EC ENGR 170A
Principles of Photonics
Description: Lecture, four hours; recitation, one hour; outside study, seven hours. Enforced requisites: courses 2, 101A. Development of solid foundation on essential principles of photonics from ground up with minimum prior knowledge on this subject. Topics include optical properties of materials, optical wave propagation and modes, optical interferometers and resonators, optical coupling and modulation, optical absorption and emission, principles of lasers and light-emitting diodes, and optical detection. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - This class is one of those classes you hear about only in myths. A class that not only emotionally scars you, brings you to your knees, and thoroughly dissuades you from ever uttering the word "laser" out loud in fear of incurring Jia Ming Liu's wrath, but also brings together the class with such solidarity that you might think for even a moment that the eleven weeks of 170A were worth it. And then Chee Wei smites you with an exam that is undoable without very specific equations that cannot be derived from first principles. As for the reviews for this class that came before mine: I have never seen such false claims that ended up being truer than you'd like to think. It really becomes apparent halfway through the class after the midterm that the reviews weren't full of shit--they were just small pieces of the puzzle that is 170A with Chee Wei Wong. The book is confusing. Written by Jia Ming Liu, the textbook is a mess. It has the formulas, yes, but the sheer quantity of them will overwhelm anyone going through the entire book in one quarter. One quarter is not enough time to go through 11 chapters--but Chee Wei managed to cram it all down our throats. Some concepts will be referenced without further proof or explanation without any intuitive backing, some concepts will be used time and time again without any real explanation (like why the beam waist area is what it is), and some concepts you will find nowhere online. The only way you'll manage to see these topics again is if you read Photonic Devices, also by Jia Ming Liu. I found that doing the homework and studying the material, there were absolutely no resources I could find online. Photonics is just absent from all my searches. I had to rely on only the book, the lectures, and the TA, but I came to find that even that wasn't enough. The homework for this class was extremely light compared to other classes. It was anywhere between 2-4 problems, most of which you could find examples for in the chapter. The TA will go over the first question with you during the discussion section, so most of the time you'll only have 2-3 problems to do on your own. The classroom setting is bleak. Sitting in those desks listening to Chee Wei drone on and on about the "simplicity" of coupling, lasers, waveguides, etc. is about as dry as you'd expect it to be when there's little to no substance beneath the poetry being waxed. You will be sitting there for 2 hours, hurriedly writing down Chee Wei's notes (he uses a chalkboard), wondering what the superscript of his exponential may be and never receiving a solid answer. His graphs and diagrams are actually pretty awesome and informative. Pay attention to his diagrams. Go to the book for equations; it's more likely they'll be written correctly there. A word of consideration: Go to the class for intuition or if you're a masochist. Read the book and tattoo the equations on your body if you hope to pass the class. Now, the part everyone's been waiting for: the exams. How are the exams? They are a testament to how well you can memorize and regurgitate equations seen throughout the class, your homework, and the topics not covered in the lecture but definitely covered in the book (with very little detail). Chee Wei spent the majority of the class lecturing about concepts. What he did not go over was problem solving. With homework described as maybe 3 questions a week, one of which being done for you, it's no surprise that everyone tanked the midterm. The name of the game was "Who has written down all of the necessary equations and examples in the book?" The average was a rough ~60/100. The highest score was a natural 80. Between you and me, that guy must've written down the exact example needed to solve the question everyone missed. Chee Wei later scaled the exam down, but it didn't matter how much you studied or thought you knew the concepts. If you didn't have the exact equations you needed, or have seen the EXACT problem in the book, you would've gotten a fat 0 on that question. Luckily, the TA and Chee Wei decided to give us credit for just writing our names down and spitting out "related" formulas, so there's that. The final exam was online and was not proctored due to the COVID19 issue. It was open-book (partially because the entire class rioted following the midterm and kept grovelling to the TA and Chee Wei to do something about our despair, and partially because Chee Wei isn't the madman we thought him to be by the end of the class). It was nowhere near as difficult as the midterm because of this. You still would've needed to study and pay close attention to his lectures, but at least the factor of not having the equations in reach was filtered out. I ended up getting a pretty decent grade in the class relative to my classmates, which is probably why I got an A+. He does curve, apparently, no matter what the TA says about not curving. Every single lecture after the midterm, especially those leading up to the final, was filled with our prayers to Jia Ming Liu and Chee Wei to have mercy on us. Every Friday during my discussion section, the students rioted against the helpless TA who could only watch as we spiralled into insanity, before succumbing to the same effects himself. I don't think I'll ever forget the unity of the class from the midterm onwards. It was an interesting dynamic, made possible only because 170A had driven us to the brink. Through all the negative things I had to say, I wouldn't say that 170A was all that bad. It was a horror story come to life for a lot of the people concerned with grades and learning, but all things considered, I was able to take away some topics from the class. Not all, but some. I'd say that of the 11 chapters we covered, I have a decent understanding of half of them, a very shaky understanding in a fourth of them, and little to no qualitative understanding of the remaining. The primary concern for the students was that we would not take anything away from this class to help further our knowledge in this field, and many of my classmates have agreed that 170A with Chee Wei will not prepare you well for any other photonics-related class unless you are Jia Ming Liu's soulmate and can somehow perfectly understand his textbook without ten odd years on hand to memorize it. If nothing else, take away from this class the friendships you make along the way. Get phone numbers. Talk to your seatmates. Get real comfy not knowing what the hell Chee Wei wants from you. Talk to Chee Wei--he's not a bad person and he can be quite nice/entertaining. It's a wild ride. (Unless Chee Wei actually took into account our screams for deliverance despite "no previous year having this many issues" and the subsequent quarters of 170A will be filled with sunshine and rainbows.)
