Buckalew, Chris  

Computer Science

3.35/4.00

49 evaluations


CPE 101


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2001
buckalew gives the fuckin hardest labs ever, i failed the last three labs, cause like they were so hard and i asked like all these other people who already took CSC if they could help me and none of them had a clue, so dont trip if you cant do a program or two just study the notes and be able to do the easy programs in the book, the tests are tricky so dont be fooled, oh yeah, the grading, 35% of your grade is on the midterm in the sixth week, 35% of your grade is on the the common final/his final, 10% is on labs and 20% is on the programs. avoid him if you can but if you got no choice might as well take him.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Sep 2003
This guy is outstanding. He's up in the top 5 instructors I've ever had. Take him, I can


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Aug 2005
Buckalew was a pretty awesome teacher. I've never programmed before and he made it pretty easy to learn. You start with the basics (you totally don't need to know anything to learn this stuff in this class) and about half way through the quarter, you're like, "Hey! I'm programming!" It's crazy. His tests aren't really easy, but they are definitely do-able. You get a sheet of paper of notes (front and back), which helps some. Basically, if you can do the labs and the assignments fine, you are totally set for the class. He doesn't expect you to memorize useless crap that you'll never use again in programming, either. Overall, I definitely recommend taking Buckalew.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2006
I was one of the few who only had to take CPE 101 once, so I can't compare Buckalew to other teachers, but the material seemed fairly easy without Buckalew's having to explain it (I did Sudoku every class day). People who had other teachers in previous semesters did remark how much easier Buckalew was in lab assignments and how better of a lecturer he was. The labs were fairly easy (some of the later ones caused a bit of difficulty), the programs were, in most cases, easier than the labs but were more tedious. I never had to go to Buckalew's lecture hours (they were at 8-9am), but he seems like a nice guy who'd be willing to help. The weight of the grade is heavily biased to how you perform on the Midterm (35%) and Final (35%), both are taken in lecture and must be handwritten. I feel that Programs (20%) and Labs (10%) are more practical exhibits of ones skill and abilities, but to each his own. Compared to what I've heard about other teachers, I'd take again Buckalew if I had to.

CSC 101


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Apr 2000
He's a good teacher, explained the topics VERY clearly and grades fairly. I had sooo many idiots in my class that asked stupid ass questions, but he had patience everyday and answered their questions without making anyone feel dumb. He teaches in a way that even if you know nothing about computers you'll understand the material quite well. I recommend him for anyone.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2001
TOUGH LOVE, Buckalew's class is challenging, but it is because he sincerely wants to prepare you for the next step. This guy is an awesome teacher.


Junior
A
Required (Major)
Sep 2001
Chris Buckalew is one of the *few* helpful CSC professors who actually care about how you are doing in the class. I retook the course after my trip through h*ll (Butler's class) and ended up not only doing MUCH better in this class, but actually coming away with solid groundwork for the next few courses in the series. His labs are a bit challenging towards the end, but he is a fair grader and is always willing to help you out. He is available not only during office hours but at home too. I called him several times during the weekend and he was more than willing to help me out if I was stuck on a portion of the lab. Great guy,...striking resemblance to Ned Flanders!


Junior
A
Required (Support)
Jun 2002
This guy is one of cal poly's best. He understands students, doesn't waste our time, and gives good tests. This guy is my favorite teacher I've ever had at Cal Poly. The only bad thing is that I think he raises our standards of teachers at Cal Poly, then shitty teachers seem even worse. Do yourself a favor and take this guy.


Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Aug 2003
Dr. Buckalew is a very good teacher. Since he is really good at explaning things I had no problem understanding all the materials given in the lecture. If you spend a certain amount of time everyweek and do all the assignments seriously you will get an easy A. I've taken programming classes at some other schools but he's the best teacher so far.


Freshman
A
General Ed
Jul 2007
Like OMG, best professor ever


Junior
C
Required (Major)
Aug 2007
This guy is AWESOME. Take Buckalew any chance you get!


Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Mar 2009
Hes a really good guy but his wife is a total program nazi.

CSC 102


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2001
Professor Flanders... I mean Buckalew is a great teacher. He clearly explains topics in lecture and will take as much time as needed to answer your questions in office hrs. His appearance is often enough to make a subject like computer science very entertaining. Buckalew is the best teacher for the csc series, but his programs are by far the most involving. Some things you can expect if you take him for 102. One lab and One program due per week, One pretty difficult midterm, lots of practice w/GUI's and absolutley no social life for that entire qtr.


Junior
B
Required (Support)
Apr 2001
I highly recommend Buckalew to anyone. After having Hutch the quarter before and learning absolutely nothing, he was always patient with me and very helpful when I visited him in office hours(about 2X a week) trying to learn what I was supposed to have learned in 101 and at the same time 102. He's a really nice guy and grades fairly. He recognizes when a student is putting a lot of effort into his class. He is fairly demanding and some of the programs can be very tedious and time consuming. In 5 days I had spent 40 hours working on my program for one of them. His midterm was challenging and so was the final but he curves and his curve is very fair. He's a very honest guy and his lectures are very interesting and helpful. Attendence is important for this class so you better show up. You'll learn a lot though and it's really rewarding when you can see your own knowledge of Java grow. Overall, I highly recommend him and you'll learn a lot.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
May 2001
Buckalew writes really hard tests, but he is fair when it comes to grading. If you do a lot better on the final then on the midterms he takes that into consideration. His programs are hard but they are interesting and with some effort and by going to his office hours you can manage. Most of your grade rides on the midterms and final which is hard, but in the end I learned a lot.

CPE 103


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Jun 2003
Prof. Buckalew did a great job second semester with the class, and the first semester was all recurrence equations (which, to this day, I still can't solve even though I passed the class). My main criticism is Buckalew's lack of homework. Yes, we had programs, but I would have liked to have *short* problem sets for the first quarter only -- so we could have had practice doing those stupid recurrence equations by ourselves...because, really, the only time THE STUDENTS ever picked up a pencil to do them was on the midterm and the final...Second quarter was great, as the programs were challenging but not impossible, and there was no homework (there didn't need to be homework for part 2 of the class: data structures) Overall, I gave Buckalew an A. His finals were reasonable (I've heard the other CPE103 teachers suck @$$ so I was glad to have him!!!!) and he's such a nice guy I can't say anything bad about him. He always made references to real-life stuff in the graphics field in applying what we were learning...which I loved b/c eventually that's the field I want to go in. I'd DEFINITELY RECOMMEND HIM - especially considering all the other ones out there! My grade doesn't reflect how much I learned (I think I should have gotten a B for the amount of time I put into the class) but once you bomb the first midterm, there's only so much you can recover...


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
I'm not quite sure why anyone would rip on him, the guy's hilarious, super gnarly unibrow, and he's a farmer. I was previously a math major and switched to csc so I'm still learning to think like a programmer; however, for someone who needs the teacher to realize that he's teaching to people not as smart as him I thought Buckalew did great. I got a 77 on the first midterm and about to take the final, he explains the material well, and at first it's scary knowing you have labs and have to finish them in the 1 hour and 30 minutes, but everyone can help each other. Again, greatest unibrow ever...


