Russ is a really nice and funny guy. He's new to teaching, but he does his best and is always looking to improve. If you go to class, and put an honest amount of work in, it is easy to learn from him and do well. Ask plenty of questions! He loves helping students. I would definitely recommend him to beginners in programming who want to learn.

great guy, awesome beard, and loves to teach from how i have seen. His way of teaching keeps you awake haha! But great teacher and very unique.

New coder? Not a bad intro teacher. Class is based on quizzes(lecture), projects, drills, and exams. Quizzes are easy (group), projects every week and take time, drills start off easy but get tougher, practice drills and listen to lectures for exams. Sections led by TA's who are very helpful. Online help always available (very responsive). gluck!

He is a good instructor, his lectures are very clear, and projects makes concepts even more clear. He would stick to the syllabus, and deadlines. Beware of ICAs (attendance is not mandatory but there can be surprise ICAs)

For a basic Comp-Sci class, Lewis is really good at delivering a clear, concise and strong. The class is a simple lecture hall presentation with limited class participation, but Lewis is really good at leading a clear lecture. He does assign pop quizzes but any understanding of the topic will make it possible.

Russ did a great job. He worked with me whenever I needed him and explained most subjects very clearly. Some people who never showed up to class complained that the class was too hard, but if you show up and put some time into it, the class is not bad at all. I had never programmed before and got an A.

Do your work. Don't miss anything. You need to be serious. His tests are tough.

You will have to do more for this class then any other. You will have a weekly project which will take a full day ( you will need to go to section hours), then everyday you will have practices which will take anywhere from 15 min to 1 hour, the section which is a 2 hour project, then the class which is 1 hour which includes a pop quiz every week.

If you haven't programmed before taking this class, it might be tough for you (like me), and I'll admit I was confused during lectures at times, but if you put in the work daily and do the coding bats (I would also do the java coding bats online as much as you can, it helps so much!) then you're going to be fine. Show up to class for pop-quizzes!

Russ is a decent professor and I think a lot of the criticism here isn't entirely accurate. Yes, 352 is a very challenging course but that is the case with any instructor. People are complaining about his tests and rough programming assignments but again these are a part of CS 352 as a whole. He's a good programmer but can hard to follow sometimes.

This course was my first exposure to programming, and I absolutely loved every minute of it! This is a tough course for someone like me without a background in programming, but if you go to office hours, do the coding bats and push yourself, this is a really fun course.

This course is very doable, and you will likely get an A if you have the time to chip away at the assignments. Russ provides grading scripts that are very very nice, and he focuses on you leaving with a basic understanding of computer hardware functionality. I wish this course had a lab, but that is a departmental issue.

Russ does a pretty good job at explaining the complexities of computer architecture. If you participate in class and pay attention to lectures, chances are you'll get a good grade. Computer architecture is tough, so missing a lecture can be catastrophic to understanding. The 6 tests are also pretty hard, you don't have the time to make mistakes.

Russell is an amazing professor. His assignments are notoriously difficult, and require a LOT of investment and debugging. Assignments are graded using a grading script, so you have to match his output exactly. I learned a lot though.

Russ is probably the best programmer I've ever met. He knows a lot about everything, not just Assembly language. Make sure not to use your dropped assignment until last few weeks, since they're much more difficult. I just want to clip a little piece of his beard, put it in a locket, and hold on to it to have 7 years of bug-free code.

not sure why people are complaining about this class being unrealistic/unreasonable. asm4 is assigned 7 days before its due date, all my other cs classes have something due on the same day so i dont see the issue the time on the second test is tight but all others are reasonable. I certainly had 400 level classes that are much much harder

Russ cares and it shows. He answers Piazza on weekend nights and would stay after hours to help you. He looks for the knowledge gap you have to accommodate your question/misunderstanding. Students who don't like his teaching style are the whiney/spoiled type who will have a hard time adjusting to the workforce. Take him if you care about learning.

His 25 minute cumulative tests (there are 6 of them in the semester) always feel like a race to write SOMETHING down for each problem. It is essential to know the material like the back of your hand prior to the test. Simulation projects were a huge plus as they help show low-level concepts done at a higher-level. Great content but tests are rough!

Great professor, CS is a tough subject and I think that's why people say his difficulty is high (might also be because of his really long specs) but if you pay attention in class and start your assignments early this class will feel really easy!