Winter 2020 - This class is one of those classes you hear about only in myths. A class that not only emotionally scars you, brings you to your knees, and thoroughly dissuades you from ever uttering the word "laser" out loud in fear of incurring Jia Ming Liu's wrath, but also brings together the class with such solidarity that you might think for even a moment that the eleven weeks of 170A were worth it. And then Chee Wei smites you with an exam that is undoable without very specific equations that cannot be derived from first principles. As for the reviews for this class that came before mine: I have never seen such false claims that ended up being truer than you'd like to think. It really becomes apparent halfway through the class after the midterm that the reviews weren't full of shit--they were just small pieces of the puzzle that is 170A with Chee Wei Wong. The book is confusing. Written by Jia Ming Liu, the textbook is a mess. It has the formulas, yes, but the sheer quantity of them will overwhelm anyone going through the entire book in one quarter. One quarter is not enough time to go through 11 chapters--but Chee Wei managed to cram it all down our throats. Some concepts will be referenced without further proof or explanation without any intuitive backing, some concepts will be used time and time again without any real explanation (like why the beam waist area is what it is), and some concepts you will find nowhere online. The only way you'll manage to see these topics again is if you read Photonic Devices, also by Jia Ming Liu. I found that doing the homework and studying the material, there were absolutely no resources I could find online. Photonics is just absent from all my searches. I had to rely on only the book, the lectures, and the TA, but I came to find that even that wasn't enough. The homework for this class was extremely light compared to other classes. It was anywhere between 2-4 problems, most of which you could find examples for in the chapter. The TA will go over the first question with you during the discussion section, so most of the time you'll only have 2-3 problems to do on your own. The classroom setting is bleak. Sitting in those desks listening to Chee Wei drone on and on about the "simplicity" of coupling, lasers, waveguides, etc. is about as dry as you'd expect it to be when there's little to no substance beneath the poetry being waxed. You will be sitting there for 2 hours, hurriedly writing down Chee Wei's notes (he uses a chalkboard), wondering what the superscript of his exponential may be and never receiving a solid answer. His graphs and diagrams are actually pretty awesome and informative. Pay attention to his diagrams. Go to the book for equations; it's more likely they'll be written correctly there. A word of consideration: Go to the class for intuition or if you're a masochist. Read the book and tattoo the equations on your body if you hope to pass the class. Now, the part everyone's been waiting for: the exams. How are the exams? They are a testament to how well you can memorize and regurgitate equations seen throughout the class, your homework, and the topics not covered in the lecture but definitely covered in the book (with very little detail). Chee Wei spent the majority of the class lecturing about concepts. What he did not go over was problem solving. With homework described as maybe 3 questions a week, one of which being done for you, it's no surprise that everyone tanked the midterm. The name of the game was "Who has written down all of the necessary equations and examples in the book?" The average was a rough ~60/100. The highest score was a natural 80. Between you and me, that guy must've written down the exact example needed to solve the question everyone missed. Chee Wei later scaled the exam down, but it didn't matter how much you studied or thought you knew the concepts. If you didn't have the exact equations you needed, or have seen the EXACT problem in the book, you would've gotten a fat 0 on that question. Luckily, the TA and Chee Wei decided to give us credit for just writing our names down and spitting out "related" formulas, so there's that. The final exam was online and was not proctored due to the COVID19 issue. It was open-book (partially because the entire class rioted following the midterm and kept grovelling to the TA and Chee Wei to do something about our despair, and partially because Chee Wei isn't the madman we thought him to be by the end of the class). It was nowhere near as difficult as the midterm because of this. You still would've needed to study and pay close attention to his lectures, but at least the factor of not having the equations in reach was filtered out. I ended up getting a pretty decent grade in the class relative to my classmates, which is probably why I got an A+. He does curve, apparently, no matter what the TA says about not curving. Every single lecture after the midterm, especially those leading up to the final, was filled with our prayers to Jia Ming Liu and Chee Wei to have mercy on us. Every Friday during my discussion section, the students rioted against the helpless TA who could only watch as we spiralled into insanity, before succumbing to the same effects himself. I don't think I'll ever forget the unity of the class from the midterm onwards. It was an interesting dynamic, made possible only because 170A had driven us to the brink. Through all the negative things I had to say, I wouldn't say that 170A was all that bad. It was a horror story come to life for a lot of the people concerned with grades and learning, but all things considered, I was able to take away some topics from the class. Not all, but some. I'd say that of the 11 chapters we covered, I have a decent understanding of half of them, a very shaky understanding in a fourth of them, and little to no qualitative understanding of the remaining. The primary concern for the students was that we would not take anything away from this class to help further our knowledge in this field, and many of my classmates have agreed that 170A with Chee Wei will not prepare you well for any other photonics-related class unless you are Jia Ming Liu's soulmate and can somehow perfectly understand his textbook without ten odd years on hand to memorize it. If nothing else, take away from this class the friendships you make along the way. Get phone numbers. Talk to your seatmates. Get real comfy not knowing what the hell Chee Wei wants from you. Talk to Chee Wei--he's not a bad person and he can be quite nice/entertaining. It's a wild ride. (Unless Chee Wei actually took into account our screams for deliverance despite "no previous year having this many issues" and the subsequent quarters of 170A will be filled with sunshine and rainbows.)
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