Professor
Hooman Darabi
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Winter 2018 - EE 10 really is more complicated than it needs to be. The lectures are boring albeit clear. However the professor is scattered and doesn’t really make a clear distinction between topics. The homework’s are way too long for the amount they contribute to the grade. Also the exams are graded way to harshly. The lazy TAs only give credit for a few key points for each question so if you miss those “milestones” you get essentially zero points. They also do if you miss A you miss B-D too even if the methodology is right. The utter lack of effort by the TAs shows fundanmetal flaws and they will make abysmal professors and further degrade the reputation of Ucla Engineering. Overall this class has eroded any sense of liking circuits which is a real shame. Take this class because it’s required. Oh and if you’re CSE take this as a warning to switch to CS. The extra E in your degree isn’t worth the suffering of this class. Only pro is the curve is good.
Winter 2018 - EE 10 really is more complicated than it needs to be. The lectures are boring albeit clear. However the professor is scattered and doesn’t really make a clear distinction between topics. The homework’s are way too long for the amount they contribute to the grade. Also the exams are graded way to harshly. The lazy TAs only give credit for a few key points for each question so if you miss those “milestones” you get essentially zero points. They also do if you miss A you miss B-D too even if the methodology is right. The utter lack of effort by the TAs shows fundanmetal flaws and they will make abysmal professors and further degrade the reputation of Ucla Engineering. Overall this class has eroded any sense of liking circuits which is a real shame. Take this class because it’s required. Oh and if you’re CSE take this as a warning to switch to CS. The extra E in your degree isn’t worth the suffering of this class. Only pro is the curve is good.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2025 - I really enjoyed taking 10H with Darabi: this class really made me appreciate circuits and further developed my intuition for them. Some of the content was review from ECE 3 or Physics 1B -- we only get to 2nd-order circuits, and the course largely works with resistors, capacitors, and inductors as its 3 main components. However, the intuition and depth the course introduced with just these 3 fundamental components went far beyond what was covered in the previous 2 courses. On this note, Darabi the lecturer must be given his due credit. He has a way of framing circuits that simultaneously generalizes its properties so as to give a broad, eagle-eye view whilst also detailing it with precision. He doesn't hand-wave out exceptions. For example, he defined a resistor as "any component in which a graph can be drawn with its voltage on one axis and its current on the other." In this way, a diode can be classified as a resistor. Resistors which do not "obey" Ohm's Law exactly are also classified as resistors. He does this with all other topics introduced as well. Though the class mostly concerns itself with LTI circuits and consequently LTI components, rendering this fact a miniscule portion of the course, this introduction to resistors allows for a more broad-eyed view on circuits, perhaps as a precursor of what is to follow in proceeding courses, which I greatly appreciated. The workload was manageable. We had overall 4 homework sets throughout the quarter, each spaced around 2-3 weeks apart, and only one midterm along. The first homework is significantly less time-consuming than the others, taking roughly 2-3 hours to complete. The other homeworks roughly average around 6-12 hours each, each homework set taking more time than the previous to complete. Each homework set consists of approximately 8 or 9 questions, with typically 3 of them being extra credit. I found these problems quite tricky, especially at first in Homework 2 when the circuits became more complex than what I was used to in previous courses, but they were quite fun as well and required you to be a little clever, which is sometimes enjoyable. Eventually though the problems do give you repetitive practice and your abilities for solving them grow. You will find that most circuits are simply 1st/2nd order differential equations and most circuit analysis techniques are simply clever ways to describe circuits as systems of differential equations in as convenient a manner as possible. By Homeworks 3 and 4 I felt as though I was doing Math 33B work. It is time-consuming, but most of the cleverness goes into the beginning 10% of the problem when you are identifying what to best focus on writing into equation, and the rest of the 90% is the laboriousness of solving the differential equation. The midterm and final were much easier than the homeworks, around 75% of the difficulty (although I didn't take into account the fact that I was much more experienced doing the final than I was in the homeworks leading up to it). Class performance was reportedly great, with many students receiving perfect scores on the midterm. Overall it was a great class, and I'd highly recommend it.
