Student Comments on my Teaching

What did you like most about this course?

• The material being related to practical real-world, current applications. Good class. I learned alot.
• The instructor takes alot of interest in teaching the subject. He makes it a pleasure to attend class.
• The number of tests. Being able to take serveral helps you keep up and study less the next time because you actually learn the material the first time. Groupwork for the homeworks, lab, and project. I have done so much more and worked harder under these conditions that every other class. Being in a group helps on all levels.
• The lab. Getting to see the design aspects of this course first-hand.
• It gave me a chance to look at brand-new material, and it was of interest.
• I liked the short tests, but they were too close together.
• Nothing.
• Not one thing.
• The seven exams really helped me. Each section was broken down so that the material was easy to understand.
• The material presented was very well organized, easy-to-understand method. The subject was made interesting so it was easy to pick up.
• The lab was very interesting and the biweekly tests were very helpful in keeping up with the material. I even enjoyed the project when it was over.
• I liked the we reviewed at the beginning of every class what we were going over. I also liked having tests every two weeks. This gives me more feedback.
• Layout.
• The instructor makes the subject interesting, and the way he teaches is pretty good. Please give a more useful project. I didn't learn too much and it will not add value towards our graduate courses. We need to learn more about routing.
• I got a feel of the real-world. Even though the details about chips is esoteric, this course is a great start.
• I finally understand how my 4 years of study comes together through this course. I love the design process of this course and how we learn to make circuits faster and more efficient.
• Not much. In all fairness, party of my problem (in fact, most) is due to the fact that I hate the subject matter. For that reason, I loathed the course, regardless of how the material was presented. My evaluation is less of a reflection on you than an honest evaluation of the course with my personal slant.
• Dr. Bruce holds the attention of the class better than any other teacher in the ECE department. Very organized. Grades really fast compared to most teachers.
• Dr. Bruce is one of the best, if not the best, professor in ECE.
• Working in groups has made the labs and homework more social and stimulates a real working environment
• I enjoyed designing the standard cell layouts and the architecture of the project. I appreciate the effort the professor puts into helping us understand the material
• The topic reviews at the beginning of class.
• I never fall asleep in this class.
• I thought the material covered in this course is very interesting. I feel I understand MOSFETs much better. I think Dr. Bruce does a good job.
• I enjoyed this class more than I thought I would. I believe I have learned more in this class than any other class I have taken at MSU.
• This is an area that I've been interested in for a long time. I feel that I now have a better grasp of it. Dr. Bruce managed to keep my attention, something most professors can't do.
• The material is interesting. It is nice to learn something about how ICs are designed.
• The courese was interesting, and it opened up a new avenue of IC design.
• The ease of understanding the lecture notes. Keeping up with the course material by reviewing it before class.
• I learned a great deal of important information that I need to know in industry.
• I learned alot about static CMOS logic gates.
• The lab.
• The exams and questions were very good. Also, the group activities were good. The instructor made the course very easy to understand.
• Course was very relevant to my interests.
• The hands-on applications.
• Dr. Bruce knows exactly what he is teaching and makes it very interesting. His method of teaching is very good. The note are very good.
• Dr. Bruce presented the material in a very straighforward manner, and is very easy to understand.
• The group work and team dynamics.
• Layout in the lab. Lectures were interesting and easy to understand.
• The project.
• The concentration on group work.
• I finally found my niche. I've been trying to find out what I am good at and I've discovered I really like layout.
• Dr. Bruce tried to make the material interesting.
• I liked the teacher's teaching style. I also like some of the groupwork.
• I like the subject.
• Very interesting. Good lectures.
• The lab assignments were very interesting.
• The practicality.
• It has further proved that I have absolutely no interest or want in designing hardware.
• Use of industry-used tools.
• The way of teaching.
• The course material and the way the instructor holds the attention of the class.
• Once I finally understood how Cadence works, it became more enjoyable to use.
• I liked the bonus questions.
• I actually hated this course, but I can say one thing about this class that I can't say about other classes I've had -- I learned alot.
• Dr. Bruce is fun to listen to in class.
• I finally learned how to work with FETs.
• OK, listen up whoever is reading this:  Dr. Bruce is the best teacher in ECE.  Don't let him get away, like so many others.
• The instructor is excited about the course.  Makes being in class less boring.
• The lecture was very interesting.  It was easy to learn from you because you involved the class.  Having the lecture notes was a major plus.
• The material.
• The lecture notes book from the Copy Cow was very helpful, and much better than just a common text book.
• I thought this class was more interactive, thus more engaging and effective than many other ECE classes that I have taken.
• Labs -- very relavent to course material.
• The extremely long hours spent in the lab working with tools that don't work half the time.
• Dr. Bruce has been the best instructor so far under all of the professors I have taken a course with.  He is just great.
• The way Dr. Bruce has organized this course throughout the semester is excellent.
• The designing part of this course is interesting.
• VLSI is definitely an interesting course.
• The lectures.
• Course material, labs, and project
• Material covered was good.
• Good class.
• Very interesting.  Challenging.  Dr. Bruce is a good teacher.
• Text was excellent.
• The materials covered in this course and the lab.
• The course material is very interesting.  The test questions are good, i.e. they are tough and challenging.
• Made the material interesting and kept the class moving without spending lots of time on dry subjects.
• Learning how logic works in practice, and not totally theory.  Very insightful.
• Excellent course notes.
• The classes were made interesting and fun with green and pink sheets.  (You had to be there to understand this comment  --jwb  ;-)
• Dr. Bruce is very interactive with the students, and makes the class interesting.

