MAT SCI 104
Science of Engineering Materials
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; outside study, eight hours. Requisites: Chemistry 20A, 20B, 20L, Physics 1A. Corequisite: Physics 1B. General introduction to different types of materials used in engineering designs: metals, ceramics, plastics, and composites, relationship between structure (crystals and microstructure) and properties of technological materials. Illustration of their fundamental differences and their applications in engineering. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - If I could say one thing about this class, it's that it's all memorization. I'm not exactly the strongest student in that regard, so I would say this class wasn't hard to understand but rather hard to memorize all the content for. Professor Banerjee is pretty nice, pretty clear in his lectures, and his slides are super detailed, which is good and bad because you should know basically everything on them. His tests weren't very tricky, as he didn't allow cheat sheets or anything, but they were definitely pretty ruthless with testing any aspect of the slides (facts, drawings, graphs, etc.). I personally felt as though the tests were graded relatively harshly, as there's little partial credit and a lot of emphasis on having the exact answer down. (For example, out of a 30 point problem, I had all the right steps but the wrong numbers in the beginning. He gave max 13/30 points, which I felt was a little unfair, but to each their own.) He curved the average to a B (around a 5% curve?), so I guess you could take my experience as that of the average of the class.
Fall 2022 - If I could say one thing about this class, it's that it's all memorization. I'm not exactly the strongest student in that regard, so I would say this class wasn't hard to understand but rather hard to memorize all the content for. Professor Banerjee is pretty nice, pretty clear in his lectures, and his slides are super detailed, which is good and bad because you should know basically everything on them. His tests weren't very tricky, as he didn't allow cheat sheets or anything, but they were definitely pretty ruthless with testing any aspect of the slides (facts, drawings, graphs, etc.). I personally felt as though the tests were graded relatively harshly, as there's little partial credit and a lot of emphasis on having the exact answer down. (For example, out of a 30 point problem, I had all the right steps but the wrong numbers in the beginning. He gave max 13/30 points, which I felt was a little unfair, but to each their own.) He curved the average to a B (around a 5% curve?), so I guess you could take my experience as that of the average of the class.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - 2 Quizzes, 1 Midterm, 1 Final, Weekly homework Quizzes and midterms weren't cumulative, and they aren't too difficult. Overall, there is A LOT of material to cover, so be prepared to do a lot of reading on your own. The lectures were all pretty dry, and I didn't find them too useful. They're basically just reading off a powerpoint. There's a lot of material to read, so the workload is pretty tough. Don't take this class with this professor if you don't have to; it's basically just learning everything by yourself.
Spring 2020 - 2 Quizzes, 1 Midterm, 1 Final, Weekly homework Quizzes and midterms weren't cumulative, and they aren't too difficult. Overall, there is A LOT of material to cover, so be prepared to do a lot of reading on your own. The lectures were all pretty dry, and I didn't find them too useful. They're basically just reading off a powerpoint. There's a lot of material to read, so the workload is pretty tough. Don't take this class with this professor if you don't have to; it's basically just learning everything by yourself.
Most Helpful Review
Good lecturer! He is always enthusiastic about the materials he teaches and brings in cool demos all the time. However, though his lectures give a good overview of the stuff you're supposed to learn, the key to acing the quizzes, midterms ,and finals are in doing the homework. The quizzes and midterms are straightforward and very much like homework problems. Going to class or reviewing his ppts gives you the multiples choice questions. The final was harder, but you get a double-sided cheat sheet. Overall, a good, fair professor.
