Fryer, Richard  

This is the first C I have recieved in my entire life. I hope that says something to all of you out there watching their GPA. Do not take him--this class was a nightmare!

I'll be honest, Professor Fryer took some getting used to. When I first began the quarter, he seemed quite dull and I could not bring myself to be interested in the lecture, though I enjoyed our labs. As it went on though, I got used to it, and I became so interested in Digital Design that it didn't matter much how the material was presented. At the end of the quarter, he offered to take the whole class out to Backstage Pizza for hours of final review, pizza, and good times. He may be a bit more meek than your typical professor, but he really isn't all that bad.

Ok, vital stats (At least for the 129 course I was in): -Homework is assigned, but not collected -Lecture from Powerpoint slides -Very straightforward tests and quizzes -Slightly rough grading on occasion -3 Heavily Weighted Projects, which are take home. -I found his lecture style to be a bit dry, but he kept a lively pace and was finished with all of the material early enough to spend the last week before finals on problem solving. -You are guarenteed to stay alive in this class if you just do the homework, even though it's not collected, it made all the difference.

Fryer's a pretty good teacher. He tells you what he wants from you on day one. If you do what he wants (which is mostly just to read the book ahead of time) you'll get a lot out of his lectures. He relied heavily on slides, so it was almost impossible to take any notes during class, except for the very general and basic ideas, or important times/events. Fortunately, he has the slides up on blackboard for future reference. It was also very confusing since he did his lectures assuming that you had already read the book, so a lot of the time he would skip introducing the material and jump right into the material. I didn't have many questions during the quarter, however, he was able to answer them without fail. Overall, a pretty good CPE instructor, I'd take him again.

Fryer is very helpful in his office hour. No homework in his class except for 3-4 mini projects last quarter. 1 midterm that wasn't hard but it was toooooo long. Final was much easier b/c all my friends said they did well on it.

Good guy. Doesn't make you do the homework, but gives quizzes once a week on the material he's lectured upon. They're usually of reasonable difficulty. Only one midterm, took the whole period to do it, but was overall not too bad. His projects are where the difficulty is. The first one was pretty easy, but they get progressively harder.

Overall, I thought Fryer was a decent teacher. Friendly, approachable, and receptive to student complaints. He even cancelled the final when the class pointed out there was no material to test on. He lectured from Powerpoint slides (a drag), and isn't particularly charismatic in class. It can be a chore to stay awake in class. The course was primarily lecture for the first 5-6 weeks, then we had research presentations, project presentations, and speakers for the rest of the quarter. The book (by Braude) sucks a lot - but Fryer stopped using it significantly once the complaints rolled in about it. 1 midterm, quite a bit of reading quizzes, and a project. My biggest complaint this quarter was that he ran the class without direction - there were no progress reports or feedback. The requirements were very unclear at the beginning.

Say what you will about Prof. Fryer. Yes, I'll be the first to admit that Powerpoint presentations printed onto overheads for *every* lecture may not be the most interesting approach to learning. But hey, give the man a break. Never have a come across a prof who is as responsive to students needs and concerns as Prof. Fryer was. Like a previous reviewer said, as soon as we let it be known that we wanted to do very, very bad things to the horrible textbook we were assigned, he simply stopped using it and found alternate material. When we said we really didn't want a final, we didn't have a final. And most importantly, Prof. Fryer *knows his stuff*, and he really, honestly enjoys teaching and working with students. I mean, come on, what other prof do you know that buys a *book* for the highest scoring student on a midterm. Pretty tight, if you ask me. Basically, what I'm trying to say with this extended and entirely uneloquent tirade is that Prof. Fryer rocks the hizouse, plain and simple. Oh yeah, and if you actually pay attention in class, he has a *great* sense of humor and slips great little jokes in, you just have to be listening. So yeah, take him!!

In the beginning of the quarter, you'll say Fryer is really boring and he gives way too much reading and his quizzes are impossible. Just keep in mind that he grades way easy, curves like crazy, and is an overall fair professor. He even waived our final because he figured we hadn't covered enough new material since the midterm to be tested on it. Awesome proffessor with lots of industry experience. Would recommend anyday.

Nice laid back guy. I didn't learn a tremendous amount, but realy didnt care to. He knows his stuff and has some of the best real world experience of any prof i have ever had. He know a ton a about everything from Software enginering to Electrical Enginring and anything in between. I like how he often presents high tech news reporst about the lastest processors on the market and other stuff like that. Fair grader and super laid back. Would higly recomend him!

