Teaching Experience

Number in the bracket is the score based on the question “Overall, this instructor was excellent” from the Universal Student Rating of Instruction form collected at the end of term. The scores are: 1 (unacceptable), 2 (need improvement to meet expectations), 3 (meets expectations), 4 (exceeds expectations), and 5 (outstanding; greatly exceeds expectations); “unavailable” means that the number of students was too low to process evaluations or evaluation was not provided.

Sept 2015 - present (Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Computer Science, Full Professor)

CMSC 435 Intro to Data Science: Fall 2016 (4.3), Fall 2017 (4.3), Fall 2018 (4.3), Fall 2019 (4.5), Fall 2020 (4.1), Fall 2021 (4.5), Fall 2022 (4.4), Fall 2023 (4.5)
CMSC 635 Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining: Spring 2017 (3.8), Spring 2018 (4.5), Spring 2020 (4.8), Spring 2021 (4.9), Spring 2022 (4.8), Spring 2023 (4.6), Spring 2024 (4.9)
CMSC 491 Intro to Data Science: Spring 2016 (4.7)

Jul 2003 - Aug 2015 (University of Alberta, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Assistant/Associate/Full Professor)

CMPE 310 Applying Software Eng Practices - Project I: Winter 2004 (4.4), Fall 2004 (4.3), and Winter 2005 (unavailable)
CMPE 310 Software Requirements Engineering: Fall 2005 (unavailable), Fall 2006 (4.9), Winter 2008 (unavailable), Winter 2009 (4.8), Fall 2010 (5.0), and Fall 2011 (4.9)
EE 280 Introduction to Digital Logic Design: Fall 2004 (4.3), Fall 2005 (4.6), Fall 2006 (4.6), Fall 2007 (4.6), and Fall 2008 (4.6)
ECE 321 Software Requirements Engineering: Fall 2012 (4.9), Fall 2013 (unavailable), and Fall 2014 (4.8)
ECE 625 Data Analysis and Knowledge Discovery: Fall 2011 (unavailable), Fall 2012 (4.7), Fall 2013 (5.0), and Fall 2014 (4.3)
ECE 625 Advanced Data Analysis and Decision Making: Winter 2009 (unavailable) and Winter 2011 (4.7)
ECE 720 Advanced Data Analysis and Decision Making: Winter 2006 (5.0), Winter 2007 (4.8), Winter 2008 (unavailable)
ENCMP 100 Computer Programming for Engineers: Winter 2011 (4.3), Winter 2012 (4.6), Winter 2013 (4.5), Winter 2014 (4.1), and Winter 2015 (4.4)

Aug 2002 - May 2003 (University of Colorado at Denver, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Senior Instructor)

CSC 5728 Software Engineering: Fall 2002 (unavailable) and Spring 2003 (unavailable)
CSC 4811 Computer Security: Spring 2003 (unavailable)
CSC 1410 Foundations of Computer Science, development of an ONLINE course for Spring 2003
CSC 7001 AI-based Decision Making, development of a PhD course for Fall 2003

Jan 2002 - Jul 2002 (University of Colorado at Denver, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Part-Time Instructor)

CSC 5728 Software Engineering, Spring 2002 (unavailable)

Student Testimonials

These testimonials are copied from the anonymous teaching assessments that are done by the students at the conclusion of a given class. The classes are sorted in the inverse chronological order.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2024