Sophomore
B
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
Wow my classmates sure are whiny. Buckalew is pretty good, but he won't hold your hand. The lecture material is tricky (at least the algorithm analysis stuff is), though he does a pretty good job getting across the important info. He makes sure to take a lot of questions and to give different examples if people aren't quite getting it. Labs are easy if you pay attention in lecture. In fact, he gives you most of the code you need and then just expects you to make some tweaks (so write down whatever he puts on the board!). Get a partner you work well with and labs are fine even though there's occasionally a time crunch. For assigned programs, start right away. As somebody mentioned, the specifications can be a bit ambiguous, so look it over then ask for clarifications in the next class (or hope that someone else does). They aren't too hard though. Study for the midterm--it's tough. As for the graphics discussions, I thought they were helpful, and he didn't overdo it at all. A lot of the 103 material can be fairly abstract, so it was nice to hear about times when algorithm analysis and certain data structures are actually used, rather than just having their basic premises described. I don't have a problem recommending Buckalew, and he'll give you some useful habits if you're a CSC, CPE, or SE major.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Feb 2012
Don't be scared of his class! Buckalew is a pretty cool guy and you learn a lot in his class. The algorithm part of the class can be confusing just because the material sucks. He does a pretty good job of explaining the algorithms and gives you pseudocode for the tricky stuff. If you go to class and pay attention the labs should be pretty simple, but if you can't figure it out ask him for help because the labs are the basis for his programs and tests. He is helpful so don't be afraid to ask. For his tests make sure you can do the examples he does in class and the sample problems he gives you (the ones he writes, not from the book). He lets you have a cheat sheet for the test so write whatever you think you need on that, e.g. simple analysis problems, code... If you have no experience with making GUIs his programs may be difficult for you, but not impossible. GUIs are way more exciting to create than console programs because you can actually see your code work and play around with it. He gives you a lot of the code and his programs aren't difficult at all if you get a jump start on them. You may get docked off points for your code even if it works fine because Buckalew cares on how you got the job done not just that it runs fine. Which sucks at first but after the first couple programs you know what he wants and will get full credit. You will also build good coding habits which will help you in the future. Overall, Buckalew is a good professor and I would take him again if I got the chance. You will learn a lot in his class and gain good programming experience. Honestly, if you can't get through this class or found it incredibly difficult you may want to consider changing your major because the programming classes just get harder and if you can't learn stuff (e.g. java swing class) on your own, then life is just going to be difficult for you.

CSC 103


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Jul 2003
This was Buckalew's first time teaching 103. He just basically copied Philips but cut out a lot of stuff. It was not an easy class at all, but I comparing to people who took other professors for 103, he was by far the best. The programs he assigned were challenging but nothing compared to what other sections were doing. There is one Midterm and a final. If you read through the book you will be fine though. He doesnt waste your time with too much homework or anything. Overall, he is probably the best teacher you could have for 103.


Freshman
A
Required (Major)
Jun 2007
This was a great class. The book was useless, I didn't buy it and never regretted it. The first five weeks are algorithm analysis, which can be challenging but Buckalew explains it really well so as long as you ask questions when you don't understand you'll be fine. The programs during these weeks are really easy. The last five weeks are on data structures, which is easier material but his explanations are a bit harder to follow. He doesn't give you all the knowledge you need for the later programs so you will need a lot of work to finish them. The midterm and final are both worth a lot (35% each) and they are challenging but he always curves them to average 75 so it's fair. Overall I really enjoyed this class and I would take Buckalew again any chance I get.


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Jan 2008
Great professor, he has a lot of real life experience and a lot of energy. He presents everything clearly and keeps the class alive. His labs were decent difficulty while actually teaching you how to do things. He is great during office hours to always offering help for all your problems. His main strength is graphics though, so I would like to take him in those classes. He got me really interested because of how his programming projects are made. A lot of them use graphics, for the early ones he provided some code for the graphics, and made us modify it, for the last one he provided little code and had us do it all ourselves, which is fun to do. And, it just feels nice to actually see your work graphically do something. Only reason I got a bad grade was because I didn't study at all for the final (too many video games) and completely bombed it, good thing I pretty much had an A on everything else, saved my grade. He curves the tests though, if needed, so it shouldn't be bad.


