You can also look up G Weltman for more reviews, as that seems to be the proper page to post reviews on since it has Engineering 183EW as an option for course taken.

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.