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Paulo Tabuada
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Based on 23 Users
FUCK TABUADA
He writes teeny tiny and speaks super softly so it's impossible to understand what's going on in lecture. You have to read the textbook.
His project is unnecessary and annoyingly long and hard. This is a class on linear controls but your controller had to work for a nonlinear system. Also the spec is super unclear and he and the TA kept on making up new constrains for our project up until the due date. I think I had to redo that shit like 5 times.
His midterm questions made no sense.
His final questions made no sense.
His grading scheme is unforgiving.
He doesn't accept homework that is 1 femtosecond late and is incredibly heartless with his late work policy.
All in all, fuck Tabuada.
I guess I learned my intellectual limits when I dropped week 10.
Would've needed 1-2 more math or controls classes to be prepared for this class.
This class is very theoretical, and a lot of the time will feel like a math class with limited application to electrical engineering. I personally found the material to be pretty dry, but the concepts thankfully weren't too convoluted. A big portion of the class is just about roots and stability of systems.
Tabuada isn't the best lecturer in the sense that he speaks incredibly softly and his handwriting is difficult to read, but he will take a lot of time going over examples. He explains concepts fairly clearly, and is helpful when answering questions. There was one lecture where he just spent the entire 2 hours going over multiple examples to demonstrate a new topic.
The homework is straight from the textbook, and while there aren't many problems assigned, they can take a while. I found that the homework problems sometimes would seem a little unrelated to the lecture, and there was sometimes a lot of confusion about how to do certain problems. The TAs will go over similar questions during discussion, but won't explicitly help out with the homework question itself.
The class has a midterm, final, project, and weekly homework. The project was designing a control system with Simulink. The spec is INCREDIBLY unclear, and due to the timing of the project being due close to finals week, it was very stressful trying to get it done. It's very likely that the first few times reading the spec, you will have no idea what to do for it. He makes class into office hours the last few lectures, so make sure to ask questions about the project. I found the project to be frustrating and needlessly time intensive.
The midterm and final were only a few questions each, with many parts per question. I found the midterm to be much easier than the final. Both were pretty reasonable, and understanding the homework, as well as doing some extra practice, would well prepare you for them.
Overall, I'd recommend taking this class if you aren't sure what you want with your core courses. It isn't unreasonably difficult, and Tabuada has a very generous grading scheme (with no downcurve). However, I have yet to meet a single person who actually enjoyed the class material, though its more due to the dry nature of controls than Tabuada himself.
Professor Tabuada is a really nice guy and is good at explaining the difficult control system topics. He doesn't have the best handwriting but he is always receptive to writing neater. He also doesn't talk very loud, and doesn't use a mic, so it's best if you sit up front to hear and see what's on the board. He is always open to questions and clarifications. He does a lot of examples in class and is good at explaining the concepts. The homeworks are from the textbooks. The midterm was a bit of a time crunch, but the final was reasonable. Definitely do the practice midterm and final that he releases. The project for this class is reasonable, but the spec is unclear, so you'll have to ask a lot of questions and definitely start early. Control systems in general are tough concepts, but this class is definitely interesting. The class also will have a nice curve.
His lectures are great and very straight forward. He writes very clearly on the board. I think a lot of students found his tests a bit challenging though.
141 sounded interesting to me, but I realized that I didn't really like this class much. A lot of the stuff is very similar to 102. He was a good lecturer, and he actually assigns book problems (something I'm not used to anymore). That can either help you or screw you over. For me, it was a little bit of the latter. The MATLAB project we had to do at the end kinda sucked, especially since it had no relevance to material on the final. I heard Balakrishnan (sp?) teaches this class too, and I'm sure you've heard the infamous stories of him. Take this class with Tabuada if you need it.
Professor Tabuada is a very nice professor, but his voice is way too soft to be heard in the back of the classroom. In addition, his handwriting is pretty sloppy for us students to read at times (e.g. he writes his 1's like 2's and his x's like n's). He still delivers the material in an effective manner, but sometimes, he just glosses over points that turn out to be very important later on in the course.
One weird thing about him is that on exams, he doesn't let his TAs help him answer any questions because if a student has a question about the exam, he wants to make sure that the question is answered the way he wants it to be answered. The exams themselves is about half straightforward and half curveballs, but they're not too bad overall.
Also, it's important to realize that Tabuada does NOT curve, so knowing the averages and standard deviations on exams doesn't really give you an indicator of what your final grade will be.
Professor Tabuada is an extreme effective professor. He's organized, he does a good job explaining concepts, and he really wants to make sure that everybody understands. He doesn't grade on a true curve, but as long as you get at least a 87.5% on everything, you get an A. The tests are pretty fair and theres one midterm and final, but the MATLAB project was relatively confusing and he did not really help that much. You definitely want to read the assigned reading before lecture to fully understand the material in the class.
Professor Tabuada explains the material clearly. He really cares about students' understanding of the material. His project is a little bit tough so he is very willing to help you if you start the project early, so please start the project as soon as assigned so you would have time to ask equations. He expects students to understand the basic concept of the course so as long as you attend class and pay attention I promise you, you at least get B+.
An ok class. I felt like reading the book and attending discussions with an engaging TA was much better than attending lectures TBH...it's hard to read his handwriting and I got lost many times until I figured out what he was going on about from the readings. He posted his notes online but again the handwriting is not the best. Start the MATLAB project early since it is 20% of the grade. The midterm had weird modeling physics questions that was not in the homework. If you do the homework, project, and attempt the exams, you will pass. Overall 6/10.
