Historical instructor

EFTYCHIOS SIFAKIS

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.59/5 from 27 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

COMPSCI 557
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
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!
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COMPSCI 559
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
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.
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COMPSCI 559
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
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.
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COMPSCI 559
Quality 4/5Difficulty 1/5
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.
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COMPSCI 559
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
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.
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COMPSCI 559
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
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.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with EFTYCHIOS SIFAKIS

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

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Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026COMPSCI 557Parallel & Throughput- Optimized Programming
Spring 2026COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Spring 2026COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2026COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2025COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2025COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2025COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2025COMPSCI 557Parallel & Throughput- Optimized Programming
Spring 2025COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2025COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2024COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2024COMPSCI 682Senior Honors Thesis
Fall 2024COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2024COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2024COMPSCI 900Advanced Seminar in Computer Science
Fall 2024COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2024COMPSCI 639Undergraduate Elective Topics in Computing
Spring 2024COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2024COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2024COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2023COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2023COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Fall 2023COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2023COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2023COMPSCI 900Advanced Seminar in Computer Science
Fall 2023COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2023COMPSCI 639Undergraduate Elective Topics in Computing
Spring 2023COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2023COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2023COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2022COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2022COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2022COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2022COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2022COMPSCI 639Undergraduate Elective Topics in Computing
Spring 2022COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2022COMPSCI 839Core Topics in Computing
Spring 2022COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2022COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2021COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2021COMPSCI 702Graduate Cooperative Education
Fall 2021COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2021COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2020COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2020COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2020COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2020COMPSCI 639Undergraduate Elective Topics in Computing
Spring 2020COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2019COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2019COMPSCI 839Core Topics in Computing
Spring 2019COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2018COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2018COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Spring 2018COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2018COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2018COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2018COMPSCI 999Dissertator Research
Fall 2017COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2017COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2017COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Spring 2017COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2017COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2017COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2016COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Fall 2016COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2016COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2016COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Spring 2016COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2016COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2016COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Fall 2015COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2015COMPSCI 838Topics in Computing
Fall 2015COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2015COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2015COMPSCI 559Computer Graphics
Spring 2015COMPSCI 699Directed Study
Spring 2015COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2015COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2015COMPSCI 990Dissertation
Spring 2015COMPSCI 999Dissertator Research
Fall 2014COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2014COMPSCI 838Topics in Computing
Fall 2014COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2014COMPSCI 999Dissertator Research
Spring 2014COMPSCI 681Senior Honors Thesis
Spring 2014COMPSCI 838Topics in Computing
Spring 2014COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2013COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Fall 2013COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2013COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Spring 2013COMPSCI 412Introduction to Numerical Methods
Spring 2013COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Spring 2013COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Spring 2013COMPSCI 899Pre-dissertator Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI 790Master's Thesis
Fall 2012COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2012COMPSCI 838Topics in Computing
Spring 2012COMPSCI 412Introduction to Numerical Methods
Spring 2012COMPSCI 799Master's Research
Fall 2011COMPSCI 799Master's Research

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
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