Phillips, Thomas  

He is a great instructor and knows his stuff, you will definitely learn something in his class, but prepare to work your butt off. He will normally not let you turn in a lab late, you either have to turn it in at the end of the lab hour or turn it in for partial credit, if you ask him for help, he will take off points. He also lets you use any kind of notes you want, AS LONG AS YOU WRITE IT ON PAPER(not typed). His tests are pretty hard though and he doesn't curve. I recommend him to anybody. He's a great teacher.

I had Phillips for CPE 102 103, back when the dept. was still teaching C++. I swear, he was the coolest teacher I've had in the CSC dept., which isn't saying much I know, but trust me. He taught us more of the language than other professors that my friends have had, and in a way that keeps you awake. You better write down everything the man says though. Much of the test material is from the lecture.... His tests are also very difficult, and he will more than likely ask you to write down a piece of code that he was talking about in class. If he seems to talk a bit longer about how a certain way of traversing a binary tree is cool or something, COPY THAT SHIT AND MEMORIZE IT!!!!! He's also a great guy--I had him for 102, and then with shitty priority for the next quarter I asked if he could add me. He said yes and actually added me before registration ended.

Prof. Phillips is a very good teacher and I'm quite glad I was able to take his class. Now I won't lie to you, Phillips is hard. Most people in the class had a very difficult time with his midterm and final, although, truthfully if you know the material and study your ass off, an A is not far from your grasp. His labs are simple, especially if you had the luck of taking him for CPE 102, which I did. I suggest taking Phillips if you have a CSC major - if you pay attention, you will LEARN the material and blow the others that took another professor outta the water. I know that all of the people who hadn't taken Phillips for 102 and got stuck with him for 103 were paranoid as he started down the list of stuff their other teachers had not covered. Basically, take him if you want to have a good understanding of the material...

At first, I wasn't sure if I was going to like the teaching style. However, as we got into the class, it became evident to me that the rigorous structure (he gives you a *thick* class manual covering everything) was actually useful. I like that about a class... if there's too much lee-way then it's difficult to know what the expectations are, but on the otherhand sometimes it's better. Phillips is a decent professor. He seems jagged and mean on the outside, but he's a nice guy... office hours are REALLY helpful--go to them. I'd recommend him if there's no one better, but don't be dissappointed either if you get "stuck" with him...

Phillips was a decent professor, his class was terribly boring though. He really has a good understanding of the material, but can seem unapproachable at times. Problem is he really isn't. He's surprisingly very helpful in his office hours. His tests are quite hard but that is mitigated by the fact that he allows 2 full pages of notes (which surprisingly can cover the course). I personally just fell behind and didn't do two of the projects (cause i'm a lazy fuck) which is the reason i didn't pass his class. I ended up realizing too late how fucked i was, and ended up getting a 82% on the final, only to recieve a 67.9% in the class. Don't expect any sympathy from this guy. Word to the wise - do the labs thats your easy points, don't skip those they add up really quick. And the projects aren't hard - but you do have to do them. Buckalew i hear is better, and easier so take him over phillips - but if you get stuck with him - don't fear its not the end of the world. Good Luck!

He's a tough teacher, but he's at least interesting to listen to, and his grading system is kind of nice. You have a lab every day, that you must complete within the hour, or you get only half credit (if you get it completed by next time). The labs are usually VERY easy, can be done in 10 minutes, but sometimes they catch you off-guard (don't be caught sleeping with Postorder Iterators...). He gives one midterm and the final, and they are VERY difficult, so study well. Three projects, all of reasonable difficulty. Reccommend taking him, he's worth it.

Phillips was one of the best csc teachers I have had. This is undoubtedly the hardest class in the cpe 100 series. With Phillips you will learn so much without even realizing. There is only one midterm and it wasnt that bad but the final was incredibly hard. He does however let you have note sheets for these tests. Labs arent bad but you have to finish them in the one hour lab period everyday. The projects he assigns are very interesting and he also lets you have plenty of time to complete them. All in all, a good teacher for this class.

