Genuinely wants people to learn! Explains things very well, comes up with creative assignments that relate properly to what's covered in class and have clear descriptions, puts no topics that you never covered on the quizzes, and responds to emails quickly. Super nice guy. Actually excited about what he teaches. Even w/ 4 hour lecture, wasn't bored

Prof. Cowan was outstanding. He genuinely cares about the subject matter and does his best to make sure everyone is picking it up. There are multiple points when he will ask "Is this OK?" so you have every opportunity to have things made clear. I found him highly accessible via email, even corresponding on thought experiment problems. Solid prof.

Prof Cowan really cares about his students and always asks for a feedback after explaining any topic. However, quizzes were tough and you will often run out of time. He also gave plenty of homework. Overall, he is a very cool guy. I definitely wouldn't mind taking another course taught by him.

Interesting class, useful knowledge, care students, high score.

Really amazing and encouraging. Tries very hard to make sure the difficult material is understandable on the most fundamental level. Does his best to do right by the student and focuses more on whether they grasp a concept rather than what score they get on an exam. Genuinely the most sincere, caring professor I have ever had at Rutgers, bar none.

Prof Cowan is an amazing instructor. This was his first time teaching this course, and he did a great job. There were 4 group assignments, 1 midterm, 1 bonus assignment, 1 take-home final. He put a lot of thought into each and every assignment and posed some really interesting questions in them. Highly recommend this course and Prof Cowan!

Cowan (pronounced Ka-one) is one of the best professors I have had at Rutgers. He is hilarious and this keeps the class entertaining at all points. This one time, he walked in with a banana and placed it on the desk. He let that sit there for 90 minutes, only to pick it up again before walking out. Genius. For real tho, he is really knowledgeable.

He even responded my Email during winter break!

I was really lucky to be taught by Prof. Wesley. He is one of the unique professor that truly care about students. I can tell how passionate he is in teaching. He made a tough subject easier to be understood. He is very focus and funny at the same time. I learned a lot of AI concept from his class.

He is a funny, cool and intelligent guy who encourages questions and thought experiments. However, he goes off topic a lot and gets stuck on certain concepts. The exams and homework are graded fairly, but he takes forever to grade them. He comes off as disorganized tbh

Simply put: a genius. Lectures are entertaining, well paced. Online write-outs are helpful, cares about students, and is willing to answer emails. He tends to freestyle his lectures, writing formulas on the fly. This leads to lack of direction, as well as indigestible notes. You will need to use 3rd party material to fully grasp the subject.

One of my favorite professors. We had a take home final. The quizzes were relatively easy. The midterm was really easy with 20 extra credit points. I think the average for the midterm was 84. He is also extremely caring and pretty funny. Overall, great professor.

TAKE HIM FOR WHATEVER!!!! He had the best lecture of all time and he cares about you so much. His feedback and extra credit opportunity are like he wants everyone to get an A, even though his stuff is a little bit challenging at the end. But he is the best cs professor for sure!

This guy's amazing, anyone who says so otherwise shouldn't be in comp sci.

This was his first time teaching 111 and at first he had a little trouble explaining things on a more basic level. He was clear in his examples and they were useful and overall I think he explained well. However, at times he was moving sower from where the coordinator planned which resulted in having little time to complete some of the assignments

Amazing guy and professor. You can tell he knows his stuff and he really wants to help everyone learn. He's funny and the class was made interesting by him. If you are ever confused just go to office hours or email him because he is extremely willing to help. So glad I had him, could not have asked for a better professor.

Wasn't my actual teacher but I attended his lectures when I could. Very clear, he took the more theoretical concepts and rooted them in real life application. If you're interested in Computer Science, try to fit at least one of his classes into your schedule.

He is the most incredible professor I've ever had and he is quite easily the coolest person I've known in a while. Take his classes and learning will be more fun.

He is an understanding professor. Gives great lectures and is easy to understand. Receptive to students need. A very manageable and fair workload. He will always come thru for you. Really cares about his students. Honestly, this comment does not do him any justice. Not crazy easy, but you can trust him and have faith in him. Had him for 111 and 205

Professor Cowan is a really cool dude, but my god this class is straight BORING. For the second half of the semester I could not focus on what he was saying for more than 5 minutes at a time. This isn't a knock against him, but the class in general. Be prepared to sit through a lot of proofs and a lot of number theory.