Freshman
C
Required (Major)
Nov 2008
His class is really 2 classes, first half complexity and sorting (hard) , the other: data structures like graphs and trees (easy). One midterm about complexity and you can forget it, average was 39 percent, so with curve I passed. The final is really midterm 2, which is extremely easy. His programs are not terminal based, which adds a lot of time having to deal with 2d user input. You need to know scanners, swing, and the applet's class before coming into his class. I will admit many of my friends did not pass, and i did so barely. --- In addition, he talks randomly about Ray Tracing, global warming, and his Texas values. ---- If you want to learn 103, buck buck buckalew is your man, if easy pass, then hell no. -- His labs are graded every time with his grader driver, and their is no partner programming allowed. Enjoy!


Freshman
A
Required (Major)
Mar 2010
You MUST get this guy. Waitlist him if you have to, he\'s AWESOME.


Senior
B
Required (Major)
Oct 2011
Anyone that is having trouble in Buckalew's class should drop their CPE/CSC major right now. This man presents the material clearly and knows his stuff. He's been in the field for days and has a plethora of knowledge about graphics. If you have the chance take Buckalew.


Freshman
C
Required (Major)
Nov 2011
I don't know what other students are talking about. DO NOT TAKE BUCKALEW if you are good at programming or intelligent. Buckalew is an idiot, an ignoramus and a disgrace to csc especially at Cal Poly. Maybe to idiot freshman he seems like a good teacher but anyone who knows anything about anything will recognize him as a fool. I should stress that he has a PHD in csc before I list the following: He cannot do basic math He does not know what md5 is He uses depreciated java code He uses depreciated java gui code He does not believe humanity contributes to global warming I am now a junior this is the lowest csc grade I have ever gotten(I'm now a junior). I got 100% on all assignments and C-'s on all the exams he refused to debate the questions. Buckalew does not understand the efficiency of the algorithms he professes to teach, his test scores are arbitrary.


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
Chris is an interesting guy. He's currently switching from being a CSC professor to being a farmer. He tries his best to make the material (which is very dry and boring) more interesting. The labs are tricky, you only have 1 hours 30 minutes to complete them, and he takes them from a former professor. After a while you feel good that you're able to do them. The program assignments are very hard, and he basically uses a rubric to grade them. Because he is mainly a graphics professor, he strongly emphasizes graphics for the programs. That being said the best programs are the ones that don't involve graphics. The most frustrating part about him is that he doesn't debate questions or program problems. If a program works, but either runs too slow or doesn't work like he wants it to, he'll deduct most of the points.


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
Did not like this professor. He spent a very significant amount of time going off topic and lecturing about graphics, computer parts, and farming, which is mildly interesting but I'm not taking his class so I can learn about how he likes to drive tractors. The class is sort of divided into two parts, algorithm analysis and data structures. I found the first part to be difficult because he went very in depth into analysis, but gave us literally just a few examples on a study guide right before the first midterm (In fact, one student asked him for more questions to practice and he would NOT give us any more!). This made it very difficult to study the material because, I found that you would look at the example and it would make sense, but since we had no practice problems, we could not practice finding solutions. The majority of the class did poorly on the first midterm. Now, onto the second part, which is about data structures. This part was a bit easier. He gave some examples (albeit extremely boring) and we got to practice in lab. The only complaint I have is that he reviewed a few data structures in theory, where I would have much preferred that he actually showed us how it worked. Its one thing to draw a bunch of circles on the board, and another to examine the code. Now, onto labs. His labs were okay. You're given an hour and a half to complete them. If you don't finish, sometimes he's nice and will give you half credit. However, as others have mentioned, he didn't actually write the lab, so if you ask him questions about it, he is totally useless. He will literally have to look at the prompt and see what the assignment was. After he does that, he's very quick to just say "I don't know what's wrong" and then leave you. Very annoying. He's useless. Okay, now programs... He assigns like 7 programs, which aren't too hard. He's obsessed with graphics though, so it would be very helpful to learn how to create GUIs/ draw things in java, because he won't teach you. His assignment sheets are often very vague as are his explanations in class. You ask him how you should do something in class and he'll say that that like anything would be okay, it doesn't matter. But then we he grades your assignment he'll take off points for things he did not specify. Significant amounts of points. Like 15 percent! Many of my friends have noted and complained about this. I confronted him about how the assignment sheet did not specify to do something and he replied, its common sense. No, its not common sense. Especially when half the class made the same mistake. Finally, course grades. He does not give +'s or -'s, which is good and bad, I suppose. He does not bump grades either. So, I got a C rather than a B. (Which I should have gotten, if he did not take points off for things he did not specify!) Overall, he's just okay. If you get stuck with him, its not the end of the world. Though, if you have an option to choose somebody else, I highly suggest you do.