Helpful hint to the unknowing: Thomas Phillips is also listed under Mel Phillips. Since this Polyratings is lower than the other, I thought I might bump this up a bit. Dr. Phillips is an awesome teacher, if you are willing to listen to him. He is funny, extremely intelligent, and unlike most other professors, a real human being. He is tired on fridays, and freely admits it (it doesn't affect his teaching style though) and cancels class (but only if we have done enough labs). Hints for future students: Study for the Midterm and Final extremely hard. And when I say hard, I mean spend about 4 hours a day studying the week before. If you are in it for the grades, shame on you, and second of all, don't take Phillips. If you want to learn, definitely take Phillips. There is a quiz every day in the form of a lab, and it must be completed during the hour of the lab. My advice is to do it ahead of time. All the grading on the labs is automated and uses a grader program that is very helpful. You usually need the grader to do the labs, and if he hasn't posted one yet, you can get it from some CSC student that has taken the class before. Which brings me to another point: There may be CSC students in your class that have taken it before. Befriend them. They have the midterm, projects, final, and the labs. Not that you should cheat, but they have a good idea of what's coming up. One final word of advice mentioned by someone wise earlier: Watch out for postorder iterators! If you don't know what that means, don't worry, he tells you about them in class, you just have to look up how they work.

Undubitably the best computer science teacher I've ever had, better than all others I've taken, COMBINED. Phillip's "grader" program is amazing, and takes out all the subjective grading of labs. Your lab grades are determined by a computer, so you know exactly what to expect. Code stylistic conventions are graded on the three projects he assigns, however, but its rare to get less than an A on the projects if you did what he asked. The projects he assigned were a heap manager, an expressions interpreter, and a graph algorithm program--all of which I found quite interesting and sufficiently challenging and fun to program. The expressions project had an opportunity for extra credit which you should take advantage of. Listen to his lecture attentatively, noting hints on what the labs will be and what questions he'll ask on the midterm or final, visit his office hours frequently(!), and most importantly study like hell for the (uncurved) midterm and final, and you should do well in his class. The midterm was very hard but I thought the final was much easier. Make no mistake: even if you've programmed for five or six years (as I have), this class is no cake walk. But Thomas (as he calls himself in his course manual, as does POWER) also known as Mel (as his office is labelled, confusingly) will leave you with a vast amount of knowledge, much more than I ever could have obtained from reading the textbook alone. He has a good sense of humor too, but uses it to effectively convey the material. Excellent programmer. I recommend Phillips to anyone willing to learn.

I have never been more intimidated by a professor my entire life. He is obviously brilliant, extremely well prepared and knowledgeable. He is fair, and tough. You will sweat to get your grade, especially if you had someone like Pokorny in 102 or 101. That said, don't cry so much. I remember going to his office twice, and there he was, alone, not a soul asking him anything. If you don't ask a teacher for help you don't get to complain about how hard the class is. This man taught me how to program, and I have realized that two years later.

I found this prof fairly easy to listen to in lecture, but if you find yourself drifting off in class, blame it on the subject matter, NOT this proffessor. He gives the impression of being very knowledgeable in the subject matter and is definitely not afraid to speak his mind. I guarantee that his frankness and brutal honesty will catch you by surprise, but that's okay because it'll keep you awake more often than not :) The homework is very reasonable, and his project deadlines can be extended (but often at the cost of the next project's due date). Tests WILL be your hardest category, but it balances out with the easy A's in the projects and the labs sections.

103 - hard class...no doubt. At the same time Phillips is a shitty instructor who really can't teach to all types of students. There are always kids in the class who get things rather quickly and they tend to do the best... His lectures were very hard to follow and didnt make much sense, and labs had to be turned in the very same day so it was very hard to take time to understand what was going on... Its a damn shame when one of the worst teachers ive had at poly has the highest poly rating for a class...but don't be fooled, this class sucks and Phillips doesn't try very hard to make it any better

Great Teacher, Really in touch with the students, Cool Guy, Knows his stuff, Tough grader but you will be garunteed to learn the information. I'd reccomend him for any class.