Best professor I've ever had. When he taught, he made really difficult topics seem trivial. The way he taught inspired students to work with the topics on their own. Whenever I asked him questions, he was excited to answer. I even asked him about CS topics outside the course and he gave super informative responses. Absolutely take his class!!!!

Hands down the best professor I've ever had. Lectures are great, he is very accessible and caring. Also has a really cute dog!

Professor Cowan is funny, insightful, and encourages learning beyond the classroom. I found it hard to grasp at times, but he answers questions all the time and does his best to make the class bearable. Overall, he rewards logical thinking over small details, which is why his class was so great. Just do some textbook problems bc hw isn't enough.

Cowan is nice. You may suffer a bit from the group projects and final hw, but you must admit that he leads very interesting lectures. Topics about AI is boring and hard but he tried his best to make everyone understand by using easy examples. Always willing to help when you need some academic assitance from him. Enjoy his inspiring ideas XD

Students who want to take this course should have some basic knowledge of machine learning and know quite well how to write programs in Python. This is a project-based course so you need to spend a lot of time on the professor's projects. The workload of this course is a little bit heavy. Don' t hesitate to ask the professor, he is nice!

Prof. Cowan is amazing! He is unique in that he takes responsibility for students' learning: "If you're not learning the material, it's on me, not you." His lectures are great and I felt the class was rigorous. There is a ton of extra credit, so it's not hard to get an A. The take home final was really difficult though, so budget plenty of time.

Funny professor

Heavy project but gain a lot, recommend!!

The man is a legend.

Covid Spring: His homework assignments are very thought provoking. Do not cheat in this class. He is a nice guy and teaches well. Final is extremely hard (study well, you will learn a lot).

yo this guy is so savage, guy finds out some1 uploaded the exam on chegg so he goes out and roasts all the experts on the website to prove how dumb they are. anyway, this guy is amazing. he knows his stuff. i absolutely hated this class yet this guy was my favorite professor overall. that's another level of teaching, please take him if you can!!!!

Professor Cowan is the best!! He takes his time to explain things to students, even when he doesn't have too! He sends long emails and notes and explanations, and anything in order for us to learn better!! Really grateful he was my discrete 1 professor, and I hope to see him again in the future

Puts nearly every other CS professor to shame. No exaggeration. Cowan is like a professor, mentor, and friend all at once. He really loves teaching and goes out of his way to explain and provide everything we need to succeed. He'll challenge you and make you work really hard, but his classes will be the most rewarding you'll take as an undergrad.

It's clear both how good at teaching the material Cowan is and how sincerely he cares about helping his students understand it. This was my hardest class this semester, but Cowan was definitely my favorite professor.

Best teacher ever. He makes Discrete really fun. He gives a lot of extra credit and the TAs basically walk you through the hw answers if you ask. Seriously make an effort to learn in this class and you will learn a lot.

Cowan is probably the best professor at the CS department. His lectures are super in depth and interesting and hes an overall great guy. Really understanding and just wants to make sure you learned during class. My only gripe is that it took a little too long for assignments to be graded but thats easily forgivable. Take this professor.

If you ever see the name WESLEY COWAN as your professor consider yourself very lucky. He literally is a gem, and by far the best professor at RU. He gives a lot of extra credit and considers his students failure as his own. He explains things very clearly and made the class very interesting. Wesley Cowan GOAT!!!

Dr. Cowan is the best professor I have had at Rutgers. His principle is that if a student does not do well or understand something, it is on him and his teaching. Though it takes a long time to get grades out, be patient. He will pull through at the end. And also side note: he said that he ensures everyone passes unless they kicked a dog or cheated

His lectures are amazing. He explains everything really clearly and goes out of his way to help us understand things. He's kind and wants us to succeed (especially w/ COVID). He also grades leniently - he gave 25% extra credit on the final for drawing his dog. The course material is really interesting and this is my favorite CS class I've taken.

