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
Super nice and smart guy, but not the best teacher. His lectures are kinda all over the place and he explains things really vaguely. I would always be confused until I read the book. His tests were super difficult (He and the other MSE 104 prof. shared the same tests. I think they were hers.) but the curve was pretty generous. I did so-so in the class but ended up with a B+! Fair grader in the end. I wouldn't really recommend him, but he's not that bad I guess.
Super nice and smart guy, but not the best teacher. His lectures are kinda all over the place and he explains things really vaguely. I would always be confused until I read the book. His tests were super difficult (He and the other MSE 104 prof. shared the same tests. I think they were hers.) but the curve was pretty generous. I did so-so in the class but ended up with a B+! Fair grader in the end. I wouldn't really recommend him, but he's not that bad I guess.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Lectures are pretty dry and sleep-inducing. I would still recommend going to lecture and writing down some things he says, but in order to do well in the class, you'll have to self-study a decent amount from the textbook. There are 2 quizzes in addition to a MT and final, and only the final exam is cumulative. Self-studying is definitely needed if you want to do well on the exams. The content is moderately interesting.
Winter 2024 - Lectures are pretty dry and sleep-inducing. I would still recommend going to lecture and writing down some things he says, but in order to do well in the class, you'll have to self-study a decent amount from the textbook. There are 2 quizzes in addition to a MT and final, and only the final exam is cumulative. Self-studying is definitely needed if you want to do well on the exams. The content is moderately interesting.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2016 - Ozolins is your classic cool, calm, collected, European, fukboi professor. He comes to class almost always in some type of polo (often a pink one or baby blue one), dressed in a way that accentuates that although he is on the older end, he still is fit and has a body of younger times. This is a very typical class where if you do not come to lecture, you can still do fine. The textbook is quite detailed and well written, which translates to relatively ease in studying the content if you put in the time. The practice tests for this class for the quiz and midterms were completely useless, since our fukboi prof just does whatever he wants, albeit has some morals and would not completely destroy the class. I attended every lecture, read over the powerpoints, translated all the information from his class onto my 1 pg cheat sheet (8X11) and did fine ultimately in the class. Also, a NASA scientist does a guest talk towards the end about the space shuttle tiles and that single lecture was more entertaining, informative, and awesome than the rest of the class combined. Highly recommended.
Winter 2016 - Ozolins is your classic cool, calm, collected, European, fukboi professor. He comes to class almost always in some type of polo (often a pink one or baby blue one), dressed in a way that accentuates that although he is on the older end, he still is fit and has a body of younger times. This is a very typical class where if you do not come to lecture, you can still do fine. The textbook is quite detailed and well written, which translates to relatively ease in studying the content if you put in the time. The practice tests for this class for the quiz and midterms were completely useless, since our fukboi prof just does whatever he wants, albeit has some morals and would not completely destroy the class. I attended every lecture, read over the powerpoints, translated all the information from his class onto my 1 pg cheat sheet (8X11) and did fine ultimately in the class. Also, a NASA scientist does a guest talk towards the end about the space shuttle tiles and that single lecture was more entertaining, informative, and awesome than the rest of the class combined. Highly recommended.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Ngl based on the reviews before taking this class, I thought this class was going to be a lot worse and the tests were going to be a lot harder. But I also will say that I studied A LOT for this class and I did slightly above average on all of the tests except one. The very first quiz I did horrible but did way better on all of the other exams, but as long as you get around the average which was about 70-75%, then you'll be okay because he curved the class up to a B+. The lectures are very unhelpful and I ended up teaching myself everything from the textbook because he basically takes the graphs and all of the content from the textbook. I will say though that there were like a few questions on the exams that he only said in lecture, but it was really minor application stuff so that was annoying. I used youtube videos to study and those basically replaced me going to lecture because those were a lot more helpful and they explain it better than Professor Pei. Also my TA's were so unhelpful omg, one of them told me the wrong answers to the test multiple times when we were going over the answers for the test. Office hours are also very unhelpful, so make some friends in this class. Also, because he doesn't release the answers to the test but luckily my TA went over the answers in class, but again some of them were wrong. Do the homeworks though, because he takes some questions that were similar to those and uses them on the test. On the final and midterm you have more than enough time, but I felt on the quizzes you are definitely racing against the clock a little bit. Overall, the class moves fast though because it's an intro to materials, but at least for some of the tests, you just need to know surface level stuff. The content can be really interesting, I just felt like you had to know a lot and then the tests doesn't test you on too much. Try not to take this class with him, try to take it with Gorsky, I heard he's better because this class was not easy and I developed so much anxiety in this class because him and the TA's are just so unhelpful and they don't really care about you. So, he doesn't assign that much work, but you definitely have to put in a lot of work outside of this class to do well (even though he told me that if I understood the lecture slides, I would be fine) and actually understand the concepts.