Sophomore
C
Required (Major)
Dec 2011
Buckalew should really stick to graphics. Throughout his 103 class he talked non stop about how amazing graphics are and what you can do with them. I got the feeling that Buckalew really did not want to teach 103, so he turned it into a graphics course, WITHOUT TEACHING GRAPHICS. 3 of his 5 programs were essentially "take what we did in lab and make it graphical", which does not follow what a 103 class should do. It follows what a GRAPHICS class should do, but this is not graphics, it is 103 and it should be taught that way. I was really disappointed in this class since I have had amazing CSC classes up until this point, however the streak had to end somewhere I guess. Take Buckalew for graphics, however anything other than that, you should find someone else.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Jan 2013
Easy class, easy A. But beware: Buckalew is stuck in the past, his labs are all at LEAST 10 years old and his lectures simularly oriented. It's nearly impossible to fail his class but you will not learn anything if you paid good attention in 102. The material has the potential to be really hard (Big O and the like, but he makes it really easy.) I honestly feel like I wasted the quarter taking this required class.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Jan 2015
I had a really hard time talking myself into going to this class. Between it being at 7 am and Buckalew going off on random rants, it was rather an unpleasant morning. That being said, all of the material was presented in a good way with ample examples and leniency in lab. All labs are to be done in lab and are graded. The first midterm was rough and the final was easier but practically no one bumped up their grade with it. He is a harsh grader on Programs, which are all graphic based even though it was not a graphics class. It was difficult to ask questions or to answer his because he would chastise those who got questions wrong or didn't answer quite to his satisfaction.

CSC 203


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Dec 2018
They say heroes will always be remembered, but legends may never die. This man is a legend. Boogalew was a fair grader with decently challenging exams. His lectures took attendance and were surprisingly entertaining. He gave talks every Friday lecture about something outside the scope of the class and these were probably some of my favorite lectures in college so far. His projects were graded on the basis of: 1: Did it meet the spec? 2: Does it work? 3: Is it readable? The final was optional but didnt tell us until we all got to the final. He did not do +s and -s he only did whole letter grades. 11/10 would take this guy again.

CPE 471


Senior
A
Elective
Dec 2001
Dr. Buckalew is a fairly easy professor. There are 5 programs and 10 or so labs, none of which are particularly demaning. There was one midterm, which was very long, but was adjusted to a 75% average. He is very animated (no pun intended), and his lectures are entertaining and captivating. My one gripe is that in class he goes over all the algorithms and explains how to do them, but never actually gives a solid example, and then he expects you to follow the algorithm on the tests. But most of the test is given ahead of time, so that makes it a bit easier.


Junior
C
Required (Major)
Feb 2002
The Buck Rules. Cares about his students. More than fair on labs, midterms (curved if the class does shitty), and programs(plenty of time to get help). If you don't get the material in class, you still have the labs (which I do by myself so that my lab partner just doesn't do it), and you also have the text. That's 3 good opportunities to get the stuff. He is challenging at times but he's always there to help you out if you go to him. I don't know what else to say but that he's probably the best CSC professor I've had.

