Stearns, Dan  

Professor Stearns helped me learn the stuff I should have learned in 101 in addition to the stuff in 102. He is extremely helpful during his office hours even though it might take awhile for him to get to you due to the amount of people also waiting to ask for help. His programs are a bit more challenging and he is also a bit more critical then the average 102 teacher but in the end you come out learning so much. He is definately an asset to the CPE department.

Dan is an awesome teacher, not an easy teacher. He provides stories of his professional life to backup the lessons learned in class (readings, presentations, etc.) You'll find in his class that you rarely have time to get things done completely by the turnin date unless you start early. If you start late, you'll get yourself into an infinite series of resubmits rolling into the next phase of the specification/design. Start early (this is a team decision) and get feedback on your work before the turnin date. You will almost certainly receive an R (resubmit) on all assignments you turn in on the due date, but if you work diligently and get feedback, you'll get it back on the resubmit with no penalties. Awesome prof, but lots of work. I'd take him again. Thanks Dan.

Dan is an awesome lecturer. I loved going to class and lab because they were never boring. He gives out reading questions and you can answer them in your notebook or take a gamble on being rolled (yea, he rolls a dice) in class and having to give and oral answer. The only problem is his grading. He grades on a scale of 1-6 and if its not the way he likes it, he gives it back to you to redo over and over and over until its good enough. And he tends to contradict himself 20 times a day so when he says to do something "this way" don't do it cuz he'll tear you apart for it. Just make sure you turn it in really good the first time so he doesn't have that much time to look it over and doesn't give you an "R" (redo). Also, give him lots and lots of pictures, he hates reading and you'll get tons of credit for it.

Fantastic teacher. He really knows his stuff and he respects his students.

Dan is the best teacher I've had at Cal Poly. He makes class fun and challenging. His unbelievable stories and teaching style make him a unique professor. He expects a lot from his students and is usually able to get results. My only complaint is that he's sometimes forgetful.

Dan has a lot of real life experience that he brings into every classroom. You learn stuff in this class that you won't learn in any other class. Dan tells you exactly what you need to know to succeed in the computer industry.

You want Dan as your professor, no question about it. Class is fun, no exams, and a true comradery (sp?) develops between the students and Dan.

Want to take an instructor that seems more like a friend than a teacher? Want to take an instructor that treats students like an equal? Want to learn a lot and have fun doing it? Then you want to take Dan Stearns. This guy has it together. He knows his stuff and makes class fun and worth showing up to. He does not have an attitude and does not seem to view the students as beneath him (like so many instructors seem to). He is extremely flexible and fair and he wants you to succeed. This was a great class.

Dan is one of the best teachers I've ever had. He treats everyone like they are important and has a great sense of humor. Its a little difficult to get to him in office hours because there is always a crowd of people wanting to talk to him, but the wait is more like a party and numerous interesting discussions arise during this time. My only problem with Dan is that he works the students too hard, his class takes up more time than all the other classes put together -- but when you are done with the class, you are suprised with how much you learned. His grading is difficult and things have to be just right, however he lets you redo and improve your work as many times as you'd like. I'll take him again without a hesitation.

Dan is one of the best professors I have ever had. If you want someone that will treat you more like a co-worker than a student, take this class. He offers a wide range of experience and knows how to best apply it to his classes. One warning though, you will work hard in this class, no doubt. But it will also be one of the most valuable classes you will ever take at Cal Poly.

This guy will work you... then he'll work you some more. I've never worked so hard to get a C, but I never learned so much. It all paid off when I was a Jr. Software Engineer on a co-op I recently had... they were impressed with how much knowledge of Software Engineering I had. Stearns' class can get pretty busy, and kinda frustrating, but it's worth it!

This guy is terrible. I don't know who wrote all these great reviews for this guy but he isn't that great. It's rumored that he told his 405 class that he had to lower the standards for this class. He only respects you if you have experience in the software engineering field which most of us didn't. Oh yeah, if you ever want your product to be done you have to see him at his office hours; which is also impossible since the entire world is there to find out what's going on in the class. You have to camp overnight to see him at his office hours. I can't say anything about the other CSC 205 classes but avoid this guy if you can.