This course had the hardest coding assignments I've ever had, and there was a huge difficulty gap between lectures/ICAs and the assignments. The lectures were amazingly performed, and Russ' humor and life experience added a lot to them. Assignments are a bit draconian; finishing 90% of your program may only get you 50% of the points. TAs clutch.

He class is good, just be prepared pay a lot of time to finish his assignment

Russ cares. He is patient and addresses every question with precision and depth. Each topic he walks through thoroughly. If people give Russ a bad grade its because the class is difficult. The concepts are a serious step up from CSC110.

The class is very difficult and the assignments take a lot of work but that has nothing to do with his ability as a teacher. The assignments are often different from what is talked about in class but that's just because there is so much content to cover. Russ is careful to provide many methods of asking questions and getting help.

The technical learning part of the class occurs with the detailed specs which outline what topics the projects are going to use. Russ has experience from ibm. lectures are more about how to think of meaningful approaches to solving problems. Poor ratings are from students who expected to be spoon fed the information. He teaches us to think

His tests are a bit hard, but I find CSC tests in general to be hard so in comparison, not much harder. In class lectures relate to the final, projects can be done without really attending lectures after the 5th week. He will get distracted, and he will grade hard on tests.

Russell is a really nice instructor. I think most of the negative reviews came more from the nature of the course than the instructor himself. As an instructor, Russell is extremely helpful and stays about 30 minutes beyond each class to answer the questions. He is always there to answer questions on Piazza. Quality of TAs is questionable though.

Lewis is a very knowledgeable professor, however, he expects a lot out of his students. If you put in the effort during class and outside of class, you will succeed. There are lots of different resources to ask for help either from Lewis, the TA's, or other students. If you understand the material, you will do well on the tests.

Russ is a nice guy, but goodness was this a step up from Bens 110. The specs arent very clearly written, and often times, youll have to use newly learned concepts for a long PA that you dont get any practice for until the next short PA. Tests were super difficult, and he uses invisible test cases on gradescope which make it hard to get a 100 w a PA

Russ is a really good person and tries hard to help you learn. His online course was able to be interactive and involving so that you would learn through engagement. The class is very difficult so I would recommend taking this with focus but if you do put in the effort and time you can succeed. I would take the tests slowly and reach each question.

I believe that Russ is a really good teacher. I personally didn't have a hard time in his class, due to a slight programming background. He did a good job explaining concepts such as linked lists that I didn't understand in previous classes. He truly cares about feedback and works hard to improve if he makes a mistake. His projects are also fun.

Don't be intimidated, just be prepared to work harder than you did in 110. Conceptually, this class is easy. Start PAs early if you love yourself. Don't just rely on the study guides for exam prep. Scope out good TAs for OH. Did this class make me question if I want to keep doing CS multiple times? Yes. I came out on top though & so will you :)

Russ tries his best to explain difficult topics like recursion, complexity etc( and is successful in doing so), therefore I really don't understand why certain reviews here claim that he is a "terrible teacher". Yes, his PAs can be tough as they are meant to make students think, but they really aint impossible to complete if you start a bit early.

Didn't love his 120 course, but 252 with Russ over the summer was actually fantastic. The class was very well organized, the tests were pretty easy, and the projects were fairly painless (and even pretty fun at times). I went into this class thinking I was going to hate it, but it was much better than I expected. Would highly recommend.

Professor Lewis is a nice person, and incredibly smart. The way he structures the class requires A LOT of independent work, effort, and time. I reached out to him a bit into the course about my struggles, he responded immediately giving me advice and feedback. Always attend office hours (his specifically or your TA's) and your grades will be okay!

Russ is a good professor, he has great passion and knowledge of computer science. So having him teach this course is good. However, he makes it tough and forces you to learn. He must be doing this for a reason so I have been pushing through and actually been learning. TAs, office hours, and any help I can get has been the key. You HAVE to work.

I really liked Prof. Lewis - his lectures were easy to follow with good examples. The only negative is that the tests had much to get done in the time given, which made it more like a speed coding test, rather than testing what I know.

Russ was helpful and friendly. Get valuable feedback from projects. Class material is compact and well-organized in summer. I feel like I learned a lot.

