MAT SCI 104
Science of Engineering Materials
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: Chemistry 20A, 20B, 20L, Physics 1A. Corequisite: Physics 1B. General introduction to different types of materials used in engineering designs: metals, ceramics, plastics, and composites, relationship between structure (crystals and microstructure) and properties of technological materials. Illustration of their fundamental differences and their applications in engineering. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - If I could say one thing about this class, it's that it's all memorization. I'm not exactly the strongest student in that regard, so I would say this class wasn't hard to understand but rather hard to memorize all the content for. Professor Banerjee is pretty nice, pretty clear in his lectures, and his slides are super detailed, which is good and bad because you should know basically everything on them. His tests weren't very tricky, as he didn't allow cheat sheets or anything, but they were definitely pretty ruthless with testing any aspect of the slides (facts, drawings, graphs, etc.). I personally felt as though the tests were graded relatively harshly, as there's little partial credit and a lot of emphasis on having the exact answer down. (For example, out of a 30 point problem, I had all the right steps but the wrong numbers in the beginning. He gave max 13/30 points, which I felt was a little unfair, but to each their own.) He curved the average to a B (around a 5% curve?), so I guess you could take my experience as that of the average of the class.
Fall 2022 - If I could say one thing about this class, it's that it's all memorization. I'm not exactly the strongest student in that regard, so I would say this class wasn't hard to understand but rather hard to memorize all the content for. Professor Banerjee is pretty nice, pretty clear in his lectures, and his slides are super detailed, which is good and bad because you should know basically everything on them. His tests weren't very tricky, as he didn't allow cheat sheets or anything, but they were definitely pretty ruthless with testing any aspect of the slides (facts, drawings, graphs, etc.). I personally felt as though the tests were graded relatively harshly, as there's little partial credit and a lot of emphasis on having the exact answer down. (For example, out of a 30 point problem, I had all the right steps but the wrong numbers in the beginning. He gave max 13/30 points, which I felt was a little unfair, but to each their own.) He curved the average to a B (around a 5% curve?), so I guess you could take my experience as that of the average of the class.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - 2 Quizzes, 1 Midterm, 1 Final, Weekly homework Quizzes and midterms weren't cumulative, and they aren't too difficult. Overall, there is A LOT of material to cover, so be prepared to do a lot of reading on your own. The lectures were all pretty dry, and I didn't find them too useful. They're basically just reading off a powerpoint. There's a lot of material to read, so the workload is pretty tough. Don't take this class with this professor if you don't have to; it's basically just learning everything by yourself.
Spring 2020 - 2 Quizzes, 1 Midterm, 1 Final, Weekly homework Quizzes and midterms weren't cumulative, and they aren't too difficult. Overall, there is A LOT of material to cover, so be prepared to do a lot of reading on your own. The lectures were all pretty dry, and I didn't find them too useful. They're basically just reading off a powerpoint. There's a lot of material to read, so the workload is pretty tough. Don't take this class with this professor if you don't have to; it's basically just learning everything by yourself.
Most Helpful Review
Good lecturer! He is always enthusiastic about the materials he teaches and brings in cool demos all the time. However, though his lectures give a good overview of the stuff you're supposed to learn, the key to acing the quizzes, midterms ,and finals are in doing the homework. The quizzes and midterms are straightforward and very much like homework problems. Going to class or reviewing his ppts gives you the multiples choice questions. The final was harder, but you get a double-sided cheat sheet. Overall, a good, fair professor.
Good lecturer! He is always enthusiastic about the materials he teaches and brings in cool demos all the time. However, though his lectures give a good overview of the stuff you're supposed to learn, the key to acing the quizzes, midterms ,and finals are in doing the homework. The quizzes and midterms are straightforward and very much like homework problems. Going to class or reviewing his ppts gives you the multiples choice questions. The final was harder, but you get a double-sided cheat sheet. Overall, a good, fair professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2022 - Professor Goorsky was fantastic! The lectures have plenty of helpful diagrams, images, and connections to the real world. He often asks review questions, which makes the class engaging. I definitely recommend attending in person, because there are so many fun demos (and you might get homemade ice cream out of the deal...). I spent the summer hundreds of miles away, but I wished I was there to see everything live! The lectures aren't just something you could get on YouTube for free-- it seems like Professor Goorsky understands that competition is out there, and he accordingly uses active learning, live demos, and more. There are weekly HW assignments, two quizzes, one midterm, and one final. The exams are timed and fast-paced (esp. the quizzes!), so make sure you know things well. Exams won't just have equation-based book problems-- there are lots of problems that will require you to have a full, in depth understanding, and be able to use reasoning and writing skills. Homework assignments have some book problems, and they also have more interesting questions: there'll often be at least one problem that requires you to use software (nothing too hard, but good skills to learn!) and one problem that requires a written explanation and research. The professor values deep understanding of real-world concepts, and although you'll often need to use equations, they're never the sole focus. While this might mean you have to study more than just equations, in the long run it's good-- employers don't have to pay computers, so why would they want someone who only knows how to use equations? I really appreciated Professor Goorsky's modern approach to homework and exams in this class, and I hope more professors take note.
