Professor
Hong Zhou
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - Dr Zhou isn't exactly the best professor out there, but his accent really wasn't that bad for me imo like the other reviewers suggested. I could understand the words he was speaking, but I think the problem is that he assumes we have a strong physics background and thus glosses over some concepts or wasn't too organized with the structure of his lectures. I felt like the class took a dip after the midterm, and it got messier. However I genuinely enjoyed the course material as I really enjoyed microscopy in my lab and even though this barely pertained to what I did in research, it was still pretty cool to learn about other microscopy methods (fun fact! There are MANY different kinds of microscopes out there!). You might find this a little dry or hard to understand if you don't do research or just aren't that interested in microscopy. It gets very technical at times so be prepared for that too. Definitely come into this class reviewing your knowledge of light rays and diffraction. No math or computation involved, but Dr. Zhou assumes you have a good background in physics. Do watch the 3Blue1Brown series on youtube on Fourier Series + Fourier transformation, but even then they are insufficient in teaching you about Fourier transformation pertaining to microscopy (you should still watch the videos though, fourier transformation is a huge leap in physics concepts and the series helped to bridge my understanding). For that part, I recommend consulting your TA and definitely don't feel ashamed asking about every single dumb detail you are confused about, because it will help. Overall I think Dr. Zhou is really concerned about student wellbeing and he is an empathetic lecturer, and I really appreciate that. He might seem aloof and monotonous at times, but I feel like he's genuinely (like) an Asian dad who doesn't know how to show his emotions but is actually very concerned about whatever difficulties you might encouneter. He knows and understands the pandemic is hard on all of us and tried his best to make the exams easier (even though it might still be a little tough due to his lecture style). He also extended the final project deadline so there's that.
Fall 2020 - Dr Zhou isn't exactly the best professor out there, but his accent really wasn't that bad for me imo like the other reviewers suggested. I could understand the words he was speaking, but I think the problem is that he assumes we have a strong physics background and thus glosses over some concepts or wasn't too organized with the structure of his lectures. I felt like the class took a dip after the midterm, and it got messier. However I genuinely enjoyed the course material as I really enjoyed microscopy in my lab and even though this barely pertained to what I did in research, it was still pretty cool to learn about other microscopy methods (fun fact! There are MANY different kinds of microscopes out there!). You might find this a little dry or hard to understand if you don't do research or just aren't that interested in microscopy. It gets very technical at times so be prepared for that too. Definitely come into this class reviewing your knowledge of light rays and diffraction. No math or computation involved, but Dr. Zhou assumes you have a good background in physics. Do watch the 3Blue1Brown series on youtube on Fourier Series + Fourier transformation, but even then they are insufficient in teaching you about Fourier transformation pertaining to microscopy (you should still watch the videos though, fourier transformation is a huge leap in physics concepts and the series helped to bridge my understanding). For that part, I recommend consulting your TA and definitely don't feel ashamed asking about every single dumb detail you are confused about, because it will help. Overall I think Dr. Zhou is really concerned about student wellbeing and he is an empathetic lecturer, and I really appreciate that. He might seem aloof and monotonous at times, but I feel like he's genuinely (like) an Asian dad who doesn't know how to show his emotions but is actually very concerned about whatever difficulties you might encouneter. He knows and understands the pandemic is hard on all of us and tried his best to make the exams easier (even though it might still be a little tough due to his lecture style). He also extended the final project deadline so there's that.
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