I thought I was just going to do light amount of work, but I was wrong. This class literally made me work the most. More than CS M51A. It was because of all the lengthy essay, giant group project, and really really dumb exams. About Weltman, he teached really dull. His voice made actually a lot of people sleep through his class. Even if you snored really loudly at the back of the class, Weltman would not be able to hear. This class sucks, just another excess amount of writing class.

Honestly i liked this class a lot :). I went lecture and learned a lot about the present issues like overpopulation, environment, laws, history etc. I enjoyed the lecture taught by professor Weltman. It's even more convient because he post lecture online. This class give you knowledge in different field like history, war, environments, ethical knowledge, laws.... etc. Many different fields crambled in one course

The class itself is pretty good, there are a lot of writing things but not that bad. The only thing I'd complain abt is, it was the WALL STREET guys and/or politicians made this world miserable, not our nerdy software engineers. Why do engineering students need to take an ethics class, even if ethics is necessary, why not let these future businessmen do?

I take him for Engr183EW. He and Professor Brown are teaching the class. The whole class basically raise awareness. I don't have anything about professor Gershon, but professor Brown is kinda ridiculous, because he curses a lot when he talks about the ethical case study. He calls people "god damn stupid". I didn't make this stuff up. Mistakes are made. If he condemns it, then it does not make people did better. If he condemns it, then it is true that no one else would make the same mistake. It is kinda unproductive. The whole class is about talk and write. You are graded on writing considering it is a writing II course. If professor can't even keep his composure, how does he expect students to write about the controversial ethical case study?

I actually took ENGR 183, but there was no such option in the drop-down menu.

Weltman's lectures were pretty much dry for the most part, but his powerpoint slides were pretty fascinating and interesting. He requires three essays out of you, all of which require you to do research online or in a library. The papers can be quite tedious, however, since each paper is about 5 to 6 pages in length.

The biggest part of the course was the team research project. You get placed in a group of four, and you do research on a contemporary engineering problem. Your group has to present your research findings in the form of a powerpoint presentation as well as a 40+ page paper that is to look professional.

The exams required a lot of writing in a couple of hours, so your hand has to be on its game if you want to finish on time.

This is for ENGR 183EW as well.

I enjoyed the course. People who don't like learning (even if it's history and background of various engineering fields) will not like 183EW. They will just do something else during lecture or go on their computers. Weltman will actually explain and go a little more in depth about the slides he puts up, rather than just reading it. Towards the end, only about 20 students were on time at 8AM for the course. Many just signed in late or signed in for their friends.

The exams were very straight-forward. Just write about ethics based on the slides and what you know on top of your head for the entire exam session. Easy A if you do all the work. The essays and group essay took more time than expected, but at the end, you should get an A if you are a native speaker/writer. The best part of the course is obtaining a considerable amount of knowledge about the group research topic.

You can also look up Gershon Weltman for more reviews, as this one page seems to be lacking.

Professor Weltman is a pretty cool guy. He credits himself as one of the founders of MMORPGs, so that in and of itself is pretty baller.

The grade breakdown of the class is like:

5% - participation/attendance (participation in discussion section, attendance in class via a sign up sheet)

24% - 2 papers (6+ pages), 1 on Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons relating to a Californian issue from a list of issues you pick from and another on an ethical case study from a list you choose from (12% each). These are graded by your TAs, so hopefully your TA isn't a hard grader, though they all seem to be.

24% - team research paper, topic is picked from a list given on day 1 of class. Be sure to get rid of slackers/dgafers from your group asap or else it hurts EVERYONE.

5% - team research paper oral presentation, pretty fun, probably graded easily by your TA.

16% - midterm, write fast because you only have 2 hours to finish 10 short answer/essay questions. The grading is super easy though (more or less how much you complete of the test is = to your grade).

26% - final, same as the midterm, just 12 questions instead of 10 and 3 hours to do it instead of 10.

Professor Browne does 2 case study lectures before the first midterm, so be sure to go to those if you want to know the answers to some of the midterm questions. He is also a bit more animated than Professor Weltman and reminds me of Penguin from Batman Returns.

Overall a pretty easy "A" if you do well on your 2 papers in your discussion (ask your TA for help since you are given a chance to revise your initial turn in of the paper), don't have a group full of slackers for your group project, and can write fast on the midterm/final.

Prof. Weltman is very nice and teaches well, giving nicely organized lectures with powerpoint slides available for download. The class (ENGR 183) is not too demanding, although a lot of writing is required. Overall, I like the professor and the class.

Class was alright. I found some of the topics interesting so not too boring overall, but lectures are all powerpoints. Tests were all open everything with generous time limits, so it was easy to find what you needed in the book as you took it. There are two essays which are both pretty long, but they're not graded too harshly and aren't that difficult to write.

Gershon Weltman and Donald Browne "co-teach" this class during the summer. Lecture is interminable sometimes, but lucky me, I got to watch it on 1.5x speed!
Lecture is for ethics (case studies, formal ethical theory, industry specifics, etc.), discussion is for writing (how-to, assignment details, peer reviews, style guides, etc.). Prof uses slides which are great for referencing and studying during exam season. Two major essays, one on the tragedy of the commons and one on an ethical case study (I chose the I85 bridge collapse). Pretty easy to swing an A IMO if you study and attend discussion/TA meetings to improve your paper before submission.