Very knowledgeable and chill. Lectures and projects are interesting; most lectures will be a case study go-through with code. Grading structure is clear and lenient, and he will give out practice exams for review. Highly recommend!Rate My Professors ↗
Current instructor
Eftychios Sifakis
What students say
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Efty's lectures are engaging and full of content, and he shows great decorum when interacting with student questions. He clearly knows his stuff on a deep, technical level. The course is designed well, and projects build off one another. The projects themselves are straightforward, so long as you've been attending lecture. A class act.Rate My Professors ↗
Prof. Sifakis is knowledgeable on the subject matter and explains the contents clearly. He's also accessible outside of class. My greatest complaint is with his unclear "contract grading" policy, which grants the top 30% of satisfactory work full credits without a rubric. This makes it harder to gauge the amount of effort needed for a full score.Rate My Professors ↗
Sifakis clearly knows a ton about computer graphics and is passionate for the field, but teaches the content far too slowly in my opinion. That doesn't change that the content is great and the projects encourage you to experiment and be creative! Also, fantastic TAs and course staff that were willing to answer simple to very advanced questions.Rate My Professors ↗
Horrible competitive grading system that makes it very difficult to earn an A. Compete with students who will write 500 - 1000 lines of code per weekly project, and in the end your grade will be based on subjective opinion. Lectures are boring and weirdly paced, with tons of material overlap and no recordings. Tests fine but barely affect grade.Rate My Professors ↗
I don't understand why he has a low rating. I took this class Fall 2022, and the class has changed a lot from when it first started (the class was originally in C++ but moved to Javascript based on student feedback). For both the midterm and final, we were allowed to have a note sheet and received practice exams. No required readings.Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
Classes with Eftychios Sifakis
Introduction to high-performance computing focusing on shared-memory systems, multithreaded programming, vectorization, and memory hierarchy using numerical algorithms as case studies.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Past student reviews · Eftychios Sifakis
Eftychios Sifakis taught the course with a chill, knowledgeable approach, focusing lectures on case studies and code. Students found the grading structure clear and lenient, noting that he provided practice exams for review. The instructor was described as highly recommendable due to these engaging and supportive teaching methods.
historical GPA · grades
Spring 2025–Spring 2026Senior Honors Thesis
3 creditsSenior Honors Thesis is an individual study for seniors completing theses for honors in the Computer Sciences major, arranged with a faculty member.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Directed Study
1–6 creditsDirected study projects for Computer Science juniors and seniors, arranged with a faculty member.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
historical GPA · grades
Fall 2022–Spring 2026 · limited sampleMaster's Thesis
1–9 creditsGrad st; Master's candidates only
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
No recorded grade history
Master's Research
1–9 creditsOffering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
No recorded grade history
Pre-dissertator Research
1–9 creditsPre-dissertator independent research supervised by a faculty member for students who have completed a master's degree but have not reached dissertator status.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
Dissertation
1–6 creditsAdvanced level mentored reading and research for students with dissertator status.
Offering recorded · Spring 2027 · Sources
No recorded grade history
Recorded teaching history
Distinct courses recorded per term
Explore courses taught by this instructor →Browse recorded courses
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 557 | Parallel & Throughput- Optimized Programming |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 681 | Senior Honors Thesis |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 699 | Directed Study |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 790 | Master's Thesis |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 799 | Master's Research |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 899 | Pre-dissertator Research |
| Spring 2027 | COMPSCI 990 | Dissertation |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 682 | Senior Honors Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 699 | Directed Study |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 702 | Graduate Cooperative Education |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 790 | Master's Thesis |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 799 | Master's Research |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 899 | Pre-dissertator Research |
| Fall 2026 | COMPSCI 990 | Dissertation |
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
Instructor identity & provenance
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