Good lecturer! He is always enthusiastic about the materials he teaches and brings in cool demos all the time. However, though his lectures give a good overview of the stuff you're supposed to learn, the key to acing the quizzes, midterms ,and finals are in doing the homework. The quizzes and midterms are straightforward and very much like homework problems. Going to class or reviewing his ppts gives you the multiples choice questions. The final was harder, but you get a double-sided cheat sheet. Overall, a good, fair professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2024 - This class was set up very well for an asynchronous summer class - all of the recordings were fairly high quality, and the homework and exam logistics were pretty seamless. All of the exams were open note since it was online, and the exam difficulty reflected that, but access to all of the textbook, lecture slides, and other resources made exams pretty manageable. It's definitely easy to get behind in some ways, but the problem sets and exams were spread out far enough that you had to be watching the lectures to be successful. Professor Goorsky and his teaching team are well versed in the content (for the most part, some of the TAs gave contradictory answers went I went to office hours), and Goorsky in particular is a clear lecturer that provides understandable explanations of complex scientific concepts. All of his slides and recordings are available online, mirror the textbook for the most part, and if you dig hard enough there are external resources that can supplement your learning if the teaching time isn't enough. The content here is not unreasonable and none of the math requires much more than introductory calculus and basic chemistry, although I'm sure there are entire classes dedicated to a week of this class that would go far more in depth with the calculations and theory. For this class, it's mostly just plug and chug when it comes to math, although there's a fair amount of explaining and theory that many lower division engineering/STEM courses don't require. I honestly do feel like I learned a lot when it comes to materials, more so with metals since there was much more of a focus in the first half compared to the end with the other material types. This is a class where you can walk away with it and have a basic understanding of an intriguing branch of science/engineering.
Summer 2024 - This class was set up very well for an asynchronous summer class - all of the recordings were fairly high quality, and the homework and exam logistics were pretty seamless. All of the exams were open note since it was online, and the exam difficulty reflected that, but access to all of the textbook, lecture slides, and other resources made exams pretty manageable. It's definitely easy to get behind in some ways, but the problem sets and exams were spread out far enough that you had to be watching the lectures to be successful. Professor Goorsky and his teaching team are well versed in the content (for the most part, some of the TAs gave contradictory answers went I went to office hours), and Goorsky in particular is a clear lecturer that provides understandable explanations of complex scientific concepts. All of his slides and recordings are available online, mirror the textbook for the most part, and if you dig hard enough there are external resources that can supplement your learning if the teaching time isn't enough. The content here is not unreasonable and none of the math requires much more than introductory calculus and basic chemistry, although I'm sure there are entire classes dedicated to a week of this class that would go far more in depth with the calculations and theory. For this class, it's mostly just plug and chug when it comes to math, although there's a fair amount of explaining and theory that many lower division engineering/STEM courses don't require. I honestly do feel like I learned a lot when it comes to materials, more so with metals since there was much more of a focus in the first half compared to the end with the other material types. This is a class where you can walk away with it and have a basic understanding of an intriguing branch of science/engineering.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2024 - Professor He is a good person, however, I don't think she is a good professor. Well, to be fair, I think this class is a bit hard to teach well, as there is so much to cover. But, I ended up not showing up to lecture after the midterm as I realized all she does is read off the slides during class. She goes over each slide so quickly when the slide is cluttered with information. Even when I ask her questions, I feel like she gives vague answers and I often felt more confused when leaving the lecture. She gives 2 quizzes and they aren't that hard, you just need to study the slides. The midterm was not bad either, as they are just like the homework. For the homework, she gives 4 required homeworks, and 1 optional around week 8-9, but you should do it as the topics in HW5 are going to be on the final. I never felt like I said this before but I wish there was more homework for this class as I often felt like I spent a lot of time away from the class because there was no homework to be done. The questions were also really easy, like plug-n-chug, but the midterm and final were not like that. The final was pretty difficult for me, as I got A's on everything else and a C+ on the final which is why I got a B+. Although I said all these things about Professor He, I would much rather pick her than the other 104 professor. Just letting everyone taking this class with her what to expect.