CSC 205 was actually fun. Dan gives you all his industry stories, and often repeats them, but in the end, you leave understanding what you need to know for 206 and for industry. His grading system is awesome - just hand in things on time. And it doesnt matter if its half-assed, cause you can just hand it in next week for no penalty. And also, pick to do oral questions. you only get called on about 5 times the whole quarter, and you can just ramble. with enough 'um's you can easily stretch it to 2 minutes and then he'll say 'good enough' and youre done. dan's the man

Awesome person and professor. Glad I didn't take 205 last quarter. If you get stuff done and write specs well, you will get a good grade. He's one of my top 3 favorite professors and I've had some good ones.

Stearns is a wonderful teacher for 205/206. Take it with him. Now why? He gives very good real world practice and he is a great manager. He has wonderful people skills(not always true for CSC/SE teachers), he also gives great lectures and good stories (though after 6 months I

This professor definitely has his ups and downs. Lecture is cool because Stearns actually has a pretty good sense of humor. Hearing his stories for the first time is always interesting. The 2nd, 3rd, ... , Nth times can get rather boring. There was no final and no midterm which was definitely a plus. If you have a cool team leader he/she can sign off so that you also have no homework. This means that all you have to do is work hard on the project which the leader will grade for 80% and not get dinged in class for not knowing the readings which is the other 20%. Stearns will play favorites. If you're one of them you'll enjoy the class. If you're not, I suggest you get the hell out.

For 206, you can't beat Stearns. It was a hard class, but he was a great teacher. No midterm, no final, just a big project and some homework relating to it. Very flexible and a good guy.

Dan is da man! He is very knowledgeable about the computer software industry today, and he shares many, many, many stories with his students. The project is time consuming, but very rewarding in the end (after 20 weeks, because the project actually started in 205). Overall, I would have to say that Dan is certainly one of the top professors I've had here at CP. If you get a chance, take him for sure!!!

Dr. Stearns is by far the best lecturer I have had at Poly. He has a wealth of information, and is ready to share it all with you. This man has been everywhere and done everything! As a teacher, he will learn the material with you, and he will make sure you thoroughly understand the concepts. Be ready for his labs, though. Each one progressively requires less and less code, and takes more and more time. The virtual memory lab (the last one) takes about 30 lines of code, and incorporates about all of the concepts learned in class. He gives 1 intro test, 1 midterm, and a final. The tests are very hard if you are not thouroughly prepared. He effectively tests all the material in 50 minutes. You will either love this man or hate him (as so eloquently said by a 205 student). If you love him, he will be one of the most inspirational teachers you will have had at Poly.

Dan is an awesome guy. His class was difficult and required much time. If you get to know him and learn the main concepts you will do ok in the class. He gives + and - based on class participation and your attendance at office hours. Also, don't be afraid to ask if you can skip the final. Expect to spend a long time on the labs, and don't wait until the last minute. Make sure your write-ups are clean and your code is formatted properly. He has no problem giving you a really low grade (50% and below) on a lab even if it works perfectly. I would recomend Dr. Stearns if you really want to learn the material.

Taking a class from Dan is a frustrating, but ultimately rewarding experience. He definitely makes you work hard, and it usually takes several visits to his office hours during the quarter to get your programs to work. I was worried about my grade for a while, but after about the 7th week, everything just clicked and I was able to earn a good grade. I was also well prepared for my next class, Operating Systems. Don't take Dan if you want to slack off, but otherwise he is good.

I don't know why such a person could be a teacher. He is the meanest person in the world. As a teacher, you are supposed to be supportive to your students. But this guy looks down on most of his students unless you are genius. It is very frustrating in his class. He teaches nothing in lecture, only talks about what "great" things he did in the industry. No one cares what you did, Dan. He doesn't allow questions over email. You have to go to his office hours if you have questions. But his scedule is really tight and a lot of students are waiting to see him at the same time. It is impossible to get help from him. A hard teacher is not a great teacher unless he is willing to help his students to succeed. Take Clint Satley if you want a hard and great teacher. Again Dan Steans should not be a teacher at all.

Let me start off by saying he is one of the worst professor i've taken at Cal Poly. In his lectures all he talks about is stories about him in the industry. He goes off for the whole period and lectures about actual material for 10 minutes. He only favors students who know the material before hand and all the rest treats them as lab rats. Meaning he looks down on everybody, WORST TEACHER EVER, dont take him, dont make the mistake like i did, take staley - Jaime Lichauco recommends him!