Spring 2020 - Ngl based on the reviews before taking this class, I thought this class was going to be a lot worse and the tests were going to be a lot harder. But I also will say that I studied A LOT for this class and I did slightly above average on all of the tests except one. The very first quiz I did horrible but did way better on all of the other exams, but as long as you get around the average which was about 70-75%, then you'll be okay because he curved the class up to a B+. The lectures are very unhelpful and I ended up teaching myself everything from the textbook because he basically takes the graphs and all of the content from the textbook. I will say though that there were like a few questions on the exams that he only said in lecture, but it was really minor application stuff so that was annoying. I used youtube videos to study and those basically replaced me going to lecture because those were a lot more helpful and they explain it better than Professor Pei. Also my TA's were so unhelpful omg, one of them told me the wrong answers to the test multiple times when we were going over the answers for the test. Office hours are also very unhelpful, so make some friends in this class. Also, because he doesn't release the answers to the test but luckily my TA went over the answers in class, but again some of them were wrong. Do the homeworks though, because he takes some questions that were similar to those and uses them on the test. On the final and midterm you have more than enough time, but I felt on the quizzes you are definitely racing against the clock a little bit. Overall, the class moves fast though because it's an intro to materials, but at least for some of the tests, you just need to know surface level stuff. The content can be really interesting, I just felt like you had to know a lot and then the tests doesn't test you on too much. Try not to take this class with him, try to take it with Gorsky, I heard he's better because this class was not easy and I developed so much anxiety in this class because him and the TA's are just so unhelpful and they don't really care about you. So, he doesn't assign that much work, but you definitely have to put in a lot of work outside of this class to do well (even though he told me that if I understood the lecture slides, I would be fine) and actually understand the concepts.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - The subject itself is a lot in one go so you will feel rushed. The TA's do a bad job at explaining so I suggest talking to the professor. Tests are open book/open note so I suggest taking notes on paper or print the slides. The homework was strange in the sense it would have some computational stuff then short answer so it feels so jumbled and disorganized, and when you ask the TA's they give such non-helpful hints and the prof won't answer homework questions. Sometimes the homework/tests ask for things not on the slides so read the textbook. There is a tiny curve she gives you as leeway but its not a lot. If you can avoid Pozuelo for this class do it but if you have to I suggest be prepared to do a lot of reading the textbook and learning yourself. Homework 10% 2 Quizes 30% Midterm 25% Final 35% 2% EC for filling out the evaluation survey thing
Fall 2022 - The subject itself is a lot in one go so you will feel rushed. The TA's do a bad job at explaining so I suggest talking to the professor. Tests are open book/open note so I suggest taking notes on paper or print the slides. The homework was strange in the sense it would have some computational stuff then short answer so it feels so jumbled and disorganized, and when you ask the TA's they give such non-helpful hints and the prof won't answer homework questions. Sometimes the homework/tests ask for things not on the slides so read the textbook. There is a tiny curve she gives you as leeway but its not a lot. If you can avoid Pozuelo for this class do it but if you have to I suggest be prepared to do a lot of reading the textbook and learning yourself. Homework 10% 2 Quizes 30% Midterm 25% Final 35% 2% EC for filling out the evaluation survey thing
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