What improvements would you suggest?

• Give more time to take the tests. If lecture time is so important, give us fewer tests and the full period to take them. Maybe five test would be more appropriate.
• Have CIF files import into Cadence. Get new [lab] machines for Cadence.
• More feedback on grading. A check and "-20" don't show what is being done wrong. Solutions to the homework would help with studying for exams. Quizzes and tests are better than all exams.
• Improve the lab equipment.
• Maybe not quite so many tests or possible a few tests and many quizzes etc.
• Slightly fewer tests. I suggest about 4 or 5 and a final.
• Answers to the homework problems. Project was fun, but out of scope of class. This class would have been great if it were my only class.
• Nothing.
• Fire this man.
• I like the biweekely concept-based tests. They keep me up-to-date on the material. The only problem is that sometimes, I don't have enough time to finish them. Fifteen minutes just isn't enough time.
• Good class. Lots of work.
• Let class out closer to time.
• It would be better if we were asked to do different logic functions in layout.
• The group system is not always so good, especially when it comes to points. The undergrads only worry about getting a C or D. The graduate students have to make an A, so it becomes difficult. The undergrads don't care, and this increases teh workload.
• Cadence is a complex tool. I would like to at least know how it is used in industry so I am prepared for what's coming.
• Grading procedure. More examples.
• Drop the biweekly exams.
• A few of the earlier labs are confusing.
• Dr. Bruce should teach the prerequisites to his courses.
• Project is cool, but we need a little more help from TAs.
• Increase office hours.
• Give partial credit on homework.
• Give more time for project.
• Partial credit. Getting a problem correct except for one small careless mistake deserves more than zero points.
• Sometimes too much group work on simple assignments was unneccesary whereas individual assignments would have been more beneficial.
• Give more partial credit on exam if student shows he/she knows exactly how to do a problem. Make project less extensive. All other classes and senior design suffered due to this project.
• Where the lecture notes figures were placed was sometimes confusing.
• Give more partial credit on exams. Give smaller project.
• The lab takes too much time.
• Grading on exams seems very unforgiving. Marking off full points on diagram with a mislabeled layer is rather harsh.
• Make this course four hours credit. All the hell it puts you through cannot qualify for only three hours.
• More independent work would be nice. The project seemed a bit overzealous, although it was interesting. It would have been helpful to know what the project was about a month earlier - we could have gotten the higher level design out of the way.
• Cover layout earlier to assist in the labs.
• I would suggest the lab and the lecture be more concurrent.
• One less lab at the end of the semester. This would give us more time to work on the project. Grading seems harsh. People seemed to get an A, B, or fail.
• Some more example problems could be worked out.
• Give smaller projects rather the lengthy one. Could be fairer in grading.
• Exam reviews, emphasizing key points that will be on test. Give partial credit on exam questions that show understanding but are wrong because of careless mistake. Homework should be graded on time and effort, not correctness. Go over HW problems.
• Explain lab in class.
• Give a few more pop quizzes.
• Grading on exams seemed harsh. I felt the exam score did not reflect my understanding of the material.
• Give the project at beginning of semester. Give more partial credit.
• Project was way too large. Sometimes a math error costs more than an error in the design procedure being emphasized.
• VLSI project needs to be coordinated with senior design presentations. Possibly have the project due earlier.
• Start project two weeks earlier. Many students in class are also in senior design.
• More organization to the presentations and exams that actually reflect what was taught. Homework solutions.
• Exam should have more questions so that if one single question is messed up then the grade is not as affected.
• Let Dr. Bruce teach all of the prereqs to this class.
• Let us out on time. Some people have classes immediately following this one.
• More coordination between lab and lecture material.
• I hated this class. Cover material that is tested. Give homework solutions.
• Give more familiar problems on exams. Shorter labs. Homework solutions.
• Tests do not reflect work assigned.
• Easier tests.
• Do not assume that we remember everything from previous classes or the exams.
• Don't have this class at 8AM. I believe that the early working in class does not mesh with the late schedule of other homeworks.
• Give more challenging labs.
• The flow of the course was confusing at times.  There is so much to know before you can do anything.
• Move more material into lab book than told to us before lab, or put in help sheet (e.g. standard cell.)
• Have more communication with the lab TAs to allow class to correspond better with lab.
• No homework during the project.
• More computers for the lab.  In-class demonstrations of layout design.
• The labs need an overhaul.  We spent unneccesarily long hours in the lab because the tool didn't work, or the lab TA was confused.  I did like the layout lab. It was much better, but, again, the flaky tool was horrible.  I hated this lab!
• Another UNIX lab, so that a student can work on labs during the day.  Currently, the computers are always full in the afternoon due to labs for other classes.
• Better/sturdier binding and cover for the lecture notes booklet.
• Reduce class size.  Offer a later class.
• We need a good reference to Cadence and HSPICE.  I was never able to find one.
• Texts don't test what I know.  Rather, they test how many tricks I can catch in fifty minutes.  This doesn't seem right.
• Get someone to proofread the lecture notes.  There are quite a few grammatical mistakes.  Also, put the pictures next to the text related to it.  There have been many confusing cases when the text and the picture that goes with it are on different pages.
• Redo some of the chapters in the text.  Reshuffle their order.
• Have another instructor take [sic] this course.
• Work out more examples in class.
• Make more effective labs.
• Easier test papers
• This course is way too much work to only be worth three hours.  It should be worth four (or five) hours credit, or else split into two semesters.
• The lecture notes should be improved, and add more new material.
• Make the final optional.  Better complement the lab scheduling.  Better lab manual.
• Textbook.
• Can't think of any.
• Try to go over questions on paper prior to the tests.
• Make sure the concepts used in the lab are covered in class beforehand.  Shorter homework assignments.
• Make the class more linear in the notes.  Be sure the lab is clicking with the lecture.  Try not to kill us on the exams.
• Subject must be taught more effectively.  Give reasonable projects.
• Project requires too much time to complete.  Need better book.  Lab topics are ahead of lecture topics.
• Please make homeworks easier.  Provide solutions written by the instructor, not the grader.
• Reduce the workload in the labs, and the assignments.  Oh, what a tiring project.