Summer 2022 - Professor Goorsky was fantastic! The lectures have plenty of helpful diagrams, images, and connections to the real world. He often asks review questions, which makes the class engaging. I definitely recommend attending in person, because there are so many fun demos (and you might get homemade ice cream out of the deal...). I spent the summer hundreds of miles away, but I wished I was there to see everything live! The lectures aren't just something you could get on YouTube for free-- it seems like Professor Goorsky understands that competition is out there, and he accordingly uses active learning, live demos, and more. There are weekly HW assignments, two quizzes, one midterm, and one final. The exams are timed and fast-paced (esp. the quizzes!), so make sure you know things well. Exams won't just have equation-based book problems-- there are lots of problems that will require you to have a full, in depth understanding, and be able to use reasoning and writing skills. Homework assignments have some book problems, and they also have more interesting questions: there'll often be at least one problem that requires you to use software (nothing too hard, but good skills to learn!) and one problem that requires a written explanation and research. The professor values deep understanding of real-world concepts, and although you'll often need to use equations, they're never the sole focus. While this might mean you have to study more than just equations, in the long run it's good-- employers don't have to pay computers, so why would they want someone who only knows how to use equations? I really appreciated Professor Goorsky's modern approach to homework and exams in this class, and I hope more professors take note.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Just as a preface, I took this class completely online due to COVID-19. Professor He was a fantastic professor. She was very clear, albeit a bit fast, and was more than receptive to student feedback as the course went on. The only significant drawback I encountered with this course was the approach to test-taking. For me personally, I did not perform very well on the tests due to the limited time allowed for lengthy tests. Other students performed just fine, so this was definitely a personal issue, but I still think it is important to know when deciding on a class/professor. Overall, I would absolutely take another class with Professor He. Though the tests didn't come very easily to me, I genuinely felt like she cared about my understanding of the material and that I am leaving this course having learned something.
Fall 2020 - Just as a preface, I took this class completely online due to COVID-19. Professor He was a fantastic professor. She was very clear, albeit a bit fast, and was more than receptive to student feedback as the course went on. The only significant drawback I encountered with this course was the approach to test-taking. For me personally, I did not perform very well on the tests due to the limited time allowed for lengthy tests. Other students performed just fine, so this was definitely a personal issue, but I still think it is important to know when deciding on a class/professor. Overall, I would absolutely take another class with Professor He. Though the tests didn't come very easily to me, I genuinely felt like she cared about my understanding of the material and that I am leaving this course having learned something.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - When I first signed up for this class, I was actually quite scared due to the previous reviews. However, after taking this class, I can confidently say that Dr. Huang definitely deserves a much higher rating than a 2.6, and I definitely found this class quite easy and straightforward. --- This class definitely revolves around the textbook. Slides are based off of the textbook, homework problems are textbook problems, and sometimes, exam problems are ripped straight from the textbook, verbatim. So definitely know the textbook material; grind problems out, check your answers with Slader, and you're good. Homework is definitely on the level of exams. If you can ace the homework, you can definitely ace the exams. That said, there are definitely conceptual questions you need to know; you can't math your way out of this class. --- Dr. Huang's lecture slides are really good, and same for the slides that the TAs give out. I personally found them to be very comprehensive, and useful for exams. If it's not on the slides, it's not going to be tested. Even better, Dr. Huang releases slides before lectures, so you won't have to write stuff down at 90 miles per hour. Dr. Huang's lectures may be dry, but they definitely cover what'll be on the test. She also throws in some cool videos that explain concepts well. That said, she refuses to record lectures. --- The course material is quite interesting, and the exams and homework are definitely fair. Exam averages were 75 in my year, and Dr. Huang said that she'd set the average grade to a B+. Let's see if that ends up being the case.
Spring 2021 - When I first signed up for this class, I was actually quite scared due to the previous reviews. However, after taking this class, I can confidently say that Dr. Huang definitely deserves a much higher rating than a 2.6, and I definitely found this class quite easy and straightforward. --- This class definitely revolves around the textbook. Slides are based off of the textbook, homework problems are textbook problems, and sometimes, exam problems are ripped straight from the textbook, verbatim. So definitely know the textbook material; grind problems out, check your answers with Slader, and you're good. Homework is definitely on the level of exams. If you can ace the homework, you can definitely ace the exams. That said, there are definitely conceptual questions you need to know; you can't math your way out of this class. --- Dr. Huang's lecture slides are really good, and same for the slides that the TAs give out. I personally found them to be very comprehensive, and useful for exams. If it's not on the slides, it's not going to be tested. Even better, Dr. Huang releases slides before lectures, so you won't have to write stuff down at 90 miles per hour. Dr. Huang's lectures may be dry, but they definitely cover what'll be on the test. She also throws in some cool videos that explain concepts well. That said, she refuses to record lectures. --- The course material is quite interesting, and the exams and homework are definitely fair. Exam averages were 75 in my year, and Dr. Huang said that she'd set the average grade to a B+. Let's see if that ends up being the case.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - I feel like mat sci 104 is a class that just suffers from covering too much material at a surface level, which made the class quite boring with mostly memorization. However, Kakoulli was super nice and generous with grading and even made the final no-harm, which relieved a lot of stress near the end of the quarter. Also, even though she mostly read off the slides in lecture I found the slides to be pretty informative.
Spring 2023 - I feel like mat sci 104 is a class that just suffers from covering too much material at a surface level, which made the class quite boring with mostly memorization. However, Kakoulli was super nice and generous with grading and even made the final no-harm, which relieved a lot of stress near the end of the quarter. Also, even though she mostly read off the slides in lecture I found the slides to be pretty informative.
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