Disclaimer: Taken online during pandemic
I wanted to write this review because I was surprised by the negative reviews. I thought the early homework assignments were challenging because the professor wanted us to think through the problems and write out our own thoughts. I think people were mad because they couldn't find anything to directly copy off of the internet or out of the book. So, yes, many questions were open ended and required thinking and writing. I thought that they were very fairly graded considering how hard it would be to think of every single possibility in your answer. I also enjoyed the videos he had us watch as homework-- this class truly made me research topics I was interested in on my own time. As for the final, yes, it was open ended and a little tricky, but he provided a very clear example in lecture that made it a lot easier to understand. His lectures could be a little dry and I think a part of that was because of the online format, but when I had trouble on the homework I could usually re-watch the lecture and figure it out. Overall I thought this class was good for the pandemic-- we had at least a week to do everything, we didn't really have to watch lecture, and the grading scheme allowed for a lot of errors to still get a good grade. If you have a really hard time putting your thoughts in sentences and prefer straight computations, then maybe not the class for you. Personally, I really enjoyed the structure and thought the professor was good. He's not going to be your best friend, and he acts like he has more important things to do, but still overall a fair class where I learned a lot.

Also taken during the quarantine quarter. The lectures weren't super useful for most of the homework problems, which were directly from the book, and I didn't pay much attention to most of them, especially since for most of the class the material isn't that bad and just builds off of physics concepts you should already know. The most complicated part of the class is the very last chapter and a half or so. The lectures were kind of useful for answering the conceptual questions he asked on tests and other test problems that he wrote himself, but most if not all lectures were recorded and his notes uploaded to CCLE so you could go back and check if you wanted to. The test and homework questions he wrote himself (or had the TAs write I'm not sure) were often unclear in what they were asking and required several follow-ups to try and clarify what they're asking (a lot of the time these weren't super helpful either and a lot of the class was still confused). The final was kinda weird and someone else already mentioned what it was, but he did solve a somewhat similar problem in lecture so that helped in answering the question.

The MATLAB portions of the homework weren't bad but could be unclear and time-consuming if you've never used MATLAB before (which I hadn't). Thankfully there were only a few of these.

He made all the tests week-long take-home assignments, so they were essentially like homework assignments and weren't much more difficult if at all. I don't know why people are complaining about him being unaccommodating considering you literally had to spend zero time studying for this class since you could just run lectures in the background to get an idea of the material for the week then use the book, internet, and slader to solve the homework and tests as you're doing them.

Honestly the reviews for this professor were good and the subject material seemed cool so I was excited. I should NOT have been. He did not care at all about the situations at hand and made homework assignments really hard so that you had to literally learn MATLAB to be able to do them?? which did not help me understand any of the material?? His tests were kinda ridiculous, not even because they were hard just because I couldn't understand what he was asking at all for the conceptual ones and thought my answer was really good but then he graded horribly and was not understanding of regrade requests at all. His office hours were terrifying because he would just imply you were stupid. Overall do not recommend.

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.

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.