I don't know what you people are smoking but I do not like Dr Fryer. Never did he give about high tech news reporst about the lastest processors on the market. In terms of curving I don't know about that because I got a B in the class which really pisses me of cause I got a 94% on the midterm and my groups program was by far the best in the world. I got an A in Dr. Dalbeys 205 class, so how did I get a B in this class? Dr. Fryer is also very boring, and I came to every single one of his stupid classes when everyone else ditched every other day. If I did it again I'd only go to labs and never go to the lecture. I think that this class was a waste of my time and really lessened my appreciation of software engineering, which was never that great to begin with. On the bright side though, Dr. Fryer does know what he's talking about and is very smart, but he's just as boring as every other engineer and if you ask him a question he'll talk to you about it for 10 minutes and you'll end up more unsure than you were before. But considering your alternatives you might as well take Fryer because everyone else is worse.

was a DECENT teacher. I would not recommend him though. He was usually behind in lectures compaired to other ppl in the labs. The other people usually knew more about what we were doing in lab. I had 100% in quizes basically and about B- on exames/midter/final, and I ended up w/ a C+ b/c of STUPID-LAME projects that were totally WORTHLESS and poorly specified/graded. Overall EASY class since he let you have notes for the final(anything you could fit in your book), but not the best teacher. Very nice though. Take him if you don't mind not knowing the information very well.

I had Prof. Fryer for CPE229 (lecture) and 269 (lab), now known as x327 and x347. The class isn't too taxing, and he covers interesting, practical material. Lecture mostly consists of PowerPoint. Weekly quizzes and the midterm were not too difficult at all. The takehome final wasn't too bad either, as long as you knew the material. He let us turn the final in by the end of deadweek for a few points extra credit, which was nice because it allowed us to concentrate on our other finals during final's week. Some of the labs were challenging--be sure to get a good lab partner that can help you write VHDL. I would highly recommend Fryer if you're lucky enough to have the opportunity to take him.

Fryer is the man!! He makes you laugh with jokes every now and then, especially that "its sexy" one. Overall this professor is great, very clear. His tests and quizes are very fair. The only thing that was hard in his class was the take home final. So if you want a challenge ask for the take home final at the end, else just take another test.

DO NOT choose the take home final!! Overall this class was exactly as expected. Do the practice problems and take the weekly quizzes. The tests are fair and he curves pretty generously. There is no collected HW, but you may wish to ask for a list of sample problems so you know what to expect on the quizzes. If you don't ask, he won't assign anything at all. The take home final option sounding nice until we got the test and realized he wasn't joking about covering material on the final that we didn't have time to go over in class. He said he made it long enough to account for study time and then the 3 hours for a normal final. I think he over estimated how much all of us would have studied had it been a regular final. Overall, he is a nice guy and willing to do research on his own time if he can't answer your question right when you ask. I would recommend him.

Fryer is a pretty bad lab instructor, mostly because you'd probably be better off if he never showed up. My lab partner and I were from Bell's lecture, and as a result, we didn't have nearly as good of a preparation for the labs as Fryers students did. Fryer would give out hints and stuff in his lectures, which of course my lab partner and I wouldn't get, and when we asked if he could give us a copy of the handouts, he said "get them from someone else". ...Ok, thanks a bunch. The labs themselves weren't really HARD, the main problem was that VHDL sucks. My partner and I took forever to figure out all of VHDL's little eccentricities, no thanks to Fryer. Whenever we asked him for help, the stuff he'd suggest was worthless. One thing he said was to not leave more than one space between the variable and the assignment operator....VHDL ignores excess whitespace! What a kook. We had a TA for a while, but we never saw him again after the first two weeks, so we were stuck trying to figure out exactly what way to write stuff to get the damn thing to work by brute force. Also, just because it compiles doesn't mean it will actually work. And there's no debugger that you can use to find out what's going wrong. Extra fun. It was analogous to banging your face into a wall over and over again for three hours. But once you figure it out, you can move pretty quickly. Another problem with Fryer is that he takes forever to hand stuff back...roughly two weeks. We got all A's on all of our assignments that he handed back, and I even asked him during finals week if our other labs were A's also (they were), but somehow the final lab dropped us down to a B- overall. Not sure what was up with that. We could have received a C+ if we hadn't turned it in at all (by our calculations). Anyway, if you take Fryer's lecture, and if you don't need to ever ask for help, Fryer is not too bad. At least he doesn't hassle you with ridiculous lab report requirements or a lab final or anything.

Id highly suggest avoiding this professor if at all possible. He lectured to us by reading his powerpoint slides to us while hiding behind his monitor. Although i came out of the class with an A, i have no idea how. I do not know the material. If you fill out all of the questions on the test, your probably going to do fairly well. He goes at lightning speed in lab, the other sections were about 3 labs behind us. And I'd rather use my pencil to stab my eyes out than do the homework that he assigns. You wont really learn anything from this professor and you'll hate the class. But you might end up with a fairly good grade, take him at your own risk.

Fryer is a super nice guy, knows his material, and goes out of his way to make sure students get extra help (you just have to ask). He appears to be fresh out of industry and related the material to the field well. Since the class was computer arch., he also give us some info about current trends in the subject (new product releases, movements, etc.). I'd suggest teaching the class in a room w/ desks, b/c the computers didn't make learning easier (the slides were easy enough to see projected). More q/a and chalkboard would have been better (slides could be reviewed more at home at student's leisure). A recommended instructor!

