I liked eischen. he graded pretty fairly and explained things well. no surprises on tests. I had a friend recommend Yu for ECE, but I'm taking brickley for the time slot - it's my only MWF class, so might as well get it over with early.

Kuznetsov was an experience... If I had to do it over, I would have tried to take heat transfer in the fall so I could have Gould, but you need 310 for 412 and 415, right?

How's Kleinstreuer treating you?

10/18/2008 12:02:57 AM

i think the university got on old K-daddy about his grade distribution or something. he kinda mentioned that "with a class this big, they're watching us," so i took that to mean that he's finally been told that there's a reason he's failing all those folks and it's not because the students are idiots.

got a 70 on the first quiz. a 98 on the first test. got a 100 on the second quiz. he's dropping the lower of the first two quiz grades because the average for the first was like a 50. i take this as more evidence that he's trying to improve his grade distribution.

i guess if i keep it up i'll get an A. i don't really mind him. he's not such a bad guy if you approach him one-on-one and aren't an idiot.

Ward, that new guy teaching fluids, is a different story. i haven't talked to anyone who likes his teaching. grades really tough.

10/18/2008 12:12:27 AM

For ECE 331, I waited and took Yu. Excellent teacher that didn't mind stopping class to address issues, actually cares about helping you out, and there's usually a pair of TA's available solely to help you solve the problems. She's chinese but speaks perfect english. Firm but fair on grading and testing. GDR's are roughly the same for all the 331 teachers though.

10/18/2008 12:38:51 AM

If Dr. Fang is teaching 308 I would recommend taking the class with him. All of his tests/hw were very fair and inline with his teachings. I enjoyed having a professor that spent more time to derive the material rather than showing you "cookie-cutter" generic equations.

10/23/2008 7:26:48 PM

i spoke too soon about kleinstreuer. got raped on test 2 today.

10/23/2008 8:04:01 PM

Kleinstruer... shall be avoided...
I had Boles for themro,
Roberts for Fluid
Ro for vibration.

too old to remember...
Boles, got attitudes but pretty fundamental if I remember right
Dr.Ro is solid teacher w/ hard testing... and w/ curve
Roberts had the fastest handwriting... okay teacher.
Take the Turkey guy who gives good grades, but u can't learn from it.

10/24/2008 12:52:02 PM

Fang is great. He reuses test questions each year. Corson is great too. He likes South Park.

11/10/2008 12:11:25 AM

I guess learning the material would just be too hard.

11/10/2008 12:20:39 AM

^^Still wearing that tie I guess? His laugh/giggle is hilarious.

11/10/2008 8:09:14 PM

good info in here

11/17/2008 1:18:23 AM

301-I just had Lyons for 301 this semester. Incredibly laid back, not really an intense teacher. No homework to turn in for a grade, he just gives suggested problems to do for every test. His tests are pretty reasonable, based on the homework. BUT, Lyons has tightened up compared to how he used to be. Now he gives 5 tests: pretest (stuff you should already know: crossprod, dotprod, physics problems), test 1,2,3, final. Each test = 20%. So, Lyons is ok. I'll find out how well he prepped us for thermo 2 when I have 302 w/ Boles next semester.

308-There isn't a standard departmental teaching "plan" of fluids like there is for thermo, etc. So, the stuff you learn in fluids can vary alot depending on who you have. I know some guys who took fluids with Ma, and they don't know anything that I'm doing in fluids now (Ma got fired/left sometime last year i think). I am finishing up Fluids with Dr. Ward. This was his first semester at NCSU. He started out really crappy, very disorganized, but he's improved aLOT over the semester. With him, expect one HW/week, 3 quizzes, 3 tests. Tests are not terribly tough. His grading can be awkward at times, but overall not ridiculous. He's one of those profs who's really smart, but still learning how to teach. He's got a strong math background, doesn't allow calculators on his tests.

315-I'm finishing up vibrations w/ Tran. Tran has been an awesome teacher. One of the best I've had at NCSU. He's really dedicated, makes it clear from the start that he's the don't-take-no-crap, gung-ho kinda teacher. It's a good bit of work, but you'll learn alot. I've heard that Ro is also really good. I don't think you could go wrong w/ either. Tran's first test was harder than the second for me, FYI. There's two projects as well. I believe these are common to the class (not sure about that).

