talk to and he helps you if you need it, go to his office!

Watta is a ok professor. He spends WAAAYYYYYY to much time on simple stuff and quickly covers the harder material. The class is easy but he teaches it like he has to teach you all the prior knowledge too. We spent more than an hour going over the unit circle. a simple programming statement like writing a variable, he would waste 10 mins a variable

His dissertation was in Neural Networks so it's the topic he knows the most about. Not the greatest teacher in the world, you have to ask the questions to get the information you need. It's grad school though, not everything is going to be spoon fed to you. He's very critical but it doesn't affect your grade too much and he gives lots of feedback.

Look. He might teach a difficult subject. Yeah, it might be a lot of work. But, c'mon here. All you have to do is THE WORK HE ASSIGNS YOU! (Attendance isn't recorded, but it is necessary!) He drops 2 quizzes, is ALWAYS available for help and is VERY supportive. Just try to stick it out if programming isnt for you. HE HAS A PHD FOR A REASON!

Professor Watta teaches you exactly what you need to succeed in his class. alot of studying and hw but thats what students need to understand the material. he is willing to help you and clarify all of the material and is willing to simplify things for you so that you dont have to struggle too much. one of the smartest engineering professors!

Professor Watta is a very smart, creative guy. Though you don't use a textbook for 270, professor watta will give you "practice sheets" that are basically your test. He writes excercises on the board. As long as you do the exercises and the practice sheets, you will do fine on the test. He is always available to help.

Prof. Watta is the best professor I had till now. He teaches you what is important. His teaching is fast yet understanding. Every class of his is important. Grading is good. He is not hard on his students. I recommend his class for every one.

I don't know what people are fussing about. Dr. Watta is great at teaching his programming course. Why? For one, he doesn't assume that you know anything about coding--you know, the way a teacher is supposed to be? He is also very empathetic with his students. He doesn't get angry or judge them and is quite supportive. No book. Drops worst quiz.

Amazing and underrated professor! It truly astonishes me when I see the knowledge that he possesses of innovation and ingenuity. His lectures are inspiring and if you are a conscientious student who takes copious notes and makes a valiant effort, you should succeed. Are you one of these students?

pros: great professor. he teach all the skills you need to develop mobile app. very clear and helpful. cons: you should work hard to implement the skills for your project. need a lot of extra time to finish project.

He is a really good teacher... but when you have him grade anything... yeah.

Everyone here thinks they'll get job by taking show-up-and-pass-classes. Professor Watta is one of the best teachers at UMD. He has the worst rating here because he makes lazy sophomores do some studying, and actually accomplishing some really good projects that helped me get a job. Very Underrated, his efforts not fully appreciated.

HES GOOD

this class was so easy, awesome professor

This class is a lot because you learning a lot in just a span of one semster but keeping up with the practices and lecture your for sure a passing grade.l

I was shocked to see such an overall low rating for Dr. Watta. He's a genuine good person and I enjoyed ECE 270. His lecture notes are sufficient for understanding the material. I like his step by step approach towards teaching, helps solidify understanding. Wish he taught more classes!

I like Dr. Watta. His lectures provide good breadth and depth of the material. He's tough but fair. I was struggling with a topic and visited him during office hours, so helpful!

Watta is a phenomenal professor. This was an introduction course to C and C++, so attending his lectures is pretty much mandatory for us beginners. He gives very helpful note packets to go along with each lesson, with tons of examples. Watta is very open to office hours and assisting over email. Tough grader on exams but he did give partial credit.

I was in shock to see so many negative reviews about Watta. Funny Professor and he knows his stuff. I came into this class with no programming experience at all but walked out being able to create a video game. His exams are very straight forward, but his homework is a bit tricky, thus tough exam grader, but very lenient with homework assignments.

Pop quiz almost every lecture. If you skip one lecture, you will fall WAY behind. Dr. Watta is a GREAT teacher but the course is hard. You must complete as many practice problems as you can to get a decent grade. The most fun thing all semester was the final project, you get to create your own program and show it to the whole class!

It's really easy to fall behind and it's understandable that many people fell in the trap. If you pay attention during the lecture rather than spending time on your phone you will do much better on the practice problems. The practice problems supplied were golden, everything on his tests was in the practice problems!! You have to mess up to fail.

He got alot better, I've been told he was much worse before I took him. Just show up to his lecture everyday and sit and listen, and you'll do fine. He gives small 15 minute quizzes about 80% of the time so make sure you understand the lectures for every class. He's a lot of work, but you'll understand C by the end of it.

Dr. Watta is a bit scatterbrained and disorganized at times. That being said his notes are extremely useful and will pretty much guarantee that you pass the course. I had minimal programming experience prior to this course and simply did all the practice problems. It took effort, but I did learn it. Don't put off the final project.