Ok here's the scoop on 103 with Phillips. The midterm and final are each worth 30% of your grade, the projects are worth 20% and the quizzes are worth 20%. Most of the quizzes are easy but a few towards the end are a reasonable challenge. The final wasn't terribly difficult, but all the math on the midterm made my head spin. I ended up getting a 73 on the midterm, which brought my grade down to an A- The projects on the other hand were a piece of cake. Just make sure you understand quicksort and all the complexity analysis really well... Good luck!

You could do worse than this guy. It takes some time for you to get used to his teaching style, but he's not too bad. Make sure you take notes in class. Your notes will make or break your midterm and final grades, which compromise 60% of your grade in class. Its frustrating that I and others aced the projects and labs and still walked with B's and C's.

Phillips was a good teacher. Many will think he is a bad teacher because he is kind of anal, but he knows what he is talking about. He can be fairly intimidating too. The way he talked in class about what you should know and how you should be doing made me scared to go talk to him in his office hours, but when I finally went to his office hours he was very helpful. He has a rule about getting an average of 60% on the midterm and final which I as a student didn't like but i can undterstand why he has it, so everyone knows what they need to know. All in all i think Phillips is a nice guy and I like him as a parson but his class takes work.

I am currently taking 103 with Phillips right now... DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY ! ! ! I read ahead in the book last quarter about certain topics covered in 103 and they made perfect sense. Then, when he started explaining them, it was like a foreign language! His tests are extremely difficult... He would ask us to write code and even if it produced the right answer, he would still sometimes give you ZERO CREDIT (for a correct solution!!!!). He is a terrible teacher and you should do anything humanly possible to get out of his class.

Well Phillips was a ok guy, he did expect alot out of his students and was a hard grader. His tests were very hard, expecially the final, study your butt off for that one on anything and everything covered for the quarter since the stuff you dont expect on the final will be there. The lab excercsises were ok, although some of the time it was hard to really figure out the solution in the 50-40 min time frame, at least for me. The programing projects were not bad, time consuming yes, but not terrible. There were always a few test cases that he slipped in there to make sure it was tottaly to specifications and alot of people failed that test case, but he was very fair with grades for projects. I know alot of people passed about half the test casses on the first project and they still pulled around a c+, so thats not to bad. Overall I would say he is a decent prof for 103, although a hard grader. Expect to work your butt off in this class just for a b- or c. Dont expect an a, even if you did do good in 101/102. MUCH HARDER!!!

Phillips is a decent teacher. If nothing else, that course manual allows for a laugh as you scare people with that giant course manual. But seriously, Phillips does a good job of relaying the material needed. More of the shortcomings in the class are from the nature of the class, more than whatever shortcomings Phillips may have. His tests are tough, I'll admit that. Luckily, you get two pages of notes, front and back, which is actually a whole lot of notes. The projects were weird; they ranged from easy at times to really hard. The easy part comes from all the pseudocode he gives; the hard part just comes from whatever it is you're making. One final tip...if he talks about a possible test question: WRITE IT DOWN. It's really important. The hardest part of the whole quarter will be recurrence equations.

Shitty teacher, more homework than all my other classes combined, overly difficult tests..... overall a bad experience. I would have to agree with the previous comment "DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY!!!" because you will regret it all quarter long.

Prof. Phillips seems like a really misunderstood guy... I went into the class with a good 102 background (I took it twice and did REALLY well the second time, I actually understand programming now..) His labs were easy, i only got less than 100% on two of them. If you pay attention in class and show up every day and take notes on what he says and ESPECIALLY all the pseudocode he writes, you're golden for the labs. The first project kicked my ass (43%), but I managed to pull a 99% average on the last three. The midterm and the final are super hard, study your butt off for them. A lot of students knock this guy but it's more the material than the teaching style, seriously. Try him before you write him off as a bad teacher. I was borderline B/C and I felt pretty crappy about what i did on the final (Probably a D at best) and yet he gave me a B- in the class (probably because my last 3 project grades were 99% average and my lab average was like 97% so it was obvious that I understood the material) He seems like a real nice guy at heart, take him and try him for yourself.

