The best professor and mentor!!! You'll find out he's beyond amazing once you get to know him. Very knowledgeable and passionate about his field, shows in lectures. Extremely supportive and loves to talk to students about anything: career stuff, studying abroad, or even his cats, he's so chill. Soft-spoken with a fun Scottish accent and mustache.

In my experience, Balkind is the most supportive professor in this department by a mile. I took 154 last year and, even though the workload was more than I could manage at the time and I really struggled as a result, I have only good things to say about him as a professor and a mentor.

Professor Balkind is super knowledgeable, never leaving any a question unsolved at the end of class. He shared very inspiring cutting-edge research conducted by himself & in the field, and really willing to hear about any stuff you're doing in the field. He's also very accessible outside class, and he designs really fun projects for us to work on.

Pretty interesting lectures, but a lot of topics were really complex and hard to follow. The good thing is that all the grading (quizzes, midterm, final) are all online, so you can reference your notes for the hard stuff. A lot of the labs were hard, and they're worth 40% of your grade, so make sure to go to OH and get help early in the week.

His lectures are very thorough and he explains everything you need to know well. You can tell he's really enthusiastic about what he does. Some labs are really difficult, and some are really easy. Get started early. Weekly quizzes are hard at times too. The final was cumulative, and he expects you to really understand all the concepts he teaches.

A lot of lectures with little support outside of office hours. Concepts, while clearly explained, are sometimes lost in the assignments. Lab and quiz heavy. The final is cumulative and touches on every aspect of the course. Be ready to truly understand the material as he expects you to have the same level of understanding as he does by the end.

Gives really good lectures, he's genuinely knowledgeable in this field and enthusiastic about it. Weekly quizzes are open-note and easy; labs are fun and heavily related to course contents but will take you some time. Accessible through Piazza and office hours. Cares about student feedbacks and he's constantly trying to make the course better.

Excellent professor, cares about his students. Helps you succeed.

Great lectures, but labs were very difficult, and sometimes a little bit disorganized. The final exam was very fair, but take-home quizzes were pretty difficult and tricky, despite being open-note. They were also only 4-5 questions each week, leaving little-no room for error. TAs and ULAs were very helpful and supportive.

he really works you hard in 154, constantly working on weekly labs without very much room to breathe. you will probably need office hours because the labs are pretty difficult too. good lecturer, not the friendliest personality. he writes very fair quiz/test questions and the quizzes/final were take home and open note.

Love, love, love Prof. Balkind. His lectures are very engaging; he doesn't assign busy-work; and truly know his stuff around computer architecture. If you care at all about systems, or wanna know more about how computers work, taking any class with Prof. Balkind is a must.

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.