CMSC 635–001 was a well–structured, graduate–level course with an appropriate difficulty level and pace. Completing assignments required effort, but facilitated deeper understanding. The professor delivered engaging lectures.
Dr. Kurgan is an outstanding professor. The organization of the course is awesome. As a student, having all course materials and expectations clearly defined and organized from day 1 was refreshing. The canvas was laid out clearly and efficiently. The materials covered in class were detailed and applicable. I gained a significant amount of knowledge from this course. He uses clear examples and articulates his points well. His strengths are oral presentation and course organization. His knowledge is very deep, showcased when answering a wide variety of student questions.
In my opinion, the other department of computer science professors SHOULD BE REQUIRED to learn how to organize their courses like Dr. Kurgan's. Additionally, his course slides, syllabus, and assignments were up to date for the current semester (Spring 2024). Other professors SHOULD BE REQUIRED to do that as well. Overall, Dr. Kurgan should be used as an example to demonstrate what a punctual, organized, and excellent teacher looks like.
Dr. Kurgan takes time for each student and makes himself available and shares his knowledge willingly, especially if students take the time to ask. He was always present, energetic, organized, and engaging for each lecture he presents. He grades in a timely fashion and is extremely fair. Many professors here would do well to follow his example.
Prof. Kurgan is the king of Data Mining and Machine Learning. He is an incredible professor who possesses a deep knowledge of every aspect of this course. No matter what question you ask him, he always has an insightful answer! He is truly exceptional. We are extremely lucky to have such an outstanding professor at VCU. His engaging teaching style and positive attitude motivate students to eagerly attend his lectures. Thanks to Prof. Kurgan, the Data Mining course has become one of the most popular and renowned courses in the department. Hats off to Prof. Kurgan for his dedication and excellence in teaching!
Well–organized, well–explained lectures. Great instructional quality.
Professor Lukasz Kurgan excelled in presenting complex topics clearly through well–structured lectures and relevant assignments. His passion for teaching, commitment to student success, and ability to foster a supportive learning environment were exemplary. Other instructors should emulate his engaging teaching style, organization, and dedication.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2023

Dr. Kurgan is a great lecturer. Class was always interesting and fun. He is great at encouraging class participation. He is also extremely knowledgeable in the subject and does great answering and explaining questions from the students. I appreciate that the lectures were recorded so I could go back and rewatch them.
A strength of Professor Kurgan is that he emphasizes what he expects from his students and assignments. He leaves no room for grey area in the class and that is greatly appreciated.
Professor Kurgan was very prepared for every single class. The lectures were enjoyable because of his energy in the classroom and encouraged participation from the class. It's also incredibly interesting and cool to be learning from someone who can tie in their industry experience from the examples they are presenting and say that they are one of the contributors to something we are learning from.
Dr. Kurgan was extremely available outside of class and was able to help resolve student issues in group projects.
TYSM professor this was my favorite class this semester.
Professor Kurgan offers the entire course schedule on the first day of class and sticks to this schedule. This made it really easy for me to pace myself in the class and monitor where I needed to be at all times. The course still requires extra effort to stay ahead on assignments.
He is very organized and responds fast to everything. He genuinely wants to help you but he will make you work for it.
Loved the way you explained things in class. I think your a great lecturer, easy to listen to.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2023

CMSC 635 is an excellent course that describes the most significant practices and skills in data mining. Most of the materials are easy to understand and comprehend except few concepts which are difficult in nature.
Dr. Kurgan does an excellent job of connecting concepts to toy examples in order to demonstrate the mechanics of the algorithms that he introduces to the class.
The slides are very good in terms of covering what needs to be covered, and I especially appreciated the frequent emphasis on the applications of tools discussed and the focus on tools which are popular within the field at hand.
I think Dr. Kurgan open my sight to more advanced scopes of data mining concepts and practices. His explanation and exploration of the different problems that appear in any related project are significant. He was able to simplify very complex concepts with examples and plots.
The professor very well masters the course and materials.
I feel much more fluent in machine learning, and I feel like I have can confidently discuss the topic at a much more complex level.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2022

Dr. Kurgan is a fantastic instructor. He is well-prepared and organized, we worked through all of the material exactly according to schedule, yet his enthusiasm and skill as an instructor kept everything interesting and engaging, never too dry.
Dr. Kurgan is a caring professor and his lectures were entertaining. He wants his students to succeed and relates his course to the outside world.
I have only good things to say! Information was presented in easy–to–understand and review slides, the instructor was engaging and encouraged participation, and feedback was timely and informative.
I liked how our last two assignments built on each other, so when it came to the project, we already had some experience with RapidMiner and we had some understanding of the data that we would be given.
I especially liked how clearly prepared and focused he was in effectively using class time. I can tell that most of my professors rush things towards the middle and end of each semester, but Professor Kurgan didn't.
Since Kurgan works in the sector that he teaches in, he is able to tie the course information to the actual practices within the sector. The assignments really give you a sense of what working in data science would be like.
This course was one of the more difficult CS courses. It requires a lot of work and commitment inside and outside of classroom.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2022

