This is my first review after completing 3 years here and deservingly so because like others said, I also believe he is the best professor in the MAE department.

I took 105A with Prof. Amar, which got me interested in this course. And if you have taken a course with him, you know how effective he is at teaching since he teaches through examples with actual numbers, but had to deal with his tricky quizzes and exams. Prof. Marner is even more effective than Amar, without the tricky exams.

Marner uploaded lecture outlines before each lecture so that class would flow more smoothly and save our hand muscles because he cares about his students. Just go to class and complete his lecture notes and that will be all you need in order to succeed in his class. He does simple and short derivations (the First Law of Thermodynamics will be used a lot), but then dives right into sample problems to help you understand the material because nobody likes being bored by derivations using countless variables. He also gets the class involved by calling on students to help him solve the problems to make the lectures less boring because if someone gets something wrong he will make fun of him/her in a non-condescending manner. Don't worry if he makes fun of you though, he is like a loving father like others said. You can read the textbook (Moran and Shapiro) for some clarification, but his notes are good enough to complete 90% of the homework problems. Problem sets consisted of 5 problems, usually 2 from the text and the 3 others from outside sources. You will do well on his exams if you understand the homework because the exams are at the same difficulty level as the homework problems, which aren't too difficult to begin with. And don't slack off on the design project. My group did and frantically put a 20 page report together all during 9th and 10th week, but luckily the TA, Mike, was a generous grader even though he seemed stringent about grading when I talked to him about the past reports.

All in all, you will learn a lot in this class, not just thermodynamics but also life lessons. After the final exam, he shook everyone's hands, stated their names, and thanked them for being a part of his class. I wished he had thought me heat transfer as well.