CSC 471


Sophomore
A
Elective
Aug 2001
Buckalew is a pretty good teacher. He conveys information well and knows graphics. He isn't very hard and the programs aren't very demanding. He gives you most of the tests ahead of time too.


Sophomore
A
Elective
Aug 2001
I really like Dr. Buckalew. He is down-to-earth and very easy to talk to. The class was fun and he explains the material very clearly. He gives study sheets for the tests which are right on with the material on the test, no surprises. The programs are average in difficulty, and you can take the time to make some really amazing projects. I recommend this class to all CSC majors.


Junior
A
Elective
Jan 2003
Dr. Buckalew is an excellent professor. That pretty much sums it up. He is very clear in the material presented, and is always happy to elaborate if anyone does not understand something. The tests allow you to bring as many notes in your own handwriting as you want, so just write down anything you have trouble with and they should be a breeze. The tests can be difficult if you don't understand the material, as he asks questions which make you explain and extrapolate information. The programs are pretty straightforward, and he gives you more than enough time to do them. The lab portions are pretty easy as well, provided you start working on them right away and don't get behind. This was easily my favorite class of the quarter, and he is highly recommended.


5th Year Senior
A
Required (Major)
Apr 2004
Without a doubt, Dr. Buckalew is the most down to earth teacher (at least I've seen in 5 years) in the CSC department. I took 3 of his graphics classes (471, 474, 479) and he was also my senior project advisor. He's very layed back and enjoys talking outside of class about real-world stuff, especially animation and graphics-related. He is very knowledgeable about graphics and is very fair when it comes to tests and lab assignments. I would recommend Buckalew for any class he teaches at Poly.


Senior
A
Elective
Jan 2006
Awesome teacher. Really nice guy with a sense of humor. He is very helpful and fair at grading in the lab portion.


Senior
A
Elective
Dec 2007
An excellent professor for graphics. Buckalew worked in the graphics field and has a lot of experience so he knows what he is talking about. There is no textbook; instead he lectures off notes he printed out and gives to students. In labs, we programmed using OpenGL using C++. However, using C++ was not required; at least one student used Python and supposedly it was a lot easier. I considered using Python but all his examples are in C++. It shouldn't be too hard to translate, though. You could use any language you like, as long as you use OpenGL. Anyways, for labs Buckalew posts the source code to begin with, and tells you what you need to do to modify it to complete the lab. These were helpful since they provide a good template to begin with. We learned how to model primitives, build scenes, transformations, hierarchical modeling, reflectance, animation. In the last lab we were given a choice of lighting or texture mapping. We had eight labs total, because the CSL labs were having problems so we couldn't have labs early in the quarter. This was disconcerting, and several other times during the quarter the CSL file server crashed so we couldn't login. If you have any problems with the lab facilities, be sure to email admins at csc.calpoly.edu and contact Byron Smith or the current lab administrator ( http://staging.csc.calpoly.edu/faculty/bjsmith/ ). I think the lab admins could have done a better job, but Buckalew handled it well, giving us additional time if the lab servers were broken. We used rdesktop to login to a Windows server to run Visual Studio to compile the OpenGL programs; this wasn't the best way to do it I thought, and I've heard rumors of people getting OpenGL programs to compile on the Fedora Linux lab machines but I didn't have much luck doing this (you need to have GLUT installed). Labs were reasonable and could be demonstrated at any time; Buckalew would grade them quickly by seeing if they did what they should. Assignments were graded similarly, but also required a source code printout. We had 5 assignments, and particularly the ones on illuminating a sphere, building a fractal landscape, and an interactive game were enjoyable and interesting to code. You could really spend a lot of time on building an interactive game. As far as tests go, we had one midterm. I'm glad we only had one midterm because if we have more than one it is not really a midterm. The midterm was open handwritten-notes, meaning you could use anything you wrote yourself but not his printed notes. So most of us just copied his printed notes in our own writing, which was allowed, and pretty helpful during the tests. He also gave study guides for the midterm and final, and you could bring your solutions to the tests; this was very helpful because you knew what kind of problems to expect, on some problems on the tests only differed by what numbers you had to plug in. Buckalew also showed us some interesting pictures and movies throughout the quarter, since this is a very visual class. Most people finished the final before 3 hours; it was longer than the midterm but not much so. All in all, Buckalew was a great professor teaching his specialty -- graphics -- and I highly recommend him for this class. He also teaches animation and is starting a new class, scientific visualization, in Winter 2008, which you can take after taking this class. A great technical elective with a great professor.