Lukasz Kurgan is one of the best instructors I have ever seen in computer science department. His style of teaching is incomparable. He is perfect in building a great environment in class. He tried to provide lectures notes perfectly (some other instructors are lacking in it) And tried to showcase some of the examples in white board.
From Start to Finish everything was planned out, structured, and eloquently executed. A lot of passion for the subject matter and had a clear experience of the logical order of operation information needed to be presented. Forced people to work in teams and gave a lot of autonomy to the groups. Had a very fun time teaching and cracked appropriate jokes when possible.
Dr. Lukasz Kurgan is a highly knowledgeable person in this subject and he explained everything in a simpler way with examples which made it easy to understand. Even the algorithms that weren't easy to understand were explained clearly.
Clearly passionate and very knowledgeable about subject matter. Dr. Kurgan is a wonderful instructor, and should consider teaching additional graduate CS courses.
This course is highly relevant to technology currently being explored in the world today and utilized across many fields. Even my wife has used PCA, K–means and Pearson correlation but it was exciting to show her the inner workings of these super useful knowledge discovery tools and much much more!

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2021

Professor Kurgan is hands down the best professor in Computer Science I have had at VCU. He is more than willing to help students understand the material, he does walk throughs of the software we use, and you can tell he actually cares if students are learning and about the students themselves. This class and the professor ensured my want to work in the field of data science and engineering, and I am working on applications for grad school now to study data science because of him.
The lectures were very well done. Easy to understand and follow. If every instructor could lecture the way Kurgan does then the world would be a much better place.
Dr. Kurgan was very prompt in communication and was very accessible outside of class. His email response rate should be something that other instructors should emulate. He was also very prepared for his lectures and sounded very passionate in data science and was fair in terms of grading and issuing his exams and assignments. Overall an amazing instructor and should continue what he's doing as I very much enjoyed this course.
Your presentation skills are impeccable. You know the slides like the back of your hand and don't say um or uh and the delivery is very impressive.
I thoroughly enjoyed your class and it is safe to say that this is by far my favorite class I have taken in the CS department at VCU. You’ve been a wonderful professor and the material in this class has definitely piqued my interest in the data science field.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2021

Amazing, information–dense, relevant lectures. Amazing availability and flexibility. Valuable, relevant assignments.
I'm fairly confident Dr. Kurgan is one of, if not the best professor I've taken at VCU thus far. Highly organized, very good at teaching the concepts.
It shouldn't be surprising that a professor that teaches data science be highly organized, but the structure of the course, the overall pacing, the lecture slides not being cluttered, and sticking to the points that most matter, and the ability to succinctly convey these topics easily are all very good.
Friendly environment, organized course and perfectly relevant assignments and the grading of the instructor is amazing, where the student can understand the mistakes done and which is very helpful to correct them for next reviews.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2020

The organization of this class was amazing. Dr. Kurgan carried this class really well and presented all the information in an easily digestible format. The slides and lectures were always benefits to attend and productive. He used many examples and made sure to fully cover the topic before moving on. The assignments were relevant to the topics discussed in class and were reasonable complex. He was always available to answer questions in office hours and through emails and always responded to emails in a speedy manner.
Dr. Kurgan always went out of his way to help students and that was very appreciated.
I really enjoyed the applicability of Kurgan's course material. He did a fantastic job relating the subject matter to real–world scenarios.
Dr. Kurgan is awesome. Everything was extremely clear and organized, which I really really appreciate. I never had any doubts about what I was turning in since the descriptions for all the assignments were very clear as to what was expected.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2020

My knowledge on the course subject has increased exponentially. I had utilized some topics before at my job, but delving into what was covered in the class has certainly given me more ideas and options to tackle problems at my job.
The instructor is exceptionally good in explaining the technical aspects.
I think he had great structure to his class. He was very organized and good at relaying the information at a pace where everyone seemed to be able to follow along. He was very open to students asking questions.
This course was difficult, but not terribly so. There was a lot of material covered, but the way it was presented was very helpful in understanding it. I definitely had to put in effort which is expected, but it was well worth it!

