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2024/25

The CFL module went well this year despite the high number of students (153). This complicated matters with feedback for coursework and homework. Discussing the solutions for homework in SGTs seems to have been liked by students. Unfortunately, we do not yet know what the impact is of collating all courseworks into a single deadline. But again the students seem to have liked the reduction of the coursework by dropping CW1.  But overall the students were satisfied with the module quality and the lecturer: an astounding 95% of the received responses either strongly agreed or agreed with being satisfied with the quality of the module; 87.8% found the module intellectually stimulating and 75.8% found the pace of the lectures about right. Of course I will work hard to maintain, and possibly even improve upon, such a favourable view. One area which needs improvement is that only 74.2% of the students feel part of the "CFL community" (a decrease from previous years).  I will look into this problem for the next year.

Students generally liked the material with a good mix of theory and practice. Also students appreciated very much the setup of coursework and homework, where the module content could be practiced. Furthermore students found the provided study material very useful.

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The CFL module went very well this year. There was an unanticipated

increase in student numbers from 33 last year to 93 students this

year. This complicated matters with individual feedback for coursework

and homework. I will look into this problem for the next year.

But overall the students were satisfied with the module quality and

the lecturer: an astounding 100% of the received responses either

strongly agreed or agreed with being satisfied with the quality

of the module; 96.9% found the module intellectually stimulating and

87.5% found the pace of the lectures about right. Of course I will

work hard to maintain, and possibly even improve upon, such a

favourable view.

Students generally liked the material with a good mix of theory and

practice. Also students appreciated very much the setup of coursework

and homework, where the module content could be practiced. Furthermore

students found the provided study material very useful.

The only difficulty that arose this year concerns the speed of the

feedback for courseworks. I will look into this issue for next year

and try to implement a solution assuming the numbers will be as

high next year as they have been this year.

The complete feedback about positive aspects and recommended improvements:

- Best module in terms of teaching quality. The best of the best.

- Christian is great, he really cares about the students and our learning

- DR. urban's CFL is so interesting, I have never experienced such

  class experience, I have some students who have learned compiler

  principles in other schools, but they are just boring study and

  exams, in urban's CFL, we can learn and make our own compiler with

  our own hands. Overall, best course I took.

- Dr Urban has been the most informative lecturer I have ever had. His

  feedback for courseworks is highly personalised which is refreshing

  and motivating. His lectures are always articulate, informative, and

  interesting. The occasional jokes keep them from feeling too

  roboticised, but he still manages to deliver the extremely difficult

  content in a way which makes sense and somehow doesn't take him 4

  hours.

  I am very happy with the quality of this module and I don't think

  there is anything which needs improving / changing.

- I can absolutely say that the CFL module has been one of the best

  semester 1 modules I've taken in university. Despite the challenges of

  studying remotely, Christian's teaching and prepared material have

  been fantastic, especially when real-world relevance is discussed.

  Marking coursework manually is much better than automated marking

  since Christian provides detailed feedback and insights that automated

  systems often fail to provide. Even though feedback can understandably

  be delayed by the sheer number of submissions, it is well worth the

  wait.

  No complaints, just keep doing more of the same!

- I have nothing but amazing things to say about this module and the

  lecturer. The quality of content is by far one of the best that I have

  ever received. Not only are the lectures intellectually stimulating,

  but the lecturer makes it so it is extremely engaging and fun. I

  especially loved the perfect balance of theory and practical code.

  The lecturer also gives a ton of feedback in the HWs, CWs and is

  always available in office hours. Thank you Dr. Urban for an awesome

  module experience!

- I like the detailed handouts and the humour of the lecturer. I also

  like the more advanced resources that the lecturer recommends.

- I think the pre-recorded lectures are well split and formatted. I

  like having the handouts alongside the lectures. My favourite module

  so far.

- In my opinion, CFL has been the been the most rewarding, challenging

  and best-taught module during my academic years. Dr. Urban is

  passionate and well prepared ; the course material (videos and

  handouts) is clear and helpful. Moreover, Dr. Urban is offering help

  during both LGTs and his office hour; additional help is always

  offered via email.

  This module has given me a great understanding of the theory and

  practice of compiler design and it has improved my programming skills.

  I strongly recommend choosing the Compilers module.

- One of the best lecturers in King's College London!

- The crystal clear structure, assessment information and overall

  format sets you up to prepare, organize yourself and learn

  efficiently. However, there could be value in having more TAs/extra

  person to help with feedback on CWs and homeworks to just speed up

  the process.

- The friendly and insightful course content combined with challenging

  and interesting coursework has given me a very comprehensive

  knowledge of compilers and formal languages.

- The module has been excellent, my one comment that isn't solely

  positive is the time at which feedback is recieved. I fully

  understand that this is due to Dr. Urban's efforts to make each

  piece of work individually and really appriciate the detail he goes

  into on that. Up until the last coursework the delays to deadlines

  have made this matter significantly less if not at all. My CW3 is

  still not marked however and I am supposed to submit my CW4 today

  which worries me.

- The pairing of practical implementation in the courseworks with

  theory was incredibly helpful with getting a fuller understanding of

  the content, given it can be very theory-heavy.

- The teacher always checks the homework by himself and gives feedback

  which is the best point for me. Generally speaking, I personally

  feel that this course is perfect, with a wealth of off-class reading

  materials (ho), and a lot of practical work (cw), and the teacher's

  feedback is also very fast.