Cowan is a great professor. He's humorous and makes the class very interesting. He manages to teach the somewhat boring content of Discrete I in an interesting manner. He wants everyone to succeed.

Very fair professor. Cares about his students very much. He takes failures of students as a personal failure. Super insightful and always keeps things interesting. Overall, a sweetheart of a human being.

Professor Cowan is one of the most intelligent and understanding professors I have had. Would 100% recommend

Professor Cowan has truly gone above and beyond to help Spring 2020 students in the wake of COVID-19. Not only does he consider a student's failure his own, but he also extends his help to the students who are struggling. He is very generous with extra credit and did everything possible to help his students pass fairly. Truly a gem of a professor

Great teacher.

Definitely the best prof I've had to date. He truly cares about his students and is an amazing guy. Take him if you have the chance.

Man's a GOAT. Literally, and I mean LITERALLY wants everyone to succeed. Gives a ridiculous amount of extra credit and is always helpful. This class seemed really intimidating to me at first (below a 70 on the first hw LOL) but now I'm ending with an average over a 95. Wack. Hit cutoffs are extremely low, making it impossible IMO to not get an A/B+

I cannot stress enough just how much of an absolute legend this man is. For real though, I think he is one of the few professors that teaches really, really well (doesn't read presentation slides, really engaging and fun lectures, and actively asks if anyone has questions). However, subject is really difficult, but you can get through if you read.

Prof. Cowan is one of the few professors in the CS department who actually care about what you learn more than what grade you get. A lot of people love to cheat in his classes and take advantage of things like Chegg to do HW. Don't be one of those people because not only is it wrong but you will also get caught and be penalized.

One of the hardest classes I've taken, but perhaps the most thought provoking one. Homework is genuinely difficult, but plenty of possible extra credit. Overall, a very caring individual.

He's a great teacher and really cares about his students. Even amidst the pandemic, he went the extra mile in hosting frequent office hours and gave plenty of extra credit. Though the homework and midterms are somewhat difficult, it's all manageable and you will definitely be able to succeed given you show up to class and complete the assignments.

Simply the best professor I had @ Rutgers.

This is the best CS professor I've ever had for Rutgers. I wish this man taught every class at Rutgers. If you're planning on taking AI, PLEASE TAKE IT WITH COWAN

Cowan is the most thoughtful, genuine, kind professor I have had, while also being the best teacher. He wants you to succeed, but still presents a challenging curriculum where you learn a lot.

Graduating with 178 Credits, and I can say of all of my professors, Cowan is my favorite. Biggest reason is Lecture quality. As someone who skips a lot of lectures if I feel the quality is bad when attendance isn't mandatory, I can say Cowan is a must take. Whether it's AI or Discrete, he gives TONs of extra credit, so getting an A isn't difficult.

It's entirely possible he is the most fair professor at Rutgers.

I can make a claim in lecture, be catastrophically wrong, and still not feel stupid walking out the door. Professor Cowan pushes you to think deeply and make mistakes to form a strong grasp on the topics being discussed. Best professor at the university, hands down.

CS senior: He is the BEST prof out there. He says makes sense? frequently (I love it) to make sure ppl are keeping up (he will happily explain again & in greater detail). He also puts so much effort outside of class (extra research papers for fun ON HIS DAYS OFF) you can tell how much he cares. It has been a true pleasure being his student.

Fair. That's what you will hear.

Amazing professor, lectures are super fun / interesting. Projects are intense, but you learn a lot from them. Cowan is the best.

Professor Cowan is amazing! Inspiring lectures, clear explanations and he seems to really care about how well students do in the class. Taking this class helped me in landing a job as AI and data engineer right after graduation. Projects' descriptions are clear, and projects themselves give a good practice in concepts taught in class.

The gem of the CS dept. He is not an easy professor but a fair one. Hard projects but fun projects! Very accessible outside of class. Tons of resources. The definition of someone who goes above and beyond for students. Someone give this man an award.

awesome possum pin.

Cowan is an absolutely fantastic professor. He is one of the nicest professors I have ever had at Rutgers. He's clearly a very smart guy and cares a ton about what he's teaching. My only complaint is that he gives incredibly difficult work. The homework was nearly impossible for me to do well on.

