Chirica, Laurian  

Dr. Chirica will make you work for your grade... he assigns 5 LARGE programming assignments per quarter and a lab to be completed each week. His lectures are pretty boring, and expects you to know things for the programming assignments that he hasn't lectured on yet. Don't get him mad... he'll explode.

The programming assignments are killer...if you have him go to his office hours and get started soon....otherwise you will do like everyone else did and start on it the night before! The programs would be more better if they were approproately assigned...he would give us two weeks to do a prgram yet we couldn't attempt it unless he gave clarification a couple days before it was due. Advice: go to his office hours and skim the Hahn book...dont waste your time reading it like I did.

Professor Chirica teaches well, it's just that he teaches in a very dictatorship way....He doesn't seem to be able to express his teaching in clear spoken english and usually slur, my recommendation...never take him he's a good teacher, but only in his own language...I repeat take him and be prepared to take the class over and don't tell your parent's your on AP because of him...

Two words............ SUCK IT!!!!!! Chirica is a good teacher only if you like boring ass lectures. He places far too much of his time lecturing on boring ass shit. Man, i hate this guy. DX baby

Chirica really knows his stuff, but, he doesnt know how to present it. He treats his 101 class like its 110. The 5 programming assignments are the hardest things in the world, and you never have time for them. Lectures, dont go to them. You dont learn shit anyways. Labs, go. Otherwise, you fail. But just dont take his class, he sucks Richard.

I had no prior programming experience and I had to work my butt off just to get a passing grade. Take his class and you WILL learn, you might not get a good grade though. His programming assignments are really tough, and if everyone fails there still won't be a curve. Don't expect any sympathy, be prepared, and good luck!

Giant projects that take 10+ hours every two weeks. Labs that take 8+ hours every week. Don't fall behind or you're screwed. Chirica presents an outrageous workload for the class and then is very particular about grading. Midterm isn't hard if you do well on the weekly quizzes, and do all the assigned work. Chirica has a hard time explaining beginning concepts to students who have no background in programming. I would not recommend him.

He is good... but his teaching style isn't useful in teaching students when they know nothing about the subject. His style is more as going over "1+1=2" and then he expects you to be able to do"12321+98723=?" on your own.

There are 5 programming assignments that are pretty hard, but they are do-able. He's really good at office hours if you need help. Labs take some time, but most people are able to finish them during lab hours - where he's always willing to come help you if you need it. His lectures are pretty boring, but he's willing to answer any questions about labs, programing assinments and anything else. He gives out many handouts at lecture, which are really useful. Many of them have examples that are very helpful in figuring out the programing assingment (often times the labs are too). I strongly suggest taking him if you really want to learn and dont mind putting in a little time. If you get lost/confused easily or are *really* lazy, take someone else, it wont be worth your time or his. BTW - this year (2000-2001) is his (the department's) first year teaching JAVA for the 101-3 series, gotta give 'em break for not being perfect - they're learning this too.

he sure does like his women, wet!!

Dr. Chirica is a good professor. His lectures can be a bit dry at times, although he really knows his stuff. He is really willing to help the students understand the material. After a test he will look at the test results and then relook at the test, he has thrown out entire questions because he felt them unfair, based on student comments. I would reccomend Dr. Chirica to anyone interested in taking a database class

Dr. Chirica knows Oracle inside and out. His class is composed of rougly six homeworks, about six labs, one midterm, and the final. The labs challenge your ability to query and manipulate the database and SQL code. The homework challenges your understanding of what's under the hood. The test challenge both, which makes them bitches to study for. I bought only the Oracle Primer. No recommended texts, no lecture notes. And I pulled off an A while forgetting an entire assignment and doing a few more at the last minute. Bottom line: if you're interested in databases, take this class. Best quote: "Guess what. I'm gonna kill you." (I don't remember what context this makes sense in.)

Dr. Chirica is an awesome professor! He loves databases and you can tell that he likes teaching it by his enthisiasm in class. He is extremely helpful in office hours. The class can be a bit too busy, but everything that is done teaches and better prepares everyone for the final. He is very lineient in the final grading. I thought I was going to get a C in this class, but I ended up with an A. I have taken CPE 366 and I am planning to take CPE 468 with Chirica as well. Dont miss out on having a chance to take this guy! He is GREAT!

Professor Chirica is a great professor overall. You might need to bring coffee to keep yourself awake because he can be extremely boring. However, if you ask him any question about databases, he will provide you a clear and well thought out answer. He's brilliant about databases and that's why he's teaching it. Most of the stuff he is teaching are from his notes but what you will learn are from his time-consuming labs. They are necessary to digest what you are learning in class.

Prof. Chirica really knows his database stuff. His projects are demanding, but you learn the material. The work load is not terrible, but you do have to work in his class. I would reccomend Prof. Chirica for any database class.

Dr. Chirica really knows databases and is more then willing to help students. If you do decide to take a database class he is a good choice.

Dr. Chirica really knows databases, although his lectures can be a bit on the boring side. Every week we have a lab to do, and sometimes it couldn't be finished in the lab time for the class. There were three homework assignments that are only long if you don't know Java. If you know Java, the assignments are fairly easy. There is one midterm (in the 7th week of classes). Dr. Chirica offers extra credit ALL the time, and I recommend doing it whenever it is offered. You'll come out of this class knowning a lot about SQL and PL/SQL. I recommend this course.

I also took his CSC101 too. He is the one of best professor to take if you want to be knowledged programmer. He has greate amount of knowledge and devotion to teach us. I took many different teachers who don't care if student ever get enough knowledge on the subject. I learned a lot and feel confident to work for it. I definitely take his CSC366 too.

