This was a great class! Definitely the kind of class that you get out of it what you put into it. Lectures are very engaging-- lots of participation opportunities (participation is extra credit btw) so if you're like me and you enjoy active learning rather than dry lectures, this is a good class. The professor really likes space and robots, which is great, because so do I! Many, if not most, lecture & hw problems have something to do with space, which is AMAZING. Also, there are no longer any MATLAB assignments! Just week-long HW's and quizzes-- HW tests your calculation skills, while quizzes test your ability to understand and explain concepts clearly, and derive equations. The class is definitely graded leniently, but it's also genuinely informative.
(Btw, if you take this class, heads up that the professor uses a bar over a character to indicate a vector, rather than an arrow over that vector.)
Overall, would definitely recommend this professor, especially if you're a space/robot nerd who likes engaging lectures.

DISCLAIMER: I took this class during Rona Szn so formatting could be very different for in person.

Davoyan is getting a lot of hate from this quarter but I didn't think he was that bad. The format of the class for this rona quarter was 20% MT1, 20% MT2, 20% Final Exam, 40% Homework (there were two types of homework.)

Lectures were not helpful at all, I didn't go after the couple of weeks but the material is heavily based off of 1A knowledge so using google and the textbook I was able to mostly teach myself what I needed to know.

The midterms were kind of easy cause they were half problems directly from the textbook and the other half was super open ended that he came up with himself. Since each test was only 20% of your grade, we had a whole week to do it (he even said you could google stuff if you needed help,) and the test was worth 110%, it was super low stress.

The homework was divided into two types, Type 1 which were just problems directly from the textbook (all on Slader) and Type 2. A lot of people didn't enjoy the Type 2 homeworks but I thought it was pretty interesting. There were only about 5 of the Type 2 assignments and half of those required MATLAB. It wasn't anything too hard, just plotting equations and derivatives of equations, I had zero MATLAB knowledge but using YouTube it wasn't even that bad. There was one MATLAB problem which no one really knew how to do, but when it comes down to it that problem was worth at most 0.5% of your grade so there was no point stressing about it. The majority of the Type 2 homework problems was just reading an article or watching a YouTube video and writing down interesting things.

The final was only one problem and we had a week to do it, but it was essentially using everything we learned to talk through how one would plot the landing of a Falcon 9 booster. Personally I though this was sick and an awesome way to test our knowledge, but a lot of people didn't like it.

Professor Davoyan seemed like a cool dude to me but didn't have the best social cues so I guess might have come across as rude. Honestly I would recommend this class cause I thought it was a refreshing approach on engineering classes that emphasized being independent and developing engineering skills on your own.

TL;DR: I wouldn't take this class if you prefer a typical class experience where you just need equations to get by, but if you want to be more independent and develop real engineering thinking, would highly recommend.

It's Week 9 of Spring Quarter 2021 and nothing is going to change between now and the end of the quarter, so I might as well write a review.

Please Do Not Take This Class if you want to learn about dynamics. All the lectures are useless and are filled with derivations that are often very difficult to follow. The lectures lack structure, and the notes are often a jumble of equations and random shapes. Davoyan himself is a nice guy but doesn't seem to care about teaching and it's obvious he puts in minimal effort into the class. The homeworks are "easy" but only because close to identical questions are solved during discussions, and the quizzes are basically the homework questions with slightly different numbers. This means you could do very well in this class but come out of it not understanding a single thing about dynamics.

The lectures are uninspiring, the homeworks and exams are a joke, and I can safely say I have not learned a single thing from taking 102 with Davoyan. And judging from the class GroupMe, I know many others feel the same way.

tl;dr - don't take this class

This is my second class with Professor Davoyan. He is a really engaging lecturer that always makes sure things are clear for every student. You will never feel lost if you pay attention to his lectures. This was taken during COVID, but he was very forgiving with tests. Rather than a midterm, we had several small quizzes with a week to do each. For the final we had a few days. The questions were extremely fair. The homeworks helped prepare you for all the problems he could ask.

you have to learn MATLAB in your own time in this class. You have teach yourself. The homework assignments in MATLAB were very unclear. The midterms and final questions were also unclear. Students are engineers, but they should not be expected to solve major engineering problems yet. It is ridiculous to put a HUGE OPEN-ENDED PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING QUESTION AS THE FINAL. Not accomodating of the difficult times.

This was my second class with Professor Davoyan, and I would gladly take a third class if I had the chance to. Davoyan comes to class and gets started right away most times, with a lot of writing, but also a lot of good explanation. He has a slight accent, but it doesn't interfere with understanding. He can be very direct in what you need to know and understand, but he will keep driving a point until we get it. Davoyan clearly has an immense passion for aerospace and space exploration, and he will sometimes include slides at the end of lectures to reinforce our learning and give real examples of the topics we are covering, as well as giving us insight into the industry itself and the kind of thinking needed.

From what I've heard from classmates, Davoyan's teaching style can be a bit polarizing, with some people really enjoying it, and others disliking it. However, I can definitely recommend this class with him. The knowledge he possesses and the passion he has for this topic are reason enough to take it with him, and if you are passionate in this subject, you will love this class.

Davoyan's lectures were somewhat helpful but just very boring. His tests and quizzes were all take home with like 5ish days to work on them and they weren't super difficult either.

He oversimplified all his lectures, leaving all the students lost when it came to the actual homework assignments. His midterms and finals weren't excessively hard but no one knew what to expect on them. He was very passionate about what he was teaching but seemed like he should have been teaching an upper division orbits class rather than an entry level dynamics class.

Disclaimer: I took this class online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I'm not sure if this class was really like Physics 1A/AP Physics 1, or it was just taught that way, but that's how it came out to be. The lectures were pretty dry, and this class was pretty formulaic as a whole. If you care to learn more about the conceptual side, it'll be there for you, but if not, you can definitely get by in the class by just knowing the equations. Prof. Davoyan's grading scheme is really great, as everything is worth 20%, and he also gives extra credit on all of his exams.

I had the privilege of taking MAE 102 with Professor Davoyan, and would highly recommend this course as taught by him. He is extremely passionate about the subject, as his own research involves space propulsion and orbital mechanics.

The level of difficulty of this course is perfectly reasonable; the exams are extremely straightforward, with generous grading and partial credit. Extra credit opportunities are available throughout the course, both through "extra" exam questions and external mini-projects.

The homework consisted of 10-15 selected problems from the textbook; the workload was reasonable both in time and difficulty. In discussion, the key concepts of each homework set were rigorously covered by the TA, allowing students to fully understand any material that was not already explained in lecture. Both Professor Davoyan and the TAs were extremely welcoming to students, with extensive office hours and opportunities during lecture to ask questions about any concepts covered.

As taught by this professor, it is certainly possible to put in the minimum amount of work and still receive a good grade; however, anyone who did that would be missing out on extremely interesting subject matter taught by a brilliant professor. I would highly recommend this course for those who seek a comprehensive understanding of rigid-body dynamics from an engineering/physics standpoint.