Took this course in Fall 2019, when Russ had first taught this class and had notoriously difficult assignments. Russ as a lecturer truly invites you to be curious and question the code you're making, but isn't the most organized lecturer since he often goes off into tangents. Knowing the difficulty, he's very understanding and dropped assignments.

This course is already difficult, which he understands, and Russ has taken measures to make things better. Projects are very rough and lecture topics aren't always clear, but Russ explains things well and takes time out of his day to help any student online. Ask plenty of questions and you'll do well. Hard course, but he teaches well.

CSC 452 is the single most difficult class in a Computer Science major's route to graduation. Russ taught it for the first time in Fall '22. It did not go smoothly, but Russ compensated for that because he cares a lot. It was totally possible to get an A, it was just a LOT of hours on the 5 projects. Probably ~ 30-60 hours / project. Use VSCode!!!

Russ is a dope guy. Had to drop CSC 252 but that was mostly due to my procrastination causing me to not get projects done in time. 120 was a breeze because he took his time with going over new material, making it easy to understand, as long as you put in effort. 252 is just crazy hard, so not his fault for my failure in it

The class content seems hard and overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of how to write assembly and follow cpu datapaths, it became rather easy. Russ was great at teaching it too. The time crunch on the 25 minute exams was a bit brutal and the ASMs can be frustrating but overall, one of my favorite CS classes ive ever taken.

Exams with Russ are always very easy, and deadlines for projects were extended consistently. Goes into detail with everything and answers any questions. Willing to meet outside of class time to answer questions students may have and is really nice about everything

Russ has really grown on me. Although his lecture style of "let students ask questions, then I'll ramble and see where we end up" doesn't work for me, the specs are extremely detailed, he promptly answers student questions in the discord, and clearly cares about the success of his students. Start early on the projects and the class will be a breeze

Very helpful and knowledgable. Also he's quite a reasonable guy. Do all your assignments and review the slides before exams and you'll be fine.

explains content really well and cool guy

Russ has high standards, but he was an amazing professor. No one in the UA CS department understands low-level systems coding like Russ. He will help you work through problems in office hours and cares deeply. He wants you to be the best coder you could be, and that takes lots of work. Give him a chance with Principles of OS, it was a great class.

Knows almost too much and will dig a bit deeper than necessary sometimes but dang does this man know his stuff. I probably learned the most important CS concepts in this class. 6 exams and so many grueling projects but it's totally doable if you have the time.

Professor Lewis is a wonderful professor, absolutely brilliant and extremely encouraging of questions. The TAs for this semester were wonderful too and everyone is extremely quick to answer questions on Discord as well. The class is extremely lecture heavy, test heavy, and homework heavy. Definitely don't procrastinate and utilize their resources!

Yes, the course is difficult, but I learned so much due to how much Russ cares about teaching. He's an exciting professor for once and understands if students need extensions. Extremely caring professor, just make sure to use OH and the TA's and you'll do great! I felt like my tuition was finally being used for good with this professor lol.

Russ is a very passionate professor and loves teaching and the material. There are six exams that are 10 min, which is a tight window but it is reasonable if you know the material. The assembly projects are pretty easy, but the the simulations can be very difficult. If you skip lecture, you will not do well in this class, even with the free 10%

The lectures were well done and recorded, the programming assignments were time consuming and at times frustrating but push you to grow. The exams were very stressful as you don't have much time to think things through, otherwise you won't finish in time. Put in the time and you will do well, but they should add more time to the exams.

Russell gets more criticism than he probably deserves. If you want to actually learn the material, he is a great professor. His projects are often convoluted and difficult, but not unreasonably so and result in an intimate understanding of the subject material. If you want a lightweight/easy class, you probably won't have a good experience.

Russ Lewis clearly has a passion for teaching and an incredible knowledge of low-level computer architecture/programming. His lectures are extremely interesting and exciting, I highly recommend.

6 exams was a LOT, but he did drop one. The sims were difficult because there wasn't a clear guide how the parts he gives us work. The assembly parts are simple, and the logic/ theory is straight forward. He teaches the content fine, but sometimes rambles and I feel like the content and teaching become less interesting throughout the semester.

This was a very difficult class last semester, but Russel Lewis kept the class constantly engaged with his amazing lecturing style. He very much cares for his students, and tries to make even the most boring topics interesting.