Well I'm just glad that there are lots of mature students at Poly who are using this great web site as a tool to show off their maturity. (Can anyone smell sarcasm...?) Chirica is a really great teacher. Though some say his accent is hard to understand, I don't have trouble understanding him at all. He is indeed a character...but he knows databases backwards and forwards. He always takes time to answer student questions, even if they are stupid and off topic, and he seems to always know the answer. This is a fabulous class and if you want to learn anything about databases, you should take it with Chirica.

Professor Chirica is an excellent computer science instructor and understands databases very well. He was able to clearly explain every concept we covered. His tests are very fair; they only cover what we went over in class. At times it was a good deal of information but it was never anything we had not seen before. There are 4 quizes and a midterm with the lowest quiz being dropped. The quizes/tests cover both theoretical aspects of databases and applications (writing code). The pace of the class is a bit on the slow side for the first half of the quarter. I even felt that we could have covered one more topic if we had moved a little faster but I have no problem with the slightly slower pace. Near the end of the quarter the topics become harder (ie. relational algebra) and the pace feels appropriate for the material. There were six programing assignments which become progressively harder. Some were interesting and others not so much. I recommend Professor Chirica to anyone who is interested in databases and I plan to take the next course, 366, with him as well.

Great instructor--I didn't find him difficult to understand at all, and he's extremely knowledgeable about databases and explains it with ease. A good experience. A word of warning to the wise, though--make sure you get on top of the material early on and stay there. It can be pretty tough to dig yourself out of a hole in this class.

This class is NOTHING LIKE CPE 365. Don't make the same mistake I did. I stayed in the course far too long, not quite grasping the concept and remembering how much I disliked Chirica's lecturing style. I ended up giving up on this class, much to the dismay of my group. Expect to spend a lot of time in the lab, unless you're smart enough to put the PowerDesigner folder in a ZIP file and send it to yourself. Bad times. And I got an A in 365 too.

ignore all the freshman evaluating chirica for CSC 101. this guy rocks for database classes. he's a super oracle guru. his tests, labs and homeworks (although somewhat excessive) are really easy. I took him for 365, 468 and 366. three easy A's and i learned tons. great prof.

Rarely will you find a more educated teacher, who actually knows how to teach. The problem is, he wants you to work hard. My advice, ditch your other classes! The things you can learn from this man are actually worth your time. Where some teachers skim by their classes with scantron tests cause they are too lazy to grade, Dr. Chirica takes to the time to carefully design assignments you can actually learn from. His last concern seems to be how much he has to grade, other teachers have seen the work he gives and comment, "he must have a grader". Not only do I promise you he doesn't but he even takes the time to write carefull comments and suugestions in the margins so you are well informed. If every teacher at Cal Poly were like him, the Harvards of the world would not stand a chance. If I haven't convinced you at this point that this man is a great teacher, then do me a favor. Please don't take his class! If I have convinced you, just do the readings try to really understand the assignments (do them twice if you have too) and be grateful for teachers like Dr. Chirica.

You will not find a teacher anywhere that knows his stuff as well as Chirica. This is one class that you will walk away knowing you are a much smarter person. The only downside is that this class is VERY demanding. Do not plan on taking a hard load with this class because you will not survive. If you are not willing to put the time into this class then do not take it because you will not make it through it. If you do take this class you will learn the ins and outs of designing databases. Also don't worry if you do bad on the HW's and Labs. I probably averaged round 50 -60% on these and I still pulled on A, just make sure you work your butt off on the group project and you will do fine.

Okay, so I actually graduated over two years ago, but I happened to be looking at the site for unimportant reasons, and thought I would add my comments about Dr. Chirica. I absolutely loved him. Yes, his classes were a lot of work. Yes, I spent many hours a week in study groups. But I learned SO MUCH and found him always willing to talk privately and answer questions. I never had difficulty understanding his accent. I found his packets of notes to be invaluable. They allowed me to focus on the lecture without having to madly write down every word he said, because they were already written down, with diagrams to boot. Anything I wanted to clarify or emphasize for myself I could write down right on the packets of notes. I am currently working as a Database Architect, and I have all of my note packets from both 366 and 468 in a binder on my desk. His exams (at the time, at least) were open book, open note--so I made cheat sheets for myself and I've kept those too, as they are good reference sheets. Others have commented that you shouldn't take too many other classes at the same time, and this is true--but if you are serious about learning, do take classes from Dr. Chirica.

As everyone else has said, Chirica knows his stuff!! And he's really good at explaining the concepts. The handouts are priceless. I still use them to the day. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on your project in the lab towards the end of the quarter. Overall a great class. I have used my experiences in this class in many job interviews so the stuff you learn is definitely required knowledge in industry. Homework is graded very hard, tests and quizzes not so much. Overall, I'd definitely say take the class clear your schedule for dead week, cuz you WILL be in the lab until they shut it down.

No need to talk about the awesomeness that is Prof. Chirica, it's too bad he's retiring. This course was my least favorite out of the 365/6/468/560 series, though. It's some real nuts-and-bolts stuff about DBMS's, lots of physical-level storage kind of stuff. I found parts of it interesting, but suffice it to say I'm not going to be a DBA anytime soon. If that's your career goal, this class is a must. Chirica will teach you well--his mastery of both the concepts and the instruction thereof is impressive. I've never walked out of a Chirica class wondering, "What the hell is he blathering about?" He does have a kinda hypnotic voice, but he's very adept at breaking it up with humor.