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2019

One of Dr. Kurgan's strongest points is his ability to tie the material into how it can be applied practically. Not only did he cover practical uses of data science overall, but he also emphasized the strengths and weaknesses of particular tools and techniques in a way that allowed us to understand what problems they're appropriate for solving and what limitations they have. Furthermore, he emphasized the modern state of the field and the technologies commonly used for real world problems.
Extremely well organized structure. Extremely punctual. Engaging and informative lectures. Often links to real world examples and statistics. Relaxed but professional atmosphere in the classroom.
Dr. Kurgan is a fantastic professor. He was organized, concise, his lecture and study notes accurately reflected the test material, and overall he is very fair with everything that is presented. I never once felt that something I did was undeserved.
If you're interested in Data Science, this class is like a professional seminar every time. Well visualized, well explained, practical, socratic argumentation in every class and reasoning behind without anyone feeling bad about their assumptions or things like that.
This was one of the most challenging courses I have taken at VCU, which was definitely appreciated as generally VCU's CS classes are pitifully easy.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2018

This has been probably my favorite computer science course at VCU. It was time consuming, but in the best way possible. Only because I was learning.
This is one of the best instructors I have had in a long time. He is incredibly organized when it comes to notes and expectations in the course.
Kurgan is extremely lively in class and I really enjoy his lecture. I feel that he knows the material (unlike some of my professors). I think what separates him from a lot of the computer science professors is that he actually cares about teaching.
Very good professor, very good at explaining things and takes questions seriously. Will thoroughly answer a question and make sure you really understand.
I personally loved the pace and difficulty of this class, it was interesting material that made the lectures fun, and the projects were interesting and fun to complete as well. The final project was difficult, but not insanely difficult to where it was hard to complete, it was a great experience.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2018

He is extremely professional. He is very very well organized and knowledgeable too. He lays out his expectations very clearly. He doesn't leave any doubts about what he wants. He is very thorough. This is much appreciated.
As a whole I feel that Dr. Kurgan was an incredibly effective instructor. He utilized his previous industry experience, comprehensive knowledge regarding the field of data mining, and his understanding of academia/research to create a course that was able to provide a solid foundation for fledgling data scientists and create meaningful connections between the abstract concepts surrounding knowledge discovery and their applicability in real world data mining. He also made it a point to engage students during his lecture sessions and thoroughly answer any and all questions that arose during that time. I also very much appreciated the high degree of organization in the course (he could always provide a reason why we covered some specific topic as opposed to others) as well as the fact that he posted lecture notes far in advance of the day that they would be covered (I like to have slides available to annotate during lectures). As stated previously, Dr. Kurgan was both impactful and fair and models the behaviors and habits of a good educational instructor in any discipline.
I learned a lot in Data Mining, the reviews and projects were awesome! Very practical!
I feel that I have gained a much more detailed understanding of both the process of knowledge discovery as well as the computational algorithms needed to carry out the process. I also feel that I have gained knowledge (through the implementation of classroom projects using popular modern day data mining software) that will aid me later in life in securing a job in this field.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2017

The course was exceptionally polished and well organized. The instructor had good examples and explanations for each lecture and had extremely well organized notes and assignments. Tests correlated exactly to notes. The instructor demonstrated a perhaps slightly obsessive attention to detail in making sure instructions and grading criteria were completely unambiguous. I did not notice a single typo in all of the course materials.
Kurgan does a great job to ensure student participation as well as making sure that he utilizes every minute of class time
Professor Kurgan did a great job in organization of topics and flow of material. It seemed like one topic led to another and everything tied together neatly. The professor was well educated in the field of data sciences which made it easier to understand the material as he conveyed topics clearly.
I have gained a better understanding of data sciences and data mining. I now have a clearer understanding of how essential data is to our society as it determines trends and patterns that can be manipulated to train a machine to learn in order to make a task automated or easier.
Truly one of the best in the CS dept. I very much enjoyed Dr. Kurgan and the course overall.

CMSC 635 (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining): Spring 2017

The biggest positive is the application and careful walk through. It was interesting to hear the different applications and knowledge beyond the class focus and objective. When there was a confusing algorithm or concept, the careful step-by-step walk through was beneficial. It also had a good amount of details covering a large number of topics and concept.
The instructor was knowledgeable in this area. He was kind, cool, and persuade us to participate in the class. The amount of time he invested in helping us understand course material and for answering our questions even after the class was outstanding.
The course and course material was super organized. Dr. Kurgan always use examples which are very helpful for understanding the algorithms.
I gained the deeper understanding of what exactly is data mining. It is not as simple as people have described it. There is a wealth of algorithms and analysis needed to carefully make decisions about discovered knowledge. Additionally, I have learned that data mining is extremely versatile and ubiquitous.

