Kumarss Naimipour

This review is for Prof. Kumarss Naimipour, CS 400 Section 31, DISCRETE MODELING & ANALYSIS, Fall 2002. It is imperative that anyone who wants to take Computer Science classes at Northeastern Illinois University makes every possible effort to take Prof. Naimipour as an option, if at all possible.

BOOK:ISBN 0-201-19912-2 Discrete & Combinatorial Mathematics, 4th Edition, Ralph P. Grimaldi, c.. 1999, Addison-Wesley. Intimidating when you hold it in your hands for the first time, but as you get used to doing the math, it turns out to be a decent book. A VERY DENSE TEXT (this is an understatement). (BUY IT ON THE INTERNET FOR HALF PRICE, RATHER THAN AT THE ON-CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, BECKS BOOKS. THE INTERNET RULES!! BECKS BOOKS SUCKS!!!!)

SYLLABUS:Excellent, thoughtful, well-planned, informative, thorough.

OFFICE HOURS:Tues & Thurs 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM; and 5:05 PM - 5:35 PM; Wed 7:30 PM - 9:30PM; and by appointment.

Prof. Naimipour gets an "A" grade if for nothing else than the fact that he is ALWAYS AVAILABLE at any time. I spoke with a number of students who confirmed that Prof. Naimipour rolls out the red carpet when students come by for help.

CLASS ATTENDANCE:Absolutely necessary in order to keep track of the topics that Prof. Naimipour covers, and to prepare for the quizzes and the exams (Naimipour passes around an attendance sign-in sheet toward the end of class).

HOMEWORK:Homework problem sets are passed out (a total of 5) and he eventually either passes out answer sets or reviews the problems and solves them in class. AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER HE PICKS A NUMBER OF THE PROBLEMS FROM THE HOMEWORK SETS AND ASKS THAT THEY BE TURNED IN. (For some of the homework sets, he passes out solution sets!!!)

QUIZZES:We had three, should have had more. Fair in content and difficulty. (Prof. Naimipour: Don't be afraid to drop a few more quizzes on the class throughout the semester!!!)

EXAMS:Three, 25 total points for each. FAIR IN CONTENT AND DIFFICULTY.

PROGRAMMING:NONE. This is purely a math class. CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION:Prof. Naimipour knows his stuff. Lots of detail; drink a cola before class to keep awake. Very thorough and precise.

CLASS MORALE: I gauged this to be high throughout the semester.

BOTTOM LINE:At first, at the beginning of the semester, I was very concerned and apprehensive re the quantity and also the depth of material to be covered. Prof. Naimipour's skilled handling throughout the semester put my mind at ease. I enjoyed going to his classes, even on those days when I felt that I had not sufficiently prepared. I recommend him for ANY Computer Science class that he teaches.

This review is for Prof. Kumarss Naimipour, CS 404 Section 31, ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS, Fall 2002. It is imperative that anyone who wants to take Computer Science classes at Northeastern Illinois University makes every possible effort to take Prof. Naimipour as an option, if at all possible.

BOOK:Co-authored by the instructor: ISBN 0-7637-0620-5 Foundations of Algorithms Using C++ Pseudocode, 2nd Edition, Richard Neapolitan & Kumarss Naimipour, c.. 1998, Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Not a bad book. Well-written and understandable. (BUY IT ON THE INTERNET FOR HALF PRICE, RATHER THAN AT THE ON-CAMPUS BOOKSTORE, BECKS BOOKS).

SYLLABUS:Excellent, thoughtful, well-planned, informative, thorough.

OFFICE HOURS:Tues & Thurs 1:30 PM - 2:00 PM; and 5:05 PM - 5:35 PM; Wed 7:30 PM - 9:30PM; and by appointment.