He's easily one of the best professors at Rutgers. He loves the course and teaches it with the same enthusiasm. He prefers homework over exams and ensures the homework is hard, which is fair considering the effort he puts to teach us. No matter what grade I get at the end of the semester, I can genuinely say I learned every concept he covered.

He's a great professor. I did horrible on the homework given the level of difficulty but he's always available for help at any time. He answered a question of mine I sent at midnight and he replied 30 minutes later. Don't be afraid to ask him questions about anything at any time and I guarantee he will be helpful.

professor cowan doesn't give exams but the project was insanely hard. his lecture is amazing, always wait for all student to fully understand. quizzes were tricky sometimes.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP. Spam his email inbox, harass him after class, knock on his front door; it doesn't matter, just DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP. He literally welcomes it and it's the KEY to passing his class. No exams but his homeworks are stupid hard. However, he will walk you through every question step by step. JUST ASK FOR HELP

Best CS Prof I've had so far at Rutgers. 50% for HWs, 40% Quizzes (held every week online), 10% participation. HWs are pretty difficult and one can succeed if one asks him for help. DO not Hesitate to email him about HW. He replies asap and gives hints for the HW. Difficult Prof but highly recommend taking him. Quizzes are easy lec based.

Dr.Cowan is definitely a very caring professor. His teaching reflects not only his care for his students in understanding the material but also his interest in the subject. His homeworks can be hard, but my advice is ASK FOR HELP and TALK TO HIM! He loves it when you pitch your ideas about concepts to him and will be more than happy to help.

Highly recommend. Please take his class and you will learn.

Professor Cowan is the best professor I've had at Rutgers. Intro to AI is a very heavy-hitting course, so to achieve an A I had to work roughly 20-25 hours per week on it. That being said, Professor Cowan answers emails in minimal time and goes out of his way to help students. He's the golden standard for how CS professors should be.

Cowan is a math magician I can tell you that. He can make math so easy.

What a legendary Professor. Protect him at all costs. I wish the CS dept had more professors like him. Please take him and you'll get an A for sure.

Prof Cowan is amazing. He cares so much and really wants you to understand what he is teaching. You can email him for hours and he will email you back for hours trying to help you understand the topics you are asking about. ML is hard but he definitely teaches it well. Easily the best prof at RU. Take him if you can!!

The lectures are amazing and recorded too. There are 3 assignments and 1 final exam. I will give an advice i.e. to start assignments early. I always started late which created some panic towards the deadline. But Dr. Cowan is very accessible and will always extend deadlines if you need. So make sure you keep emailing him and he will always help.

The GOAT!

The hype was true all along. As someone that hates the subject, I found myself attending every lecture, taking notes, and caring more than I should, just because he makes it entertaining, informative, and accessible. Homeworks are meant to be hard so you contact him (he responds very quickly), and the tradeoff is the HW counts as 60% of your grade.

Dr. Cowan wants you to learn but does not want you to worry about your grade. He made lectures actually interesting & gave extra credits on all hw. There are no midterms, only one final, but if you do well on the homework, you might not even need to take the final. The hw is hard, but EMAIL HIM shamelessly and he will always help.

I can't give Professor Cowan more than enough praise. Discrete II was by far one of the hardest and most stressful courses, and so were his assignments. However, every single lecture I attended was amazing, Cowan manages to break hard concepts down into small digestible examples. His assignments are very challenging but he always responds to email

Dr. Cowan's a literal sweetheart. He does all he can to help students learn and his lectures are actually goated to be honest. All he really wants is for you to try in the class and ask questions plus he gives a lot of extra credit!! Also he gives out buttons and stickers!!! Talk to him and get to know him, he's literally just like us fr!!

Dr.Cowan is the best professor I've ever met during my school year. Not only he teaches so interestingly and professionally but also his personality is super kind. I couldn't praise him enough, and usually I'm not the person who would comment on any online website, but this time I just want to break my rule in order to spread his goodness.