Out of all the 315 teachers i would suggest taking him. Compared to all of the other 315 teachers he is much more laid back and his class does not consume your life. The labs are difficult but if a majority of the class is having problems with something he will ammend things to meet the needs of everyone. Points are scarce so make sure you do good on everything, even homework, a point missing here and there makes a big difference. Overall a friendly teacher that I felt conveyed the material well, and I would have no problem with taking another class from him.

Fryer is a very nice guy, and for CSC's, he's the ONLY guy to take for this class. Yes, it's 315, the terror of the CSC curriculum, but before you go running to SE (as many have), realize that, with Fryer, the work is not that tough. In fact, the class is fairly easy and laid-back, and even fun. The grading goes like so: 30% labs, 15% on quizzes, 20% for one midterm, and 35% for the final. The tests (not the quizzes) are open-book, the labs are easy to get almost 100% on, and if you don't get what you'd like, you can always just revise it to get more. He posts sample tests on Blackboard, he's helpful and approachable in office hours, and this was overall a positive experience. If you're CPE, you might want to take someone more hardcore, but Fryer's good for a less-stress experience.

Great prof, not the best, but very good. He really cares about his students, which is a plus. His philosophy is that upper-division courses shouldn't be weeder courses, and that he rarely gives D's, and I agree with him there. People who want to design processors for a living should try to find a more rigorous experience, but everyone else should just enjoy the class--believe it or not, it is enjoyable, as the below reviewer says.

The number one key to succeeding in Fryer's 315 class is to ACTIVELY STUDY the book. (Charts, diagrams, etc.) Attending lecture and reviewing your notes will NOT be enough. He posts everything to Blackboard, including a list of topics that the exams will cover; if you take advantage of that and review those topics one-by-one until you understand them, you'll do fine. The class is challenging, but if there's something that you don't understand, he is happy to take the time to help you. He's also one of the nicest guys and is not arrogant at all. You will not have enough time to complete the lab assignments unless you put in extra hours, but he doesn't collect the homework, so you can save a lot of time and frustration there.

This professor is a disgrace to the entire CPE department. Avoid him at all costs. I sat in lecture everyday and did not learn a thing. THe only decent thing in the whole course are his projects. The are fairly indepth so you get some practice in assembly language. Does Fryer help with any material in the project? No. Does Fryer's lecture teach you anything? No. Fryer's grading scheme is SHIT. You can do an entire project learn all the material turn in what he wants and he will still dock you 2 grades for not having shit that he never said he needed. And thats after checking with him to make sure you have all the neccessary information in your lab report. Overall if you want to lower your GPA and learn absolutly nothing take him. I hope Dr. Fryer you read this and change your teaching methods because frankly right now you should not be teaching at any university.

ok let me start out saying this class was very time consuming, labs were with almost half your grade in the class and they demanded alot of time...his lecture are so boring they will definately put you to sleep, i missed class almost everyday and i failed the midterm and the quiz and still came out with a B, as long as you do really good on the final which is a take home, it will reflect your grade

Fryer brings great real world experience to the class. It takes time to get used to him. He is a very nice and caring person who recognize student's difficulties. He always try to adjust himself to student's needs. His lab reports is demanding, but compare to company's report, it is nothing. I'd recommend to take his class.

The class itself was pretty easy. The material is not difficult by any means unless you are csc....then you may have trouble with the tranmission lines part. If youve had any form of serious EE classes you should be fine though. The labs sucked. The material was pretty cool but they take a long time and require alot of work. Definately a pain in the ass however they are worth 40% of your grade...so if you do well on them then you can afford to screw up on the midterm and final. This class is a no stress class....really easy.

Hmmmm... don't expect to learn how to write code for your projects. Fryer will not go over any coding but expects you to know them. His mid-terms aren't that difficult but he is very picky about your answers. If its not the answer he expects, then its wrong, whether it is correct or not. The projects are worth a lot, so consider working extra hard and put in the extra work to get the bonuses. Most importantly, for the lab, partner up with someone who knows how to write code for embedded systems. Don't expect too much from the course, it doesn't really help you much... with life, or the lab. If you want me to decide for you, don't take him.

His lectures are ok but the lab was horrible. The labs were incredibly dry and he often knew very little about them. If you were to ask him a question you would get the same response every time, "i'll have to look into it, i'll get back to you". However, there was no homework and just a few quizzes. You can get a solid A if you put a decent amount of time into studying the night before an exam. My opinion, Take Dr. Seng instead, I heard they did some cool stuff.

Fryer was a great lab instructor. He gives no lab final (just an interesting final project that builds upon the previous lab assignments) and no quizzes. I definitely enjoyed coming to lab and working on all the projects.