CS16: Problem Solving in Computer Science I (Instructor of Record; Summer 2024)
"This is the best teacher I have ever met 1000 times better than other professors in the computer science department and has a fair grading standard. Very good teacher, I will rate 10/10. Everything is good!"
"Professor Downing was consistently well–prepared for lectures and readily answered questions from students. The lectures were informative and had well–made slides, as well as engaging demonstrations. In addition to course material, we also discussed topics like the crowdstrike outage and the broader context of this course within computer science, which helped me understand the real world application of what we are learning. Professor Downing was very accessible and gave timely and comprehensive responses to my questions. The office hours were consistent throughout the quarter, allowing students to attend sessions that suited their schedules. Professor Downing was open to feedback and made improvements during the quarter based on student input. I gained a good understanding of the material and was able to apply it in the homework and labs. Overall, I learned a lot from this course thanks to Professor Downing."
"I was very appreciative of your quick response time to emails and your help during office hours. It shows a level of care that I find very valuable as a student."
CS16: Problem Solving in Computer Science I (Instructor of Record; Summer 2022)
"Mara was probably the best STEM professor I’ve ever had. Super organized and intentional with notes, homework, and labs. Mara was super accessible and supportive. I also feel like she really cared about and prioritized our success in learning. Even though I’m not a CS major, I learned so much and felt appropriately challenged. Thank you, Mara!"
"The class is focused on understanding the material instead of getting an exact result in a lab assignment. The students are encouraged to try and learn!"
"Daily quizzes are really great to see your understanding of the material and I like how they only counted for participation since we had only just learned the material. I found the discussion questions to also be very helpful. I think all of the labs were really great in testing our understanding of the material by applying new concepts to real problems. I felt like the homework assignments were good too for testing concepts. The powerpoint presentations that the professor started posting were also incredibly helpful."
CS156: Advanced Applications Programming (TA; Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and Spring 2021)
"Good at teaching students and helping explain problems with their code."
"Always helped students and always made them feel comfortable when doing so (ex- I was comfortable asking the smallest questions when I was confused, Mara was incredibly helpful and patient)"
"Very patient when assisting with solving problems and technical issues."
"Mara was very helpful during the lab and office hours. She was willing to thoroughly explain concepts when I got confused about course materials and patiently guided me to identify the problems when I got stuck on bugs. She was super considerate and spent extra time outside of labs answering questions on slack and giving review feedback for our code."
"Super amazing TA, very helpful during all parts of the course and prioritized learning for their students. Overall amazing TA"