I can see that many people that gave professor Watta bad reviews were all in my class. While I can agree with a few of their gripes with him, I disagree that he was a bad professor. I came into this class with zero prior coding experience and still came out with an A. The class is a lot of work but just watch the lecture videos and show up to class

Coming into this class I had no knowledge in coding. First quiz got a 8/50, but never gave up. This class is a lot of work and I learned most of the material by going to Professor Watta's help sessions. I kept on grinding and towards the second half of the semester I didn't even study for the quizzes and ended up getting close to 50/50 on them.

Hilarious that Watta's rating is so low. Difficulty wise, 270 with him is an extremely easy class. Work wise, it is a lot. People here saying you need coding experience are lying; however, if you suck with computers, you WILL have IDE problems that you can't solve. So, make sure you know a computer person in the class. All the coding is easy.

Coding is practice not reading, so prepare yourself to work hard. Dr. Watta will help you through the way.

I had no prior coding experience and got an A. Go to office hours once a week for an hour or so, hes always there. He doesn't just give answers, but rather hints as to what to do. watch his video lectures at 1.4 or 2x speed. Do a practice problem from his notes every week. Follow his template for assignments. If you do all these you'll get an A.

Prof. Watta is a tough professor, but you will learn A LOT about C/C++ in this class. Expect an assignment due every week plus a quiz. Lecture notes are phenomenal (still reference them today!) He's a bit strict when it comes to grading, but you'll be fine if you study hard for the quizzes and put decent amounts of effort into the homework.

I know many students had a Very bad experience with Watta in ECE 270, but for ECE 273, Watta is a very Solid Professor. He does many examples in class and his exams are exactly like lectures if you pay attention. The lecture part of 273 is pretty easy if you pay attention in class. If you have Watta for 273, you'll be fine.

Recorded lect. posted on thurs, expected to know it by mon for the quiz. Watta is a great guy, go to office hrs, and don't be afraid to email him to ask for office hrs at a different time if you need. Type the code in recordings and class, don't just try to learn by watching. His class added a lot to my resume, not only coding skills.

Solid professor. He really knows his stuff and is understanding when students are struggling. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and don't fall behind or you will not pass.

Im an EE major, now a senior, took this class as a sophomore. He is by far the best professor on campus, his class made me 15x better at programming than my buddies who took the equivalent class at other universities. Quiz every class based on short video you are supposed to watch before class, alternates as group and individual every class period

Professor Watta gets a bad rap on here. He honestly tries as hard as he can to teach the material in a way that will help you as an engineer. He wants you to understand the math beind your programming, the context in which the programming works together, and to retain the information ge taught. He is a real gem

3/4 of the lectures will have a quiz in them. Some will be individual, others will be groups of 2-3. If you try and at least write something on the right track for the quizzes you can pass no problem.

Professor Watta is great. The class itself is tough but Watta makes it as simple as possible. His lectures are extremely useful. Follow the notes and do the exercises, you will get an A. I had no prior coding experience before this class. Bottom line is you earn the grade you get based on how much effort you give.

Professor Watta is a great teacher. Held online lectures on Friday night with students that were struggling, posted detailed lecture videos, and really went out of his way to teach the material. That being said there was a lot of work that went into this class. As long as you do the work and it shows you will succeed in this class.

There are many reviews saying Watta is very tough and every lecture is for a quiz. There are many quizzes, but you learn a lot of material in a short span of time. Many of the homework assignments and the final project will be on my resume for a long time. After taking his classes, I feel much more confident programming in C and C++.

Honestly a lot of students complained about him but he honestly was an amazing professor for 270 truly one of my favorite professors he truly helped you learn the materials to pass his class you need to really review the video lectures and really attempt the handouts but overall I dont see myself learning as effectivly without Professor Watta.

The professor is so nice and helpful in case you needed help.BUT,this class was so stressful and you will get to work a lot to do stuff. You will learn C at first, eventually you will start working on Open FrameWork(C++ Coding based to do graphics) and you are not allowed to used Word to do your HW reports, it has to be done using LateX. SUPER HARD

Really great professor. People hating on him just did not put in the work. You have to study every week, it's not bad if you watch his lecture videos. Quizes are not super hard, if you understand lecture videos. I never knew how to code until I took his class, now I am pretty decent. Paul Watta is an amazing professor, just not for lazy people.

(Fall 24) Hard prof with a lot of self teaching. KEEP up with the lecture vids he posts weekly, do at least some of the exercises, go to help sessions & SI u will see improvement. Ppl do bad bc they dont try trust ik ppl who complain but i nvr seen them take grp quizzes and they giggle abt not watching the vids. Every Mon grp Quiz, wed individual.

Professor Watta is great at explaining things and teaching concepts! As long as you stay up to date with the lectures and course material, you'll get a good grade since knowing how to program in C/C++ is mostly a matter a memorization. I recommend flashcards!

Absolutely watch all video lectures and do example problems. There are weekly individual quizzes that are the largest part of your grade and staying on top of the video lectures will get you a B.