Fall 2025 - I really enjoyed taking 10H with Darabi: this class really made me appreciate circuits and further developed my intuition for them. Some of the content was review from ECE 3 or Physics 1B -- we only get to 2nd-order circuits, and the course largely works with resistors, capacitors, and inductors as its 3 main components. However, the intuition and depth the course introduced with just these 3 fundamental components went far beyond what was covered in the previous 2 courses. On this note, Darabi the lecturer must be given his due credit. He has a way of framing circuits that simultaneously generalizes its properties so as to give a broad, eagle-eye view whilst also detailing it with precision. He doesn't hand-wave out exceptions. For example, he defined a resistor as "any component in which a graph can be drawn with its voltage on one axis and its current on the other." In this way, a diode can be classified as a resistor. Resistors which do not "obey" Ohm's Law exactly are also classified as resistors. He does this with all other topics introduced as well. Though the class mostly concerns itself with LTI circuits and consequently LTI components, rendering this fact a miniscule portion of the course, this introduction to resistors allows for a more broad-eyed view on circuits, perhaps as a precursor of what is to follow in proceeding courses, which I greatly appreciated. The workload was manageable. We had overall 4 homework sets throughout the quarter, each spaced around 2-3 weeks apart, and only one midterm along. The first homework is significantly less time-consuming than the others, taking roughly 2-3 hours to complete. The other homeworks roughly average around 6-12 hours each, each homework set taking more time than the previous to complete. Each homework set consists of approximately 8 or 9 questions, with typically 3 of them being extra credit. I found these problems quite tricky, especially at first in Homework 2 when the circuits became more complex than what I was used to in previous courses, but they were quite fun as well and required you to be a little clever, which is sometimes enjoyable. Eventually though the problems do give you repetitive practice and your abilities for solving them grow. You will find that most circuits are simply 1st/2nd order differential equations and most circuit analysis techniques are simply clever ways to describe circuits as systems of differential equations in as convenient a manner as possible. By Homeworks 3 and 4 I felt as though I was doing Math 33B work. It is time-consuming, but most of the cleverness goes into the beginning 10% of the problem when you are identifying what to best focus on writing into equation, and the rest of the 90% is the laboriousness of solving the differential equation. The midterm and final were much easier than the homeworks, around 75% of the difficulty (although I didn't take into account the fact that I was much more experienced doing the final than I was in the homeworks leading up to it). Class performance was reportedly great, with many students receiving perfect scores on the midterm. Overall it was a great class, and I'd highly recommend it.
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Fall 2022 - If you liked using the AD2 from ECE 3 well you're in luck because this class uses the AD2 for the entire quarter. You learn about basic circuits (matching the pace with ECE 10/ECE 10H), from voltage dividers, up to multi-order RLC circuits. 4 labs, 4 reports (roughly 8 pages long), assigned every two weeks, with the lab specs for the entire quarter published at the start of the quarter. The labs and reports are expected to be completed by each individual. Lots of people cram doing the lab and the report 48 hours before it's due. You will likely also do that too. If you decide to do the labs early and do the report later, you'll likely have to repeat doing the lab as well. Lab sections are not mandatory, EXCEPT for the days your reports are due, as for my quarter there was a "quiz" and practical demo required for checkoffs. For the checkoffs, I partnered up with a friend, but that policy is up to your TA.
Fall 2022 - If you liked using the AD2 from ECE 3 well you're in luck because this class uses the AD2 for the entire quarter. You learn about basic circuits (matching the pace with ECE 10/ECE 10H), from voltage dividers, up to multi-order RLC circuits. 4 labs, 4 reports (roughly 8 pages long), assigned every two weeks, with the lab specs for the entire quarter published at the start of the quarter. The labs and reports are expected to be completed by each individual. Lots of people cram doing the lab and the report 48 hours before it's due. You will likely also do that too. If you decide to do the labs early and do the report later, you'll likely have to repeat doing the lab as well. Lab sections are not mandatory, EXCEPT for the days your reports are due, as for my quarter there was a "quiz" and practical demo required for checkoffs. For the checkoffs, I partnered up with a friend, but that policy is up to your TA.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - Darabi is a very kind professor and made the best out of our Friday 8 am lectures, but the class was still difficult to follow despite going to every lecture. I did not feel confident with most of the material until a few days before the midterm and final, and walked out of both tests feeling like I had done poorly. So, I do think the grading was pretty lenient. There are not many resources provided in terms of practice tests/past exams so while the tests were fair, studying for them was difficult. Overall I definitely learned a lot though. Some advice: make sure to set aside plenty of time for the homeworks, they started getting pretty difficult after the first one. Also make sure you understand the examples Darabi goes over in class and look in the textbook for more examples. Working with others on homework and studying makes it a lot more manageable.
Fall 2023 - Darabi is a very kind professor and made the best out of our Friday 8 am lectures, but the class was still difficult to follow despite going to every lecture. I did not feel confident with most of the material until a few days before the midterm and final, and walked out of both tests feeling like I had done poorly. So, I do think the grading was pretty lenient. There are not many resources provided in terms of practice tests/past exams so while the tests were fair, studying for them was difficult. Overall I definitely learned a lot though. Some advice: make sure to set aside plenty of time for the homeworks, they started getting pretty difficult after the first one. Also make sure you understand the examples Darabi goes over in class and look in the textbook for more examples. Working with others on homework and studying makes it a lot more manageable.
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Spring 2024 - This class really isn't what it says on the tin, not to the fault of the professor, Darabi is great. The class ends up being much more on using microsensors in machine learning, while interesting, doesn't teach much on IoT, but next year the class is being changed to E1IT so I'm not sure how much this review will stay true. As for the work, the labs are pretty easy with very little code writing, most of which is in the final project. The class is a nice GPA booster and an interesting introduction to machine learning.
Spring 2024 - This class really isn't what it says on the tin, not to the fault of the professor, Darabi is great. The class ends up being much more on using microsensors in machine learning, while interesting, doesn't teach much on IoT, but next year the class is being changed to E1IT so I'm not sure how much this review will stay true. As for the work, the labs are pretty easy with very little code writing, most of which is in the final project. The class is a nice GPA booster and an interesting introduction to machine learning.
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