I have heard that Stearns is a great 205 teacher, and I can see why. However, for 315, he is a terrible disaster. He hugely favors the smarter kids who learn everything in advance of lecture, and never answers questions straight, he twists them around and gets mad at you for not already being a genius. The point of teacher a class is to help students learn, but all Stearns does is pat the smart few who don't ask for help on the back and pretty much screw the rest. His e-mail policies are unfair and unrealistic, his office hours are not long enough (it's impossible to get in sometimes and he is often late or somehwere other that his office without a note), and he is obviously biased in every way imaginable. Oh yeah, and the damn stories of his work in the field...please save us...they may be interesting, but why go to an hour lecture when you only get 5-10 minutes of actual learnable material related to the class which isn't even presented clearly?

Stearns is a badass. Don't go in his class thinking you'll pass. Know that you will fail and if by some stroke of luck you get lucky, you just might pass. He wasn't a dickhead or anything, not at all. He was a humorous guy. But his grading is the biggest most gigantic most unlubed dick of all and he has no reservations about sticking straight up your colon. I remember spending days upon days racking my brain at how to finish the labs. I would spend days from 8am to 10pm, opening to closing hours, and not being able to get it done. For all that effort I would get "barely started" on my labs with R for redo. It was frustrating as fuck and rewarding in the sense that I felt like I actually learned something. I didn't get jack shit worth a piece of crap in terms of grading but I really do feel like I learned something worth a damn. I took Stearns after getting a mind fuck from Hutch and becoming stupider with all the inane shit that came out of his mustached ass. I reasoned I'd rather spend a quarter actually learning something and getting my ass kicked than spend one with Hutch again. I did learn but I still failed. I went in thinking that if I put all my effort, heart and soul in this damn class that Id pass. He shit all over that idea. All in all hes a great teacher. He does what a teacher is supposed to do, teach, and in that respect he is one of the best, but fuck, give a people a break, It wouldnt hurt if he could lighten up on grading.

Do you like getting anally probed with a MIPS CPU? Oh, you don't? Then don't take Stearns for this class. He brags about his cool jobs for 55 minutes, then throws in a few outlandishly difficult questions for the class to answer, and falls in love with the nerd who can answer his questions, while never explaning the answers to the other 99% of the class, and if we dare to ask he gets mad at us for not knowing this shit before we get to class and gives us a sideways answer. Basically, the only way you learn a fucking thing in this class is by spending 25 hours a day getting his insanely hard (but admittedly well planned and worthwhile) labs done on time, and then getting them back with a grade of 0R (meaning you have to re-do it and resubmit), because its not perfect. Well fuck. Now you've got two hard labs to work on, so you're working 40 hours a day on ONE CLASS - oh, wait, how many hours?! It's not possible!!! And he seems to enjoy failing people, I knew a few guys who failed and probably deserved a D...but he doesn't give D's. All in all, you will learn a ton in this class, but not in lecture, and you will get ass raped when you get your grade unless you suck up and convince him that you love the material and knew it all before you started taking the class...then maybe you'll pass. I scraped by with a C luckily, but many people are not so lucky, and it's hard to complain with a processor up your ass.

Prof. Stearns is a fair and reasonable person. Is 315 a lot of work? Yes. Can you get by with just coming to lecture and spending 10 minutes on a lab? No. That said, Dan's lectures aren't extremely helpful, but I didn't fall asleep either. The class is mildly entertaining and you get some important info from lectures. However, labs are the beef of the class; they are pretty well designed and help you learn the material well without reading much of the book. As far as fairness goes, he provided makeup work for people who did poorly on his midterm, and the work wasn't BS like it often can be, it actually made you learn the material. If you do poorly on a lab, you can often go over it quickly and make up some points. I found him pretty helpful during office hours and even a few emails I sent (although he doesn't like them much). He seemed happy to help when possible, but I think a lot of the people that failed just didn't bother talking to him. Overall I enjoyed the class, even if it was a huge pain. I'd probably take Stearns again.

Stearns is one of those teachers that says he doesn't curve, and you look at your grades on the midterms midway through the class, and towards the end of the class and wonder what you got yourself into. Luckily, his grading policies are really nice towards students. I got a 60 on the first test, 70 on the second, and I got a B+ in the class. In the end of the quarter he gave pieces of paper saying what we would need to get on the final to get various letter grades, and for a number of people, he said that if they just wanted a C, don't even bother taking the final and he'd give them their C. This class is workload intensive also, and stearns is a hard grader for code. Make sure you comment code well, and that you follow specifications to a T. He is really nice with late work though, if the program/lab doesn't work, he gives you a 59 or so, and tells you to get it done, most of the time you manage getting a 80 or 85 on it. He is very helpful with helping with labs too if you ask. I would recommend taking stearns.