You know, we know. I've learned a lot, but was it worth that terrible times? But still quite useful. Probably better than Mccann.

I took 252 last semester and wow, I learned more than all of my previous CS classes combined. Additionally, he keeps the class super engaged with his lecturing style. Yeah, its a difficult class, but I would much rather take it with Russ than any other prof.

An absolutely amazing lecturer, it fit my learning style super well (I am ADHD, so being able to ask questions and get in-depth answers about anything was super helpful). Also, unpopular opinion, but I preferred the 6 short tests over having 2 or 3 midterms because if I did poorly on one, it wasn't as big of a deal.

Scope to practice more if you like operating systems and want to do well in the interviews for programming in c.

Russ does not deserve this low of a rating - but I can't deny is class is just way too much work. 25 minute tests every two weeks are universally hated but he generally adapts to the class's preferences. His class is absolutely challenging but absolutely rewarding. Don't take another hard class at the same time (345) and you'll get a lot out of it.

If you are looking for a good teacher, look no further. The content is difficult, but russ is entertaining and you can tell he enjoys to teach.

I honestly learned so incredibly much from this class (the same cannot be said for 210 and 335), and Russ made every single topic super interesting. Its a difficult class but Russ does it well.

This was a really difficult class, but Russ honestly made the content so much more interesting than I think any other professor possibly could, and he explained absolutely every piece of the puzzle super in-depth. You will come out of this class knowing so much more about how computers actually work, they are not just magical machines to me anymore

He is clearly super passionate about the material, which makes the class so much more interesting. Additionally, he switched from electrical engineering to computer science, so he has a very good hardware background, and he also has real industry experience (unlike a lot of other professors here).

He made stuff that would normally be super boring to me incredibly interesting, and the way he explained things worked super well for how I learn (I am ADHD).

I learned more in this class than the rest of my CS classes combined to date. Russ was a great lecturer and I could tell that he is passionate about what he does.

I never thought I would say this, but I legitimately enjoyed learning assembly programming last semester with Russ. A topic that I hated before and found super boring, he made fascinating. Highly recommend.

Very good at keeping the class engaged during lectures, gives good explanations.

Honestly this class was the peak of my CS learning so far, I wish my current classes were as good and interesting.

A fun and interesting lecturer, helped me regain my love for CS.

Literally my favorite CS class at UofA so far, even though it was kind of difficult.

Wow I respect this guy so much. He used to work at IBM and has like a million patents to his name, he really knows his stuff. He also really knows how to keep the class engaged and make every single topic interesting. Absolute legend!

He single-handedly reignited my enthusiasm for CS, I wish all CS professors were like this guy

My favorite CS class at UA, I genuinely learned so much and Russ made me want to dive deeper and learn more.

Very intellectually challenging, but Russ was amazing. Long specs, but he tells you exactly what he wants; the sim projects are just implementing diagrams. The class is hard. There's no way around it, but Russ took so much weight off me; most of the assembly projects are just converting C code he gives you.If you take this class, take it with him.

Professor Lewis is probably my favorite lecturer in the CS department. His passion for the subjects is unmatched by any other professor. His lectures were fun to attend and listen to. Even though I dislike coding in assembly, Professor Lewis still made it enjoyable to learn the content of the course. I would highly recommend taking Professor Lewis.

I wish I could take more classes with Russ, his teaching style works so well for me, and he is the only CS lecturer/professor that I have genuinely and thoroughly enjoyed listening to lectures from.

Lewis is an amazing professor who clearly explains topics. Although class projects (especially the assembly ones) are incredibly hard and time consuming, this course teaches more than any of the CS courses prior to it combined. Russ makes lectures enjoyable and is hilarious, and he explains everything you need to know to do well on exams.

Hands down my favorite person in the CS department. He has tons of experience from working at IBM, is very knowledgeable, and is both passionate and caring.

Great dude and the most knowledgeable in the CS department with respect to what the professor teaches. He just reads off of slides, which I didn't like, but his obvious mastery of this class makes up for it. Study hard for tests, outside of the homework he gives you. Start the projects early. His exams are difficult and so was the final. Good luck!

I think hes a great teacher, hes very kind and he is very helpful in office hours, especially when you are trying to finish a project. There is a ton of projects and tests though so as long as you understand the fundamentals you will be fine.