Spring 2024 - Professor He is a good person, however, I don't think she is a good professor. Well, to be fair, I think this class is a bit hard to teach well, as there is so much to cover. But, I ended up not showing up to lecture after the midterm as I realized all she does is read off the slides during class. She goes over each slide so quickly when the slide is cluttered with information. Even when I ask her questions, I feel like she gives vague answers and I often felt more confused when leaving the lecture. She gives 2 quizzes and they aren't that hard, you just need to study the slides. The midterm was not bad either, as they are just like the homework. For the homework, she gives 4 required homeworks, and 1 optional around week 8-9, but you should do it as the topics in HW5 are going to be on the final. I never felt like I said this before but I wish there was more homework for this class as I often felt like I spent a lot of time away from the class because there was no homework to be done. The questions were also really easy, like plug-n-chug, but the midterm and final were not like that. The final was pretty difficult for me, as I got A's on everything else and a C+ on the final which is why I got a B+. Although I said all these things about Professor He, I would much rather pick her than the other 104 professor. Just letting everyone taking this class with her what to expect.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - When I first signed up for this class, I was actually quite scared due to the previous reviews. However, after taking this class, I can confidently say that Dr. Huang definitely deserves a much higher rating than a 2.6, and I definitely found this class quite easy and straightforward. --- This class definitely revolves around the textbook. Slides are based off of the textbook, homework problems are textbook problems, and sometimes, exam problems are ripped straight from the textbook, verbatim. So definitely know the textbook material; grind problems out, check your answers with Slader, and you're good. Homework is definitely on the level of exams. If you can ace the homework, you can definitely ace the exams. That said, there are definitely conceptual questions you need to know; you can't math your way out of this class. --- Dr. Huang's lecture slides are really good, and same for the slides that the TAs give out. I personally found them to be very comprehensive, and useful for exams. If it's not on the slides, it's not going to be tested. Even better, Dr. Huang releases slides before lectures, so you won't have to write stuff down at 90 miles per hour. Dr. Huang's lectures may be dry, but they definitely cover what'll be on the test. She also throws in some cool videos that explain concepts well. That said, she refuses to record lectures. --- The course material is quite interesting, and the exams and homework are definitely fair. Exam averages were 75 in my year, and Dr. Huang said that she'd set the average grade to a B+. Let's see if that ends up being the case.
Spring 2021 - When I first signed up for this class, I was actually quite scared due to the previous reviews. However, after taking this class, I can confidently say that Dr. Huang definitely deserves a much higher rating than a 2.6, and I definitely found this class quite easy and straightforward. --- This class definitely revolves around the textbook. Slides are based off of the textbook, homework problems are textbook problems, and sometimes, exam problems are ripped straight from the textbook, verbatim. So definitely know the textbook material; grind problems out, check your answers with Slader, and you're good. Homework is definitely on the level of exams. If you can ace the homework, you can definitely ace the exams. That said, there are definitely conceptual questions you need to know; you can't math your way out of this class. --- Dr. Huang's lecture slides are really good, and same for the slides that the TAs give out. I personally found them to be very comprehensive, and useful for exams. If it's not on the slides, it's not going to be tested. Even better, Dr. Huang releases slides before lectures, so you won't have to write stuff down at 90 miles per hour. Dr. Huang's lectures may be dry, but they definitely cover what'll be on the test. She also throws in some cool videos that explain concepts well. That said, she refuses to record lectures. --- The course material is quite interesting, and the exams and homework are definitely fair. Exam averages were 75 in my year, and Dr. Huang said that she'd set the average grade to a B+. Let's see if that ends up being the case.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2023 - I feel like mat sci 104 is a class that just suffers from covering too much material at a surface level, which made the class quite boring with mostly memorization. However, Kakoulli was super nice and generous with grading and even made the final no-harm, which relieved a lot of stress near the end of the quarter. Also, even though she mostly read off the slides in lecture I found the slides to be pretty informative.
Spring 2023 - I feel like mat sci 104 is a class that just suffers from covering too much material at a surface level, which made the class quite boring with mostly memorization. However, Kakoulli was super nice and generous with grading and even made the final no-harm, which relieved a lot of stress near the end of the quarter. Also, even though she mostly read off the slides in lecture I found the slides to be pretty informative.
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