One of my favorite classes at UCSB, and I am so glad that I decided to take it. Lectures are informative and interesting. Moreover, if you are already doing research, Balkind is open to discuss and find a project for the course that overlaps with your research so you can have a "two birds one stone" approach.

Prof. Balkind is extremely caring and passionate about helping his students understand the course material. He makes sure that there are no unanswered questions and really tries to address every question asked. If he does not have an answer, be sure that he will come with one next lecture ! Accessible outside class, AMAZING lecturer and person!

He is really an amazing professor and brings so much enthusiasm to the classes! He comes really accurate with the choice of papers that are fundamental and practical. I am enjoying all the readings, lectures and group projects too! He gives timely feedback on projects, so you will definitely learn a good comp arch mindset and RTL coding skills!

Balkind is an amazing professor. Lectures are interesting and really help you connect with the material. Don't listen to the negative reviews on here. He's a newer prof but really cares about teaching and puts in a lot of work towards improving his classes. He's also a really interesting person to talk to. 15/10 would recommend taking his classes