Stearns is tough. He will make you work your ass off. Do not expect to get the labs even close to done in the time you are given during lab, expect to spend an extra 10-40 hours on each lab at home. That being said, Stearns knows his stuff, and he is a great teacher. If you need a challenge then take his class.

As some other reviewers have said, you're going to work. But you're making a freakin' CPU here. From scratch (well almost). So yes, you will spend some extra time in the lab. Need an extension? Let him know 24 hours in advance of the deadline. Can't get something to work right? Turn it in anyway, get it back with an (R) on it, get it working, and turn it back in. Other things of note: he does have a bit of an aire of arrogance... but he knows his stuff. He also sounds like he constantly has a frog in his throat. Don't ask me why. Read the Soul of a New Machine book, it's good. The midterm didn't acutally ask much about it, even though he said it would, but maybe that will change. Midterm and Final are tough, but his grading policy is... well, interesting. It's rather subjective, which can be a damn good thing for you. I got a C on the midterm, and a B (I think) on the final, but still an A in the class. Do the labs, do the homework, and go to his office hours once or twice. Bottom line: I'd recommend him for 315.

Dan was a great instructor. He is a difficult, but he is a very devoted professor. He grades fair. You will get what you deserve based on your knowledge and effort.

Dan Stearns is the worst teacher I've had at Cal Poly. He ranks below the teachers who had heavy accents and taught directly off of their notes from the book and didn't know any of the material. This guy doesn't teach a thing in lectures. He talks about his stories of when he was younger. His stories are great and entertaining, but this is computer architecture not brag about your career. Stearns also heavily favors the students who already know the material or are extremely into it. He makes everyone else feel like they are stupid and worthless. I went to his office hours and overhead him talking about how stupid his students in cpe 205 are and saying they shouldnt even be in there. Avoid this guy at all costs, unless you're into unfair grading, favoritism, learning everything on your own with no help from the teacher, and listening to a raspy voiced old guy.

Dan is an amazing professor. The best one I've had at Poly by far. If you want to learn what software engineering is REALLY about, take it with Stearns

This class is unlike any other class I have taken. We focused on management principles, team building, and software development (in that order). His many years of experience in the software business gives him credibility about what works and what doesn't. His grading policy takes getting used to. Be prepared to resubmit assignments. If I remember correctly, I had to resubmit all except the last 2. On the other hand, he is flexible with the milestone dates, so if you need more time, just ask. Overall, an excelent teacher.

I've had Stearns for a lot of classes actually... 405, 406, and then some, so I figured even though it was a little late I'd toss in my two cents. Admittedly, it's difficult to get used to Stearns style, he makes you figure things out. You have to learn to get documents signed and keep on top of what needs to be done, and most importantly, you have to figure out what needs to be done, just like in the real world. He won't baby you with cookie cutter fill-in-the-blanks projects. You can't be passive with him, you have to take the initiative. If he says something at the beginning of the quarter but doesn't mention it again for 7 weeks... don't think it won't pop up in the last couple weeks. He won't remind you, you are expected to be an adult and remember. But of course, there's always the possibility of arguing him out of doing it, he does take into account student opinions, so make those known. Oh, but I should mention, I would most definitely take him again. He's the kind of teacher you take if you really want to learn something you'll use in the future, and thats not necessarily just schoolwork.

I've taken Dan for a lot of classes, 405 and 406 were just the start. He does have a bit of an odd grading style, and if you don't get your act together you are bound to get an R on assignment or an I in the class. He treats you like an adult and expects you to behave that way. He won't treat you like a child by spelling everything out for you. He makes you figure things out which to me was a great learning experience. He forces you to learn. From what I've seen, people that don't pass his classes (the ones I've been in) don't followthrough on their responsibilities. Just don't give up and make sure you get your work signed off. He's also a great person to talk to during office hours but can get a little distracted sometimes.

I am a Software Engineering major for my undergrad degree and so I had to take CPE 405 and 406. I am really glad that I took them with Dan. These two classes really give you a chance to apply some of the technical skills learned in other classes. They both help prepare you to work in the real world, and give you a real project to talk about during interviews. At the end of the class, someone asked for a show of hands of how many students got jobs because of this class, and as I recall, the number was around 50%. During my interview with Microsoft, this was the only project I talked about, and I got the job.