331-Just had Julia Helo-Gonzalez (She just got married, so her new last name is "Gonzalez"). She's super nice and willing to help you! you'll have some posts to make on Vista and 4-5 major assignments, which are common to the class. The class website is LOADED with stuff. So, the most annoying part of the class, to me, was wading through all the info to figure out what you really needed to know. She'll let you submit any assignment early for her to review and check over for you, but as the semester goes on she gets ALOT slower at response times. Also, she can make small mistakes uploading stuff to her website. For example, I caught several times when we were supposed to have/been reading something from the site that she uploaded for one section, but not for her other sections. Small things like that happen from time to time. Overall, she's a decent teacher. Also, taking it online is nice, because you can put off work if you want and not get punished for not following a schedule!

Hope that helps!

11/26/2008 10:51:41 PM

^ be ready for a rude awakening in thermo 2 with boles unless you had boles for thermo 1 also.

11/27/2008 3:05:40 PM

Thermo 2 with Boles was a bitch

11/27/2008 4:36:25 PM

need to keep this thread alive

tell me about tech electives. i'm taking 496 now, so i'll need two more. i'll probably take steam and gas turbines since i plan to go to work w/ progress energy. what would you folks suggest?

1/27/2009 8:06:00 PM

MAE 403 - Air Conditioning is a fairly interesting class. Terry is a pretty cool teacher, and the class deals with the basics of HVAC systems (we've been looking at psychrometrics recently, and have previously done stuff with air mixing calculations).

1/27/2009 8:45:31 PM

403 was indeed interesting. I had Gould so I don't know if it would be tougher or harder but it wasn't a bad class at all. You learn a lot, which could also come in handy in the future as a homeowner if that floats your boat.

495 classes are pretty cool, very different. Only downside is they alternate every 1 or 2 years I think so you only get one good chance (seniority) to make it in a certain class.

The manufacturing (M) class dealt with manufacturing theory, uses, and equipment of machine/weld shop environments, can't remember much but all I ever heard from everyone was that it was more paperwork than actual shop class. Someone else probably remembers more.

Z was literally the oddball class. Covers open-ended problems that are more in line with real-life scenarios, definitely not textbook style. It was fun in that you had 10 assignments for the semester, 10% each. Each problem and your idea/solution was put into a mini-lab report format. The problems covered different topics in all the base ME classes. The prof was pretty cool about it all, but be warned-it can be subjective.

There's a few other sections B, and K, probably a few others but they may phase them in and out as needed when profs come and go.

1/27/2009 10:37:21 PM

They just made 495A, taught by Ngaile. Topic is Finite Element Analysis. Class looks like it'll be really useful, for the first few classes however it's been fairly dry theory.

I took 495M and I liked it but with Tu you get out of it what you put into it.

1/28/2009 12:43:41 AM

^^495Z was one of my favorite classes that I took. The problems are either A) Design something that meets these goals or B) Here is a novel design, what are the required specifications to make it work or, given these specifications, evaluate the expected performance. Very open ended and, as long as you get in the right ball park, it doesn't matter how you get the answer (eg solve by hand or use matlab, draw a sketch on a paper or create a model in solidworks, etc). You also get 2 weeks to finish each assignment even though you get a new problem every week, which is not as bad as it sounds.

1/28/2009 10:13:10 AM

^Yea i took that class as well and I thought it was really good. Make sure you do not procrastinate and do the HW the night before.

1/28/2009 11:06:24 AM

another recommendation for 495z with Dr Z. It's more like actual engineering is in the field than any other class.

1/28/2009 8:57:59 PM

bump

registration will be coming up soon

3/6/2009 2:04:17 AM

bttt

also did anyone else notice in that email that heeter and tran got married?

3/11/2009 11:27:51 AM

really? I saw them somewhere on a date one time, and wondered what was up

3/11/2009 3:13:34 PM

Not only married, but also injured. Sometime over Valentines Day weekend they got in a wreck and had some leg/ankle injuries. Tran won't be back for another two weeks and I believe Heeter got it worse.

3/11/2009 3:30:54 PM

HAHA WTF

3/11/2009 3:44:55 PM

the accident was pretty much right after their wedding. i'm not 100% sure, but i think it was on their wedding day. i believe there was at least one fatality in the accident. seemed like a large pile-up on a highway or something.

and, yeah, they'd been dating a while i think

3/11/2009 4:42:11 PM

i believe the accident was the day after their wedding. Tran also probably won't be back in action for about 2 more weeks (according to his e-mail he sent to our 415 section).

