Reviews of professor Ryan Layer

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
This was one of the most difficult courses I have taken and it was largely due to the inadequate teaching. I found lectures to be very confusing at times and the topics covered didn't always pertain to the homework. Contrary to what some have said, I believe this professor does care about his students and responds appropriately to criticism

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Waste of time. They say this class is necessary for good jobs and internships, but that is horribly wrong. I know many people who were able to learn algorithms on their own and get good offers BEFORE taking this class. Lots of useless content and the homeworks are a colossal waste of time.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
I took software engineering for scientists with Dr. Layer, and it was a small class where we did a lot of discussion. I thought he was great, I learned a ton of things that were useful and directly applicable to my research and his lectures were very interactive. Great intro to software engineering for bio/chem people (grad&undergrad).

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
I took the Software Development for Scientists class as someone with a statistics/R background. I found it EXTREMELY challenging but would 100% take again. I learnt tons! I didn't have a python background, so I was spending crazy numbers of hours on this class each week (lots of HW). But Ryan is fun and somehow makes the lectures super enjoyable!

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Even though many people will get good grades in this class, it was a huge pain and detriment to my semester. There were many hours spent taking this class, and even then, a lot of content is taught poorly. The grading especially was not clear. One day you might get an F on the assignments, another you might get an A.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
He is one of the worst professors I've ever had. He is not very responsive, and when he does respond, he isn't very clear. His knowledge about the course is also questionable, and he did a poor job managing and designing this course. Most concepts taught in class are irrelevant, and the assignments didn't help students reinforce concepts.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
The EIBs he wrote this semester were completely atrocious. He wrote nonsense for the sake of trying to force an algorithm from class into a 'real life situation'. I felt like I was writing nonsense on those essays the whole semester. He also makes them 'intentionally vague', but I don't people who would actually, in their right mind, do that.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Not a good, passionate teacher, and gives misleading information about the industry to students. Do not listen when he says, 'in the real world, out in a job, they do this'. Just get through the class.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Layer is a fairly average professor. He cracks jokes and that makes him likable but his lectures feel fairly disorganized. I definitely don't think he deserves a 1.4 though.