FUCK TABUADA
He writes teeny tiny and speaks super softly so it's impossible to understand what's going on in lecture. You have to read the textbook.
His project is unnecessary and annoyingly long and hard. This is a class on linear controls but your controller had to work for a nonlinear system. Also the spec is super unclear and he and the TA kept on making up new constrains for our project up until the due date. I think I had to redo that shit like 5 times.
His midterm questions made no sense.
His final questions made no sense.
His grading scheme is unforgiving.
He doesn't accept homework that is 1 femtosecond late and is incredibly heartless with his late work policy.
All in all, fuck Tabuada.
This class is very theoretical, and a lot of the time will feel like a math class with limited application to electrical engineering. I personally found the material to be pretty dry, but the concepts thankfully weren't too convoluted. A big portion of the class is just about roots and stability of systems.
Tabuada isn't the best lecturer in the sense that he speaks incredibly softly and his handwriting is difficult to read, but he will take a lot of time going over examples. He explains concepts fairly clearly, and is helpful when answering questions. There was one lecture where he just spent the entire 2 hours going over multiple examples to demonstrate a new topic.
The homework is straight from the textbook, and while there aren't many problems assigned, they can take a while. I found that the homework problems sometimes would seem a little unrelated to the lecture, and there was sometimes a lot of confusion about how to do certain problems. The TAs will go over similar questions during discussion, but won't explicitly help out with the homework question itself.
The class has a midterm, final, project, and weekly homework. The project was designing a control system with Simulink. The spec is INCREDIBLY unclear, and due to the timing of the project being due close to finals week, it was very stressful trying to get it done. It's very likely that the first few times reading the spec, you will have no idea what to do for it. He makes class into office hours the last few lectures, so make sure to ask questions about the project. I found the project to be frustrating and needlessly time intensive.
The midterm and final were only a few questions each, with many parts per question. I found the midterm to be much easier than the final. Both were pretty reasonable, and understanding the homework, as well as doing some extra practice, would well prepare you for them.
Overall, I'd recommend taking this class if you aren't sure what you want with your core courses. It isn't unreasonably difficult, and Tabuada has a very generous grading scheme (with no downcurve). However, I have yet to meet a single person who actually enjoyed the class material, though its more due to the dry nature of controls than Tabuada himself.
Professor Tabuada is a really nice guy and is good at explaining the difficult control system topics. He doesn't have the best handwriting but he is always receptive to writing neater. He also doesn't talk very loud, and doesn't use a mic, so it's best if you sit up front to hear and see what's on the board. He is always open to questions and clarifications. He does a lot of examples in class and is good at explaining the concepts. The homeworks are from the textbooks. The midterm was a bit of a time crunch, but the final was reasonable. Definitely do the practice midterm and final that he releases. The project for this class is reasonable, but the spec is unclear, so you'll have to ask a lot of questions and definitely start early. Control systems in general are tough concepts, but this class is definitely interesting. The class also will have a nice curve.
141 sounded interesting to me, but I realized that I didn't really like this class much. A lot of the stuff is very similar to 102. He was a good lecturer, and he actually assigns book problems (something I'm not used to anymore). That can either help you or screw you over. For me, it was a little bit of the latter. The MATLAB project we had to do at the end kinda sucked, especially since it had no relevance to material on the final. I heard Balakrishnan (sp?) teaches this class too, and I'm sure you've heard the infamous stories of him. Take this class with Tabuada if you need it.
Professor Tabuada is a very nice professor, but his voice is way too soft to be heard in the back of the classroom. In addition, his handwriting is pretty sloppy for us students to read at times (e.g. he writes his 1's like 2's and his x's like n's). He still delivers the material in an effective manner, but sometimes, he just glosses over points that turn out to be very important later on in the course.
One weird thing about him is that on exams, he doesn't let his TAs help him answer any questions because if a student has a question about the exam, he wants to make sure that the question is answered the way he wants it to be answered. The exams themselves is about half straightforward and half curveballs, but they're not too bad overall.
Also, it's important to realize that Tabuada does NOT curve, so knowing the averages and standard deviations on exams doesn't really give you an indicator of what your final grade will be.
Professor Tabuada is an extreme effective professor. He's organized, he does a good job explaining concepts, and he really wants to make sure that everybody understands. He doesn't grade on a true curve, but as long as you get at least a 87.5% on everything, you get an A. The tests are pretty fair and theres one midterm and final, but the MATLAB project was relatively confusing and he did not really help that much. You definitely want to read the assigned reading before lecture to fully understand the material in the class.
Professor Tabuada explains the material clearly. He really cares about students' understanding of the material. His project is a little bit tough so he is very willing to help you if you start the project early, so please start the project as soon as assigned so you would have time to ask equations. He expects students to understand the basic concept of the course so as long as you attend class and pay attention I promise you, you at least get B+.
An ok class. I felt like reading the book and attending discussions with an engaging TA was much better than attending lectures TBH...it's hard to read his handwriting and I got lost many times until I figured out what he was going on about from the readings. He posted his notes online but again the handwriting is not the best. Start the MATLAB project early since it is 20% of the grade. The midterm had weird modeling physics questions that was not in the homework. If you do the homework, project, and attempt the exams, you will pass. Overall 6/10.