3/11/2009 6:20:33 PM

should i take "energy conservation in industry" or "automotive engineering"?

i'll probably go to work in the power industry, so energy conservation would be better, but auto. is supposed to be super easy. would it be worth it to take the first one?

[Edited on March 12, 2009 at 7:41 PM. Reason : and how is boles' turbine class? it's the only tech elective related to my career really]

3/12/2009 7:41:08 PM

^boles+turbine= you better be ready to work

MAE442 is a joke for any serious level of topics within automobiles, but if you generally arent a car person it's a good broad topic course. was heavy in abs and stability control. it's also good because it's a pretty lax class. take it

[Edited on March 12, 2009 at 7:49 PM. Reason : -]

3/12/2009 7:46:14 PM

i don't mind the work when it's a good teacher like boles

know anything about that energy conservation or whatever it is?

3/12/2009 8:01:10 PM

I ended up dropping that class. I can't remember the guy's name, but he's an old white guy whose lectures are extremely boring and dry. It didn't help it was in a 3 hr block, too. Still uses a projector screen, and apparently some of the notes he scribbles may or may not be on the test. You learn a good bit about industrial power generation and losses, but it turned into a snoozefest for me. 442 Boles is/was more human and sociable than 301/302, but it's a lot of work as ^^ said. If you did well in thermo you are probably gtg on it.

3/12/2009 8:12:20 PM

I think Dr. Klang is the only prof for 442...I took it and that was by far the most easiest class ever...he's really laid back and funny as hell...If I can remember correctly, he gave us probably like 5 HW's and like 5 quizzes and a group project. I remembered one of the quizzes was "Name Klang's 5 favorite tools."

3/13/2009 11:23:39 AM

so eckerlin still teaches the conservation of energy in industry class? yeah, he is pretty boring. but a few years back when i took it, terry taught the second half of the semester, and he was a lot better.

i did NOT like klang for 442, though. i was actually hoping to learn something, but he's got to be the laziest professor i ever had at state. he got other people to do the lectures for him (or else he used other people's presentations). but if you're looking for an easy class that requires little work or thought, go for it.

3/13/2009 11:57:58 AM

is that class useful for the power industry?

3/13/2009 2:40:34 PM

not really. as i recall, the class seemed to be aimed at how to perform an energy audit for a building. how to be more efficient in use of lighting, etc.

3/13/2009 7:36:41 PM

Ah crap, I meant 407 or whatever number it is with Boles in it.

Yeah, 442 had Klang teaching with a few others for various lectures. For a senior level class it was ridiculously easy, not really engineering except for a few subjects. Maybe more like automotive history and future. I love the guy and he was great for 416 but he says it himself, he's a materials master who happens to love automobiles and so keeps the course alive.

I always figured something was going on when I saw Tran was constantly with Heeter during the late afternoons/nights I was in Broughton.

[Edited on March 13, 2009 at 10:41 PM. Reason : .]

3/13/2009 10:40:45 PM

I have to take Controls and 415 (1st semester senior design): ONE in the summer and the OTHER in the fall. I've narrowed it down to:

Summer: Controls w/ Ro
Fall: 415 w/ Tran

OR

Summer: 415 w/ Tran
Fall: Controls w/ Wu


Any thoughts on Wu or Ro? I've had Tran for 315 and I did good.

3/19/2009 8:31:01 PM

take 415 in the fall so we can get in a group together



[Edited on March 19, 2009 at 8:55 PM. Reason : summer classes are for saps]

3/19/2009 8:55:23 PM

^^^ Sounds like a plan to me!


It looks like it's gonna be a bunch of humanities this summer for me

I thought about takin 415 in the summer, but the fall 416 classes are almost full. This is what I got so far:

Fall 09:
MAE 415 - Tran
MAE 435 - Wu
MAE 469 - (Lab)
MAE 412 - Clements is probably the only one I can take because of:
ECE 305 - Grainger
Maybe NE 419 if something falls through

Since the department courses don't match up well as far as times go, the ECE class knocks out alot of options for me


Wishlist for Spring '10:

MAE 421 (solar design)
MAE 496 - Finite Element Analysis
MAE 416
Maybe NE 419
E 490 (FE prep)

And maybe I'll get goin on grad school and do: MAE 505 w/ Kuznetsov



[Edited on March 19, 2009 at 9:03 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2009 9:00:09 PM

415
435
469
310
some tech elective, hopefully automotive

3/19/2009 9:04:06 PM