This course is very straightforward and covers all the basics of many different thermodynamic cycles, engines, etc. I have no interest in this subject so I found that a bit draining. However, the professor's explanations are very straightforward and it is not too difficult to pick up the new concepts. The homework assignments were challenging and often frustrating as they relied on methods that were not well explained in the class. Also be prepared to spend hours looking up values in the tables. The midterm exam was awful, not that difficult but it was waaaay too long, it took me about 7 hours to complete in total. I don't know why professors during COVID are deciding its ok to give students a 24-hour exam window and then assign an exam that takes 7-10 hours to complete fully (this is not the first class that has done it). If a normal exam window is 2 hours, the exam should be designed with that time window in mind! Also, the group project was rough as we were given very little instruction or guidance (no examples to work from), we had to do it basically from scratch.

I am not sure why Prof. Stubblebine's ratings are so low, I think he's a great lecturer (and he also talks about real world applications which was super interesting and also not common at ucla engineering). His exams were difficult and thermodynamics is definitely not my best subject, but I learned so much and he's a great lecturer, the material is just difficult.

This class isn't hard, it just has a lot of material and work. We went over a lot of content in general so it was a lot to learn and apply to the homework. It definitely takes a while to draw schematics, list assumptions, fix all the states, etc. and sometimes can be tricky but overall not hard. The midterm required a lot of memorization of all the different cycles, which I didn't expect so I didn't do as well. The final project honestly seemed a bit unnecessary--I'd rather only study for the final than have to do the final project on top of the hw and studying. But overall, the professor is very nice and is clear in his lectures.