Prof. Naimipour gets an "A" grade if for nothing else than the fact that he is ALWAYS AVAILABLE at any time. I once walked over to one of his other classes (it was ending right as one of mine was beginning), and I asked him a question re a topic that was going to be covered at the next class. He said "We haven't gotten to that point yet", but when I insisted, he more than happily took the time to chat with me and answer my questions. At another time, I went to his office during office hours, and he was talking to another student. I waved hello and said that I would come back later. As I was walking away from his office, a classmate of mine came by, and we went around the corner to a desk that was in a nearby abutment. We sat down and chatted, and I lost track of going back to see if Prof. Naimipour had finished with the other student. And guess what! Prof. Naimipour came out to find ME, and then said that he was available to chat. TALK ABOUT QUALITY CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!! A+ !!!!

CLASS ATTENDANCE:Absolutely necessary in order to keep track of the topics that Prof. Naimipour covers, and to prepare for the quizzes and the exams (Naimipour passes around an attendance sign-in sheet toward the end of class).

HOMEWORK:Homework problem sets are passed out (a total of 4) and he eventually either passes out answer sets or reviews the problems and solves them in class.

QUIZZES:We had two, should have had more. Fair in content and difficulty. (Prof. Naimipour: Don't be afraid to drop a few more quizzes on the class throughout the semester!!!)

EXAMS:Three, 25 total points for each. Exam 1 was two weeks into the semester, and covered math review. Exam 2 dealt with recurrence equations, and a bit of algorithm analysis. Exam 3 was the Final Exam, all algorithm analysis related. (Half of Exam 3 was given as a take-home exam.) Fair in content and difficulty. Prof. Naimipour always gave us the mean and median, and from the results, the mean and median were always 90% (out of 25 possible points for each exam).

PROGRAMMING:Initially, Prof. Naimipour said that there would be NO programming, but towards the end, because he was sick one Thursday and we missed class due to Thanksgiving (class only met once a week, on Thursdays), he needed to make us earn more points toward the final grade, so he assigned two brief programs.

CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION:Prof. Naimipour is detailed and thorough. . He is soft-spoken, which takes getting used to. He appears to be constantly gauging the class to see how well we are absorbing the material. He is easily approachable. He actually appears to enjoy teaching and interacting with students, unlike some other Computer Science faculty members.

One criticism would point toward the sheer volume of material that we have to cover (especially since we meet once a week for 16 weeks). But, as he himself would say, this IS a Master's level class. Given the length of each class (2 hours 45 minutes) I would have appreciated the 15 min. break in the middle of class, rather than just letting us go home early.

Another criticism (a crucial one for this class) is that, since he is so focused on the math aspects of the material, especially devoting Exam 2 to recurrence equations, that I did not feel that we indeed covered actual algorithms as deeply as we could have /should have. Prof. Naimipour DID say once that he thought that CS 400 (Discrete Modeling & Analysis) should be a prerequisite for CS 404. Maybe that would have allowed him to ease up on the math review (Exam 1) and the recurrence equations (Exam 2) so that we could have delved more deeply into actual analysis of algorithms. It also would have been nice to talk about "NP-Complete" problems, etc. I hate to say this, but I actually felt that I covered algorithms more deeply in CS 304 Data Structures with Prof. Hade. (But perhaps that's because CS 304 is the first real exposure to algorithms that a Computer Science student has.)

A final minor criticism is his infrequent (rare) sidetracking where he was trying to encourage the class re upcoming exams or quizzes, and talking about how we could determine the final grade that we were going to get, and what it took, etc. I don't believe that this was necessary, but occurred a few times throughout the semester. Almost like a cross between a pep talk and a legal disclaimer.

CLASS MORALE: I gauged this to be high throughout the semester.

BOTTOM LINE:If you took Prof. Hade for CS 304 (Data Structures) and did well, especially the programs, then your next step is to take Prof. Naimipour for CS 404 (Analysis of Algorithms). I enjoyed taking this class, and would recommend Prof. Naimipour as an instructor for ANY class that you would need to take to complete your Computer Science degree. Prof. Naimipour is a true mentor.