This class isn't as bad as some people claim. Lecture is lowkey useless. Prof. Schmidt's lecture is an awkward stream of consciousness, that MOST people can't follow in the first go-around.

The best way to study is the drill the old exams, study sets, and pick out concepts from the slides as they come. He doesn't do that many example problems in class, so the practice materials are the best way to figure stuff out.

A lot of people are scared of the EE part of this class, but it's not that bad compared to EE100 usually. (EE professors are scarier than BioE professors in general.) Fourier transforms and series aren't that bad, review integration stuff from AP calculus

"Any questions?"

The incessant vibrations from Schmidt's crusty vocal cords reverberated around the room as everyone stares back into his soulless gaze with a deadpan expression full of confusion and dread.

"I know you have questions."

That interaction about sums up his class. He knows he teaches poorly, yet he fails to acknowledge any of his shortcomings or attempt to improve his lectures. His slides are poorly organized, resulting in lectures teaching seemingly unrelated concepts that takes hours to get to the actual point of it all. He also always has an air of ignorance and arrogance with how he teaches and interacts with students, as if he expects that he is perfect and never makes mistakes, whereas reality is very much the opposite.

However, despite that, Schmidt does give all the resources you need to pass the class, namely past midterms and finals. His exams tend to be fairly repetitive so studying for the exams is definitely doable as long as you put in the time.

As someone not too good at or interested in EE, I actually found this class to be super interesting. The beginning of the class starts off with some circuits (thermistors, strain gauges, amplifiers, etc) but is definitely easier and more applied than EE100. Next you learn the physics behind EKG's and how they work. Then the class gets more math heavy and you learn about fourier transforms, signals/noise, xrays, and a big final unit on NMR/MRI. Overall, there honestly wasn't much material in the class. Some of the material is hard to digest the first go around, so being able to rewatch recorded lectures at my pace was very helpful. Overall, interesting class that wasn't as bad as I anticipated it was going to be.

This isn't a review for the professor, E96 classes are taught by students. The professor only comes in on the first day and drops in the last day to listen to your presentations.

I thought the class was great! I really enjoyed making an electrocardiogram. There are only a few easy assignments the first few weeks and then you work on an extension project. There are clear presentations with slides that go over the technical side of the project and the theory behind it. It's really not hard at all, more people should take this class.

This was a very low key class. We touched on some principles of chemical engineering, but really it’s a class to spend three hours brewing coffee every week. I’m not a coffee drinker in general, but I learned to enjoy it (kind of) through this class, and it was a nice break from my hardcore stem classes. Overall, I would recommend this class if you’re looking for more units/to have fun but not if you’re looking to learn practical engineering skills.

I highly recommend this class to coffee enthusiasts! This class has very little work and the undergrad teachers are super funny! Lauren and Kenan are the best! The first 5 weeks of the course are lab work to develop skills in crafting coffee through many variables of brewing. The last 5 weeks are dedicated to creating a wonderful coffee for the end of class party through what we learned previously. The labs felt very much like a fun chemistry lab. Also, I have learned that I do NOT like coffee anymore through this class.

If you're somewhat worried, there is little to no outside class work to do, and you leave class earlier most days.

I would say the only flaw in this class is that you may not learn the most important skills necessary as an engineer, but regardless, take this class if you need an easy 2 units :)

Chill, fun class if you’re interesting in learning about coffee. First half of the quarter is just simple labs and if you finish early you’re free to go, almost never took the whole 3 hrs. Second half (week 6-10) was experimentation time for the final project which was a friendly competition for who could make the best coffee. Super easy as long as you show up and do your work.

I appreciated this class for the opportunity it gave me to befriend other engineering freshmen, and also for its coverage of interdisciplinary engineering skills such as SolidWorks, 3D printing, laser cutting, Arduino programming and embedded circuits. However, the content taught in class was insufficient, so everyone was relying on their own prior knowledge to make progress on the project. The 3-hour worksessions were thus draining for me, but it helps that this class is a guaranteed A as long as you show up for class and make progress on the rover. I'd advise making sure that you have a good mix of mechanical/electrical/computer engineers in your group for this class as you basically need to know how to CAD, code and wire.

Exams are very reasonable! If you cant do the HW problems independently, you wont be able to do test problems. I was able to use chatgpt as a tutor to help me learn how to do the problems and ask any questions that came up as I did the HW.

This class was definitely one of the best electives I had and it is clear Professor Shmidt really knows his material and he is also very passionate about teaching this class. This class is a must if you like anything electrical/circuits-related. You have to pay about $60 but you get a box of electronic components and microprocessors to keep. There are about 7 HW assignments and a final group project however this year with all the annoying protests that happened we couldn't get to the final project. Prof Shmidt is also very helpful in office hours and will help you figure out any problems you have. The HW mini projects do take a good amount of time so it is very important not to leave it for the last minute. Additionally, it might be helpful to have a Windows computer but I personally used a Mac and for the majority of the class there was no problem.