What did you like most about this course?

• Problem-based learning and the group structure
• The lab.
• I like the "free-form" style of the class.
• Building the clock.
• It was so practical and worth all of the hard work. Anyone serious about ECE should be in this course.
• The sheer amount of knowledge that I gained by doing the lab, although actually doing them was painful at times.
• The material is very interesting.
• The design! Finally, a class that is not all theory!!!
• Use of microcontrollers is interesting. I enjoyed this course.
• Lab-lecture coordination
• The lab.
• Very, very interesting. I love microcontrollers!
• The lab work. And actually learning material that is relevant and will benefit me in the "real world". Teacher is sincerely excited about the course subject/work.
• It is interesting.
• I liked working with actual hardware and getting something actually working. The lab was fun and usually somewhat interesting.
• Dr. Bruce is highly competent.  This course is one of the very few electives made for CPE.  We need more.
• It was great to finally get some hands-on experience with hardware.  This class was so rewarding in that we finally made something tangible and somewhat practical.
• Very interesting.  I learned alot.  Dr. Bruce is a good teacher, and very challenging.
• Dr. Bruce described the knowledge on the subject very well.
• The is the best class that I have had in quite a while.  I just needed more time to work on everything.
• I learned alot!
• The lab was good, but too much work for a senior in his/her last semester.
• Integrating all of my acquired knowledge into one class.  An applications class that made me feel like I have actually achieved something with my time in school.
• I actually learned how to apply some of the stuff I've learned over the years.