I've been programming for about 5 years now and dr. phillips is by far THE BEST COMPTUER SCIENCE TEACHER I"VE HAD. People who don't show up to his class have problems because they can't compete when phillips shows the students who are there exactly how to do what you need to know for the labs and tests. People complain that some of his test questions came out of nowhere, yet then he reminds them of the time he told them to look it up in the book because it was going to be on the final and then the whole next week where every day he asked if anyone looked it up because it was going to be on the final (and nobody did..). He's fair, and from my description, you'd think he was easy (well... in many ways he was) but he actually TEACHES the stuff. His method of teaching is excellent for any mature student - he presents a problem (a relatively large one in the case of the projects) and lets you fubmle with it for a while. Then he spends a couple days in lecture going over the harder parts of the project leading the class in colaborative discussion so that THE STUDENTS COME UP WITH THE ANSWERS because of his guidance. Overall, if you're a slacker, you will probably fail because the book he has to use sucks. If you come to class, you'll coast through much of it and actually LEARN a great deal - all it takes is a basic amount of effort.

Probably the best prof available for this course from what I've heard. I bombed the first midterm but worked VERY hard on all the projects, labs, and final. I managed to redeem myself but that wasn't easy. My one gripe about this class is that there is only the one midterm. That said, the class isn't easy but with some work on your own I don't think it's at all impossible to keep up and truly learn the material.

Refer to "Mel Phillips" -- It's the same guy but for some reason two different names because CAL POLY doesn't know his "correct name."

Dr. Phillips, aka Mel Phillips but listed as Thomas Phillips on POWER, impresses at first. He is very well organized, comes prepared to class, and is very knowledgeable in this class. This is all quite refreshing after having some CSC teachers who were polar-opposites. However, this class is extremely difficult. It is heavily math-oriented, and quite complex. Dr. Phillips unfortunately has the job to try to convey this topic and he can't really do it, but frankly I think no one can. I believe Phillips is the best at this course, but it is a terrible course. Phillips loves the math of the class, an aspect most CSC/SE majors will find very dry and complex. Best recommendation: if you choose to take Phillips, do all your labs ahead of time, and do all your projects; that, along with getting a D average on his final and midterm will get you a B / B-. Utilize his office hours; and the book doesn't help either

Phillips is a very fair instructor. He's also a very tough one. Prepare for the labs and work on the projects early. Listen to his lectures and the hints he provides you about the midterm and the final. Be sure to get around a C or higher on the midterm -- you don't have to work AS hard on the final to pass. But be warned that his tests are challenging. The man is indeed a genius. He expects you to be one too. Good luck.

This was my second time having Mel. I like him. He knows his stuff and isn't a geek(unlike a lot of the other professors). If you know your stuff as well you'll do well. As an example of how down-to-Earth this guy is... He saw that I had a 445 book(I was in his 349 class) and he laughed and said: "You're taking 445 too? Why'd you do that to yourself... you know, everybody says you'll probably never use the material you learn in this class. They are right, but 445... you'll REALLY never use that." He's a great guy, as well as a great teacher. He's very helpful during office hours. Heh, several times in the fall Quarter he said we weren't having class on friday cause this quarter was too long anyway.

Phillips

After having taken Phillips for 103 and coming out with an F I was dreading the fact that I had to take him again for Algorithms. Since the alternative was Staley I decided to take my chances and everything worked out well. The grade is based on three midterms, a paper, and the final. You are allowed one page of notes on each midterm and on the final. He has a total of 500 points for the quarter split in the following manner: Paper - 50 points Midterms - 100 points each (3x) Final - 150 points The second midterm was definitely the hardest and the first is the easiest in my opinion but none one them were easy. There is some calculus used in this course but nothing too difficult, a few limits, log functions, and one integral (U substitution) on the final, at least thats how it was the quarter I took it. The grading is pretty tough and there is no extra credit. Another problem is that the tests are long. The third test is the only one I managed to finish on time. The rest I had to turn in with blank answers. He does not tell you how much each question is worth becuase he decides as he is grading but some questions do count for a lot of points so try to do the longest, or most important ones first and leave the easier ones till the end. What got me through this class was going to office hours and studying in groups. The paper isn't that hard and from what he said most people get all or most of the points but start early because writing 6-8 pages in one or two days can be a bitch if you haven't properly researched your topic. You might even have trouble finding information. All in all Phillips can explain things pretty well but has killer tests. By no means is that class impossible but you will need to work hard and know your stuff.

