MECH&AE 107
Introduction to Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Systems
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour; laboratory, two hours; outside study, five hours. Enforced requisites: courses M20 (or Computer Science 31), 82, Electrical Engineering 100. Introduction to modeling of physical systems, with examples of mechanical, fluid, thermal, and electrical systems. Description of these systems with coverage of impulse response, convolution, frequency response, first- and second-order system transient response analysis, and numerical solution. Nonlinear differential equation descriptions with discussion of equilibrium solutions, small signal linearization, large signal response. Block diagram representation and response of interconnections of systems. Hands-on experiments reinforce lecture material. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - I cannot describe how viscious this class is. For anyone who has spoken to anyone or done any reddit searching, they know that 107 is notoriously one of the most difficult classes across the MAE curriculum. I am not here to talk about the class. Yes it is undoubtedly annoying and difficult and a unique way of thinking unlike many other upper division classes. We are here to talk about Dennis Kim. To get it out of the way, take it with someone else. Quite frankly that is the best advice I can give. If you have to, let me start with the good. He responds pretty fast to the emails. Very willing to answer most questions if not all. The TAs, assuming you have Will and Jimmy, are super nice, and super helpful. And he definitely cares about the subject. If anything, I think he cares about the subject more than he cares about you, the student. Good transition to the negatives. Some may think it is a good thing, but he literally memorized everyone's names? Sometimes he would cold call you in class even if you never spoke to him. He would call people out when they sat in different seats. Terrifying. He has lecture almost ALWAYS at 6-8pm, to which he takes the entire time or more, including the lecture before Thanksgiving break. He does not record, but does provide notes of the course (ish, if you attend all the lectures you start to realize the notes over time don't really include everything, but you can figure it out from the notes) He writes very fast on the chalkboard and it's a lot of stuff, and he isn't the best at clearing up misconceptions because he is so deep in the content. For homework, they are pretty long, and for whatever reason they're always due at 5pm and not 12pm. NO LATE POLICY, like he is so incredibly strict about it like literally if you are one second late sorry he will not give you any grace under most circumstances. Sucks. I used to praise how fast homework was graded (which is done by a reader, not by him), but it is because they give NO PARTIAL CREDIT on homework. If you get it wrong, sucks man. Tests are insane. The midterm was 3 questions (with parts obviously), and most people didn't finish. He then made the final 4 questions. Awesome. Our average on the midterm was I think a 14/30, to which he said "pretty good" and "when combined with hw and lab scores, brings the average to about a 70 overall for the class, so I think I won't curve." To me, I felt like that was harsh. Labs are usually not too bad in my personal opinion? You work with one other person. Some of them the MATLAB could get pretty tedious, and it requires you learn quick or remember a bunch of random stuff in order to pull it off, but the in lab stuff itself is always quick. I found it didn't end up integrating TOO well into the course itself, but by far it is the easiest part of the class, and it is led by the very helpful TAs. Only one midterm, so that's good unless you bomb which I did. This class consumed by soul, and Dennis Kim is terrifying. Good luck to all.
Fall 2025 - I cannot describe how viscious this class is. For anyone who has spoken to anyone or done any reddit searching, they know that 107 is notoriously one of the most difficult classes across the MAE curriculum. I am not here to talk about the class. Yes it is undoubtedly annoying and difficult and a unique way of thinking unlike many other upper division classes. We are here to talk about Dennis Kim. To get it out of the way, take it with someone else. Quite frankly that is the best advice I can give. If you have to, let me start with the good. He responds pretty fast to the emails. Very willing to answer most questions if not all. The TAs, assuming you have Will and Jimmy, are super nice, and super helpful. And he definitely cares about the subject. If anything, I think he cares about the subject more than he cares about you, the student. Good transition to the negatives. Some may think it is a good thing, but he literally memorized everyone's names? Sometimes he would cold call you in class even if you never spoke to him. He would call people out when they sat in different seats. Terrifying. He has lecture almost ALWAYS at 6-8pm, to which he takes the entire time or more, including the lecture before Thanksgiving break. He does not record, but does provide notes of the course (ish, if you attend all the lectures you start to realize the notes over time don't really include everything, but you can figure it out from the notes) He writes very fast on the chalkboard and it's a lot of stuff, and he isn't the best at clearing up misconceptions because he is so deep in the content. For homework, they are pretty long, and for whatever reason they're always due at 5pm and not 12pm. NO LATE POLICY, like he is so incredibly strict about it like literally if you are one second late sorry he will not give you any grace under most circumstances. Sucks. I used to praise how fast homework was graded (which is done by a reader, not by him), but it is because they give NO PARTIAL CREDIT on homework. If you get it wrong, sucks man. Tests are insane. The midterm was 3 questions (with parts obviously), and most people didn't finish. He then made the final 4 questions. Awesome. Our average on the midterm was I think a 14/30, to which he said "pretty good" and "when combined with hw and lab scores, brings the average to about a 70 overall for the class, so I think I won't curve." To me, I felt like that was harsh. Labs are usually not too bad in my personal opinion? You work with one other person. Some of them the MATLAB could get pretty tedious, and it requires you learn quick or remember a bunch of random stuff in order to pull it off, but the in lab stuff itself is always quick. I found it didn't end up integrating TOO well into the course itself, but by far it is the easiest part of the class, and it is led by the very helpful TAs. Only one midterm, so that's good unless you bomb which I did. This class consumed by soul, and Dennis Kim is terrifying. Good luck to all.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Professor M’Closkey is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and seems like he enjoys teaching. He transitioned to remote teaching pretty well and he definitely improved the quality of his instruction as the quarter went on. At first it was a little confusing because he teaches you concepts that you don’t see being applied, but these are applied in the second half of the class. I would say the labs are pretty easy but the homeworks were quite hard. He doesn’t curve his class, but he’s very helpful during office hours. He also records his lectures (during virtual instruction) but I would recommend actually attending them because he does make mistakes that he corrects during the live lectures. During live lectures he plays his recordings and makes comments here and there. The midterm was pretty easy (median was ~85%) but his final had a lower median (I think it was around ~70%) and since the class wasn’t curved I imagine his grade distribution wasn’t wonderful. But overall, taking 107 with MCloskey was a good experience.
Spring 2020 - Professor M’Closkey is extremely knowledgeable on the subject and seems like he enjoys teaching. He transitioned to remote teaching pretty well and he definitely improved the quality of his instruction as the quarter went on. At first it was a little confusing because he teaches you concepts that you don’t see being applied, but these are applied in the second half of the class. I would say the labs are pretty easy but the homeworks were quite hard. He doesn’t curve his class, but he’s very helpful during office hours. He also records his lectures (during virtual instruction) but I would recommend actually attending them because he does make mistakes that he corrects during the live lectures. During live lectures he plays his recordings and makes comments here and there. The midterm was pretty easy (median was ~85%) but his final had a lower median (I think it was around ~70%) and since the class wasn’t curved I imagine his grade distribution wasn’t wonderful. But overall, taking 107 with MCloskey was a good experience.
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