What improvements would you suggest?

• Improve the lab equipment.
• A little more direction
• Better software tools.
• There should be stricter criteria about who can take this course.
• Make the lab count for more of the final grade.
• Decrease the time commitment. Make this class a prerequisite for senior design.
• Offer this class in the fall and spring.
• None.
• The lab is far too complicated. This class is way too stressful.
• Example problems/homework similar to text questions. More structured study session for tests. I found it very hard to study for tests. But, this class is about design, which is hard to grade.
• Grading seems harsh. The labs are too complex. Don't have us build something just to have it torn down and rebuilt for the class. Don't take senior design at the same time. These labs are too time-consuming.
• Since the lab is so involved, maybe make it worth a higher percentage of the grade. I would like more variety in the lab, and doing some programming (not much) in a HLL for the exposure.
• A little bit less labwork would be nice.  It eats up more than three credit hours worth of time.
• This should be a "mostly lab" course.  The tests seemed a bit too weighted compared to how much time is spent in the lab.  That's where we learned the most anyway.
• Lab needs to be more organized, and it takes too much time.
• The course was more heavily weighted toward the software/coding side of things, but I should have expected this.
• More hardware, less software.  Make sure that all of the software is being understood.
• (In the lab) Knowing what the goal is at the beginning would be helpful.
• Make sure everyone knows what the lab involves.
• The tests had design questions, and designs can always be improved.  So I don't understand the grading.
• Make the labs shorter.  Make the labs more modularized with a clean path to the goal at the end of the lab.
• I got nailed on the two exams, and felt that my understanding was better than the grades reflected.  The course itself is OK, and the instructor is cool.

• He gives us plenty of time to do the homework.
• I would like to have more tests.  That's right.  I'd rather take tests that cover a small amount of material than two tests that each cover alot of material.
• Don't spread the tests so far apart.  There is way too much info between the first and second tests.
• Dr. Bruce knows the material and he also knows how to relay it to the class.
• The best thing about this class is that it is almost over!
• I like the way in which we used what we learned with real life problems.
• Dr. Bruce is not boring.  He keeps my attention.
• Dr. Bruce is an excellent professor.
• The material in the class is relevant to my everyday life.  The quizzes are good.  The homework is also good.
• Improvements would be to test more frequently. More tests, but each test is on fewer chapters.
• Instructor did a good job conveying information. Explained subject matter well. Was enthusiastic about information being covered.
• I believe Dr. Bruce really wants his students to learn, but has taken a course designed to help Civil and Mechanical Engineering majors with the EIT and made the class very difficult to grasp. I might have to retake the class because of this.
• This course is an excellent reference for Mechanical Engineering majors. The material presented is far more relevant [than the other Circuits course] and will be more useful in the field. I enjoyed the instructor's methods and attitude as we learned depth and breadth of the material.
• The teacher lost the concept of the course. The tests were unfair.
• Instructor was definitely interested in his field. But sometimes failed to get his idea across. Needs to slow down to convey his ideas.
• He took time to explain what he required out of the course. I hope to have him in the future.
• We were taught easy material in class. I understood everything and could do the homework problems. When exams were given, the problems were so much harder it was unbelieveable. Although he knew the material and taught the concepts well, I would never take him again because of his exams and grading.
• The instructor was great! The material was presented very clearly and when he thought we didn't understand something he went over it again. The test were a bit harsh, though.
• He was a little crazy at the beginning, but he turned out to be a great teacher.
• His lectures were clear and understandable. However, the tests were hard.
• Great instructor! He knows what he is doing and does it with great enthusiasm. Keep up the good work!
• Dr. Bruce is an excellent teacher with tons of potential. He lectures very well and is very motivating. He can answer any question and he is very willing to help the students. Wonderful course!
• Dr. Bruce was an excellent instructor. His lectures were very easy to understand and the homework was simple. The tests, however, were confusing and difficult.
• Excellent use of examples. I wish every other professor used as many examples as Dr. Bruce did.
• The instructor of this course was one of the best teachers I have had in my academic career. His lectures were well-planned and informative. The step-by-step examples helped me understand complex parts of the material. Some instructors at this university should sit in on this class and take some pointers from Dr. Bruce.
• Exceptional teaching skills. Every class has been a roller coaster packed with learning from beginning to end. Ideal teaching, preparedness and motivation!