CMSC 435 (Introduction to Data Science): Fall 2016

I did not assign any negative ratings. I am unable to offer any valid criticisms because neither the course nor the Professor had any areas which needed major improvement.
The professor shows a huge amount of expertise in the material presented, and can answer any question presented, no matter how abstract.
Professor Kurgan's organization and presentation of the information deserve to be recognized. I highly value a Professor who uses every minute of class time effectively and delivers an informative and meaningful lecture for the full duration of the class. Professor Kurgan also very clearly stated the goals of the course, the expectations for grading (down to the percentage point), and the due dates. I wish more Professors in the CS department would follow his approach, and make the expectations of the course absolutely clear from the very first day of class. This helps to alleviate any of the usual academic games involved in grading, and allows us as students to focus on the material and on learning.
One of the best professors I have had at VCU.

CMSC 491 (Introduction to Data Science): Spring 2016

Dr. Kurgan is very enthusiastic about this material, and readily attempts to help students find this same passion. He is always there to answer questions and give examples, and remains patient with the students that ask some of the harder or more difficult to answer questions. The course was not difficult, although it did require a fair amount of effort. Assignments should be started at least 5 days before the due date to ensure quality. Lectures were always useful and pertained to the field; however, sometimes they seemed a little dry and hard to connect with (but this may have just been the nature of the material). Overall, Dr. Kurgan is one of my favorite teachers in the CS department, and I'm very happy that he has joined our school. We need real teachers--the type that care about their students' performance but also teach well--and he is definitely one of them.
He puts a lot of effort into explanations and makes sure that everyone understands what he is teaching. It was also extremely useful hearing about his experiences because in data science experience is very useful.
I think professor Kurgan does a fantastic job of answering questions when asked, intuitively knowing when to clarify subjects, and conveying his expectations on assignments.
Really enjoyed this class. Dr Kurgan is very knowledgeable about the material and always has an answer for every question. He is very helpful during office hours to clarify things. The pace of the class was good considering how much information had to be presented. Well done.

ENCMP 100 (Computer Programming for Engineers) Spring 2014

Dr. Kurgan is by far the best instructor teaching this course. He takes interest in the material, and it shows. Although the material can be dry at times, he did a good job of teaching it in an interesting way.
The professor is excellent!
Liked how the prof went out of his way to do extra examples and devoted time to teaching us this that would be useful in the future. He made learning about MATLAB interesting and entertaining.
I think Prof. Kurgan did as good of a job as he could. He is definitely the best prof for Eng. Comp., and he really seems to have a passion for programming.
Thank you for the semester. You were one of the best professors I had.

ENCMP 100 (Computer Programming for Engineers) Spring 2013

This prof is a gem.
You are a fantastic teacher! Unlike many other professors, you actually care whether we actually understand the subject or not. Also, you seem to enjoy teaching us, which is also very rare.
I appreciated the demonstrations in-class such as the decrypting software. It brought a clarity as to the physical relevance of the subject matter & stimulated interest.
The instructor explained concepts in detail and very clearly. He tried to explain difficult concepts step by step, which really helped students understand.
Kurgan… great professor. Fantastic presenter, great man. Greatness incarnate.
Professor Kurgan made the class fun and informative. He was very good at teaching us about how the program-creating process works.

ECE 321 (Software Requirements Engineering): Fall 2012

Great professor! I am very glad ECE has such high quality instructors.
Lukasz is pretty much the best prof ever. I think this course would be better as 2 1-hour lectures than 1 2-hour lecture.
Best professor/instructor ever. Professor Kurgan should teach more undergraduate courses, so that my 1st and 2nd year friends can have him as an instructor.

ECE 280 (Introduction to Digital Logic Design): Fall 2008

Prof. Kurgan is the best professor/lecturer I have ever had. This was the most interesting course I have ever taken in university.
Prof. Kurgan is a great teacher, and made this otherwise bland course very interesting.
Really good Prof!! Very nice and explained things very well. Very easy to follow along (even though the last 1/2 of the course was boring). I liked his voice and teaching style. Overall: Great course! Great Prof!
He was very good at explaining things so that we can understand. I am not even in his section but I came because his is way better than my prof. He wants us to do well because he cares.
Dr. Kurgan exemplifies proper teacher preparation. His notes technique was flawless and the teaching style amplifies the visuals to create easy-to-learn subject material. I felt like there was adequate information to supplement assignments and criticism was offered and useful.