I am currently taking this class. This professor is the most paranoid professor on campus. He will lower lab grades if you ask questions. He constantly thinks that his students are cheating off of current students or off of previous students. During lecture he occasionally makes degrading comments about the other CSC teachers. So far, I would recommend taking this class with another teacher (which I think will be available next quarter).

I can't believe how confused this teacher makes us during his lectures. This is a fairly mathematical & abstract course, sorta like CSC141 (Discrete Structures) on steroids. If you took CSC141 with Nancy Parham, you know that she does a fairly good job of teaching the dry & boring material - you learn a lot from her. But then you get to this CSC445 class, taught by Phillips. In my opinion, he takes a much too 'theory-based' approach at teaching this course. He'll expect you to come to class having read the book and knowing the material already. He interrupts his lessons constantly, throwing in a side-story of his every once in a while or some random joke, leading us off point. He also leaves you hanging when doing examples on the board, often only half-doing them, leaving steps out, maybe giving a 1-sentence explanation on what he just did on the board, then expecting you to figure out how to solve it yourself. If you drift off for a minute, or don't understand a part of his lesson, you might as well go home. The lessons are *extremely* abstract, and he will expect you to squeeze out all the information possible from his vague replies & examples. Doesn't he know that during lectures, he's supposed to pump as much information into us as possible, and then wait till the tests to make us struggle? This is a hardcore theory-based teacher, who will require you to work your brain like crazy during class in order to learn anything. This might be fine for people who like being constantly confused in class, but for the 'prolem & example' students... good luck.

Don't get me wrong, I like Phillips and he is generally a good professor. He certainly knows his stuff, and 103 with him was enlightening to some extent. I just don't think he did a real good job exposing us to this material for what was (for most of us) the first time. I don't feel like I learned much, unfortunately.

Dr. Phillips is a pretty good professor but sometimes he's vague on his ideas and he's a pretty hard professor! He has four tests which are pretty hard--you really have to study hard to get a good grade in this class.

I've had Phillips for three classes now and I just had to put in my two cents. I got to my last quarter here and had to fulfill an elective requirement. I saw that Phillips was teaching an upper division class and didn't even look at what it was. I just signed up for it. Phillips is among the best professors I have seen. He challenges his students and expects them to live up to the challenge. This class is a theoretical class. If you don't want to work with theory, THEN DON'T TAKE IT! Phillip's lectures acurately cover the material. His tests acurately cover his lectures. He's always held a review session before his tests and almost always covers _actual test questions_ in that session. If you pay attention and study hard, his classes are among the easiest to pass and you'll learn a lot from them.

Phillips is definitely a good teacher. I appreciate his clarity and mild dry humor. I do think he was a bit too harsh in his grading though. I felt that I had a firm grasp on the material, but I could never get the grade I thought I earned when I walked away from the exam.

Phillips is entertaining in class. But his tests are brutal. I worked my ass off to get a 'C' in this class. I didn't learn anything in this class.

I didn't learn anything in this class. This is the only class where I had to work hard to get a C.

Some facts about CSC 445: 1. The stuff you learn is pretty much useless in real life. 2. Phillips is a good teacher. 3. His tests are often tricky, hard, vague and sometimes he asks questions not related to the material he goes over in class. 4. Phillips doesn't give much partial credit at all. To get a "B" is extremely difficult, "A" is almost impossible. I say this class is pointless for a worthless subject.