David Vallancourt

The curve in the class is very generous, but that's for a reason, as the content is quite difficult. If you are taking this class at the same time you're taking E&M, you'll notice that much of the circuit analysis you learn in this class definitely helps in physics. Of course, the questions in this class are 10 times harder. The content is interesting, but DV is not a good lecturer. The few times I did go to office hours, he helped, but they're always so packed that you're better off asking a TA. He doesn't record his lectures, though he might start next semester, and his handwriting is pretty illegible, so you're going to be spending a majority of the time trying to decipher it. I do recommend going to class, though, if you can't, YouTube can help a bit. He posts past exams he's given, which helps you prepare, and you can always ask the lab TAs for help. His lectures aren't very engaging, and in a dark room, it's very easy to fall asleep. Just try your best on the exams, and know that he often curves in a way that will help your grade rather than hurt it. He's pretty funny and understanding, which is a plus. I personally enjoyed his stories and found it interesting how many of his interests intertwined with what he was teaching, making it a lot more understandable.

Class mostly consisted of handwritten notes along with oral lecture. The topics were broken down thoroughly and the foundational topics were built from the ground up. The hand-written lecture notes were provided.

Be sure to get a good group for the group project. Take the group project seriously and try not to procrastinate (though you probably inevitably will). Easy A. I really recommend you attend as many friday seminars as possible or as many as you find interesting. I was sick for a lot of them, but some that I attended were really cool and I missed some interesting ones as well, which I'm sad about.

I'm not gonna be as strong as the previous review but ya not such a good teacher. Def not what I would call an intro class he assumes you know all of these terms and concepts instead of teaching them

As someone who struggled daily in this course, I can firmly say that Professor Vallancourt is a great teacher and a great person. His lectures tend to be very engaging, even if he does speed through content. While he was hard to follow sometimes, Professor Vallancourt's office hours were incredibly helpful. I was there nearly all the time and I never felt like he got sick of seeing me confused all the time. One thing that I didn't like about this class was that there was a lab component that never was successful. The lab option was just a waste of time, but thankfully it doesn't go towards your grade. I also didn't like that I NEVER knew who the TA was. He was grading my work but I never met him, nor was he ever present in class for questions or office hours.

If you decide to brave the Circuit Design capstone lab... you might be lucky enough to have Professor Vallancourt. I have big problems with the instruction in the EE department, but thankfully Vallancourt was awesome. He is super helpful and has a ton of theoretical and practical knowledge about electronic circuits. He makes an otherwise painful senior design class very bearable and gives you a glimpse of how an EE career might be. He tries to give you insight into the electronics industry and best of all, he's next year's point man on trying to fix up what we hate about the EE dept. SAVIOR! Also, at the end of the year he takes everyone out for lunch! SUPER SWEET!

The class isn't too hard, just make sure to go to lecture and take decent notes because the ones he uploads are basically just random circuits that won't make sense without context. I'd recommend reading the lab instructions before going just to have a general idea of what you're working on and asking the TAs if you get stuck. Overall a very average class.

Prof. Vallancourt teaches this class, need I say more? Hands down one of my favorite professors at CU! He is an absolutely incredible lecturer and is very friendly, funny and approachable. The material is mostly interesting. If it sometimes gets boring, make sure you keep paying attention because the class keeps building on itself and if you do not know the basics you will find yourself completely lost. That being said, if diodes and transistors do not somewhat interest you, you might want to reconsider your major. Do the homeworks with friends, make sure to take notes, and you should be totally fine.

It's a requirement for all SEAS majors so there's not much I can say to deter you from taking it. It's a three-hour lecture every Friday, and after the first two, Vallancourt doesn't speak. it's just a lot of club and department leaders coming in to give presentations on various departments, research, and programs. I recommend you go to the Ethics, Biomedical Engineering, and AI lectures near the end of the semester; those ones are really interesting. Also, he posts a Google Sheet of which department heads will be speaking on which day, so you can attend a lecture if your major's department will be presenting. Everyone gets an A in this class, and he will tell you the ways to get an A+, just know that you're not getting an A+. It's virtually impossible because, realistically, you can only meet 2/3 of the requirements. The class is very easy to skip, as you don't really learn much. The common project is to make a game; ensure you and your group decide early on what the game is, and try to get the design down-packed. You can work with friends, but I really liked working with random people. I got lucky and got a good group. There are also department projects where you can choose to work on projects under a specific department head and engineering discipline. I pursued electrical engineering because my semester didn't include a computer engineering project. I can't talk much to ev…

As a science class to fulfill the Core, this is great. Professor Vallancourt is a great lecturer and the class is pretty easy. Just as long as you can remember basic Algebra, you're set. The subject matter is pretty cool too, an overview of modern digital techonology, giving you a rather nice understanding of how the Computer you're sitting at right now works, without getting into specifics. And isn't that what the core is all about, being able to sound in conversation at cocktail parties?