BEST PROFESSOR EVER! Cowan was beyond amazing. Homeworks were a little tricky but the class is curved and grading is exceptionally fair. He cares so much and clearly goes out of his way. You can email him at 1 am and he will email back in 5 minutes. If you have any questions ask him. A 70 overall got me a B. I'd take literally any course with him

Professor is GREAT!!!! Nice Curve 80 was a B+ for me. 4 HW they are hard but graded fairly, no midterm, and then a final exam. 4 HWs worth 60% and Final is 15% and then mini quiz every week worth 20% and 5% percent is for discussion which will be due once or twice during the semester. Very chill and well organized.

William Arthur Ward once said, "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." Dr. Cowan inspires.

Amazing! His homework assignments are the most challenging yet fun work I have encountered. You need to understand his lectures to answer the homework assignments. He is accessible outside the class, although, he will not give you direct answers. You might find yourself exchanging 50+ threads because he will make you work for the answers.

Very good lecturer, makes content accessible to those math-incompetent, which I am. Assignment heavy, very difficult material. He encourages you email him, he walks you through problems and concepts in these emails; useful if you can't articulate well in office hours. If you try, he doesn't want you to worry about your grade and you'll pass.

Cowan's 440 class was top-notch material. Although I didn't get the grade I wanted (for personal reasons), I still definitely learned a lot from his class by going to lecture and doing his projects. He is really helpful in office hours and genuinely cares about his students. He is a bit too sarcastic for my liking but that's excusable

Reasonable. Fair.

This is the first time Cowan has taught DL, so there were a few issues. But it's only going to get better! A project-heavy class; you learn the theoretical material in lectures and the code/implementation in recitations. Lots of EC & Cowan is very responsive through email and has lots of notes/discussion boards/updates. Fair and reasonable.

I failed his class, but I would take it again. He's fair and reasonable, I'm just dumb as bricks

This class destroyed my mental health. 3 HWs and 1 final proj. Last two projs were most intense and time consuming. Class was disorganized, but this was his first time. By far the hardest class I've taken, but I learned so much. Top tier lectures. Projs forced me to be comfortable with Pytorch. Lots of EC. Fair and reasonable I guess.

The single greatest professor I have ever had. The course material was incredibly and inherently difficult, no matter who is teaching it, but he made the otherwise IMPOSSIBLE material actually make sense and DOABLE! Put in the work and he will walk you through it with endless patience and kindness. 100/10 rating. Fair/Reasonable :)

Is that fair, reasonable.

His class takes time. You won't be able to find any solutions to his homework online and AI won't help either. However, he's very passionate about helping students understand. I sent him 100+ emails and he would respond very quickly and help me on many problems. He also provides several additional resources, overall, a great professor.

this class felt like a 12 credit class. it takes alotttt of time, though he is VERY VERY helpful and he makes alot of time for his students and responds to emails very quickly.

He isn't a bad professor and puts effort into teaching his students. However, the TAs this semester were AWFUL. Some gave unjustifiable grades on the homework, while others copied and pasted past questions during recitation and called it a day. His homework assignments can be very difficult, but I would say it's good practice for the exams.

Messy but informative lectures. Writes handwritten notes during class, hard to follow, but explains clearly & ensures understanding. Answers any question repeatedly if needed. Interactive but often goes off-topic, gets confusing. TA's are bad, grading is slow, HW is super hard. Overall good, would retake if improved. Pay attention & you'll be fine.

Cowan is tied for being the favorite professor I've studied under. His homework was 'reasonable' but challenging. He is as thoughtful and invested as you can get in this department. The difficulty of the class will largely depend on your programming capabilities, but if you are a good listener, this will be a flourishing environment for you.

An amazing professor. 205 is a hard class, and there's lots of material, but he is an insanely caring professor that tries to help you understand the material and goes out of the way to help you succeed in the course. Especially in comparison to what I heard about other professors teaching this same class during my semester, he was fantastic.

This was a challenging course, but the projects really solidified my understanding of the material. While the assignments were time-consuming, using resources like unstuckstudy alongside the lectures helped me manage the workload. The professor was accessible and provided good support.

One of the best professors at Rutgers, if not the world. He actually cares about student understanding. Really easy to get in touch with outside of class. Homework is really hard though, but he is happy to help out.