SYDE 532Introduction to Complex Systems

70% liked it38% easy66% useful

From 10 ratings and 8 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

• A course truly meant for the academics. The ones who sit in class and genuinely understand the content as it's being taught to them and ask questions. I was told I HAD to take this course and it was the most fascinating systems course to ever exist. I sat there extremely confused and have genuinely never been so scared to fail a course. Absolutely brutal final exam. Fieguth's great though and you can tell he's passionate about what he teaches.

  May 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

• I took this course since I really believed it to be interesting based on previous reviews. However, upon taking this course, it was more abstract than I thought it would be, which I thought was fine at first. The assignments and first quiz were fair, however, the final that was provided was one of the hardest SYDE finals that I and many of my peers have ever written. The previous finals and review material that Paul Fieguth provided were not representative of the final that we got. Considering that it was a 50% final, with a clause saying that if you fail the final, then it will be weighed more, it was quite disappointing. There were quite a few questions that were one-off examples in…

  May 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

• I took this course because I saw such glowing reviews on here about it. It is interesting, but it goes over concepts to explain a lot of the behaviours you see in the world, not predict them. I do think it was cool and the professor is very passionate, but the final exam was extremely difficult and we all left questioning our life choices. There were topics that showed up which were only very briefly mentioned in class.
  If you are in 4B looking for a TE, I think this is definitely a hard one to take so please keep that in mind if you'd like to take your last term a bit easier.

  Apr 2025 · didn’t like itOn UW FlowRemove this

• I think a lot of the previous reviews for this class come from geniuses and aren't representative of all the students who take it. Coming from an average person, I thought this class was alright, it had some interesting parts but definitely felt like a drag to get through at times. I appreciated Fieguth's enthusiasm during lectures, and you can tell he cares a lot about the class. However, in some lectures, I was fighting for my life to stay focused because the content was killing me. It's not a terrible class, but I don't think it lives up to the hype that the other reviews on this site make it out to be.

  Apr 2025 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

• This is the best course I have taken in my entire life. It gives you a new lens to interpret the world through. In fact, I no longer can observe or learn about the world without making connections to what I learned in this course. If you're reading this and wondering if you should take it - DO IT! I've never been happier with a course selection choice in my life. The professor and content is top tier - literally world class.

  Apr 2025 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this