Senior
A
Elective
Dec 2008
Buckalew is awesome. Fantastic graphics professor.

CSC 474


5th Year Senior
A
Elective
Mar 2000
Buckalew is the reason I came to Cal Poly in the first place. He was at a CSC information session and really got me interested in computer graphics even before I could take any of his classes. His programs are great because he starts you off with code that works and has you work on features to make the program even better. Other graphics professors assume you can start from scratch with libraries such as OpenGL and Java 3d. Buckalew is the only one who gives great help on the projects. The projects and labs are also a blast and aren't too difficult.


Sophomore
A
Elective
Aug 2001
Again, 474 with him is like 471, fun and relaxed. He is easy to follow and the tests are straightforward. The assignments really let you be creative and are a load of fun.


Senior
A
Elective
Jun 2002
I took Buckalew for both 471 and 474, and he is an awsome teacher! He has a knack for teaching things in ways that students can actually understand! His programs are not too time consuming, and he gives out study guides to each test (and the tests always have questions from the study guides but with a few differences, so do the study guides!). He lets you use any notes you have written down for the tests, so you don't have to memorize and regurgitate. Great professor if you have the chance to take him.


Junior
B
Required (Major)
Jun 2002
If it wasn't for Chris I doubt I'd have any type of passion for Computer Science. The other professors managed to kill almost all my interest when I finally took the graphics series with Chris and it helped revive my drive to finish at Cal Poly. He is worth his weight in gold and is a prime example of why tenure exists. His teaching style if one word, fair. usually has two midterms, and several programs - the labs prep you for them so you're never too lost. If you dont go to class youre just fucking yourself in the ass. Theres usually an opportunity to learn it either in class, the book, or lab. And as always he's more than willing to help out and clarify which seems to be something a lot of professors don't want to do. If you're lucky enough to get him, consider yourself blessed. Peace


5th Year Senior
C
Elective
Mar 2004
Dr. Buckalew is a nice man....but I think some people give him too much credit. It seems like he does not spend as much time on teaching material. His lectures are ok. He is very helpful if you have problems with labs or assignments. But really....not too caring with the teaching part.

CSC 475


Junior
A
Elective
Apr 2003
Dr. Buckalew is a great professor. This class was really interesting, and way more fun than 471. My only wish was that he taught it in C++ with OpenGL. Java is slow and Java3d is crap. I am taking 476 now, and I am going to have to catch up with the rest of the class who had hitchner(who taught C++ and OpenGL). That aside, take Chris anytime you can.

CSC 479


Senior
A
Elective
Jun 2003
I enjoyed Dr. Buckalew's seminar, even if he did only a bit of the talking (largely asking questions of speakers). Simply put, this is just a cool class to take- there's not a lot of work and the subject is interesting. Your job is to do two 20-min presentations, each on a paper from the ACM SIGGRAPH conference proceedings. Be wise in choosing your topics, as some are far more difficult than others. The presentations have to be good, but other than that there is no homework, no quizzes, and (in our case) no exams. Dr. Buckalew claimed the exam would be just a few questions to see if we showed up and listened, and also to see if we at least learned something if our presentations were only passing. Since the whole class did a good job, he waived the final, which was sweet. Oh, and I could swear the guy is the real-life archetype for Flanders.

ZOO 662


Junior
C
Elective
Nov 2016
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!