Really enjoyed taking Professor Williams' class. The workload felt manageable at almost all times, learned a lot from the discussion sections, and had a grade booster presentation that also gave a good push to learn about real world applications of a more conceptual class. Highly recommend taking this class. Shoutout to Anthony, as he was the best TA I've had here personally!

No clue why older students at a certain EE club at UCLA worship this man. This class has got to have the highest ratio of work involved to content learned that I have ever taken here. Firstly, the content between weeks 1-4 was, in my opinion, completely irrelevant to understanding the content in Weeks 4-6, contrary to what others might say. You don't need quantum shit to understand intrinsic/extrinsic semiconductors, band structure, and eventually photodiodes. Secondly, the homeworks have got to be some of the most braindead but most involved pieces of shit I have ever done. Imagine doing brainless integration by parts for 6-8 hours on a fucking homework, I could not. 7 homeworks too, which I think could really have been cut down a notch. Final was easy enough, and they had 2 quizzes, 1 of which was on pure quantum; I literally had two midterms the day after the first 2H quiz in 2 upper div classes, so I obviously thought it was more important to study for those than for a dumb lower-div quiz, so I bombed the first one, while acing the second one.

Alot of people in the aforementioned club will harp on about how goated this class is, and how ass other upper-div EE classes are. Sorry to say, but I disagree, a lot of these "hard upper-div EE classes" are actually far less work and cancer than this godforsaken class. If you are pondering about taking 2H because you have been told by the old grandmas and grampas of a certain EE club to take ECE 2H, think again, they are misleading you. Just take it with Chee Wei Wong in Spring, a lot less work and irrelevant content and similar if not easier difficulty.

Williams is a pretty good professor in the EE department. This is a lower div that introduces you to semiconductor physics and quantum mechanics. If you haven't taken Chem 20A at UCLA, I'd recommend you do before taking this class.

In terms of lecture style, he is kinda dry. Most lectures are just writing derivations on empty slides and explaining concepts with pictures. A lot of hand-waving, especially for the first half of the class with quantum. The class got a lot more interesting later on as we went more into semiconductors and how they work.

Workload was pretty light for most of the quarter. The only major assignment that took up a lot of time was the final presentation, where you present on any approved topic tangentially related to course material. Other than that, I did all of my homeworks the day of, and the TA Anthony was pretty forgiving with partial credit. You get a homework drop and a lot of the problems from the textbook, so if you didn't really care, you didn't have to put much effort in the hw, especially since it's only 25% of the final grade.

Exams were fair. You get a new cheat sheet every assessment (i.e. 1 for quiz 1, 2 for quiz 2, 3 for the final). A lot of them were conceptual explanations with some plug-and-chug for calculation problems, so it wasn't too bad if you pay attention in class. Anthony also held review sessions that had similarly-styled questions. Highly recommend going to those.

Not sure if there was a curve or not since our class did alright on the quizzes (~80-85% avg) and pretty well on the presentation (~90% avg).

From what I've heard about the other ECE 2 profs, I'd say take 2H with Williams if you're at all interested in semiconductors or circuits.

Professor Williams is a very dry lecturer. He goes off his slides at inconsistent paces and the slides are usually very dense. The class goes at a very fast pace, with not very easy content matter (since it is an honors class). This class consisted of 7 homeworks (basically one a week), two quizzes (which are basically two smaller midterms), a final presentation, and a final (which was different from all the previous years). This class demanded a lot of time, especially since the topics jumped from quantum, semiconductors, and then pn-junction and photodiodes. If you are really interested in the topics mentioned above and can handle the fast-pace and workload, I recommend you take it.

I was probably the only non-EE major taking this class, but I ended up really enjoying the material. I knew next to nothing about semiconductors aside from a brief 20-minute portion of a lecture in Mat Sci 104, and this class really opened my eyes to why they were such a technologically significant development in the 20th century. Grading breakdown was 25% HW, 30% for two quizzes, 15% Presentation, and 30% Final. I thought that the lectures, while very well done by Professor Williams, were not entirely necessary, because he essentially narrates what he writes down. Also all of the previous year's recordings were made available for our viewing. I would still suggest you go to them since he occasionally hints at conceptual problems that he may ask on exams, and most of the time they end up showing up in some form. Homework was pretty standard - a mix of textbook problems and problems written by the professor. Some of the earlier homework involving quantum mechanics were quite time consuming, but the load lightens significantly towards the latter half of the class. The exams all followed a similar format of being 80% conceptual and 20% computational. Most of the problems involved some sort of "explain what happens to x process when y condition is changed". The actual questions ranged from very straightforward to difficult, and they really depend on your complete understanding of what goes on conceptually. Fortunately, grading was pretty lenient, and a lot of partial credit was assigned just for getting in the ballpark of the right answer. There was also a final presentation about any topic even tangentially related to semiconductor physics. It consisted of a slide deck and a three minute presentation followed by a question by either the professor or the TA. This was honestly the most stressful part of the class for me but it was also graded very leniently, which I appreciated, especially in a quarter with a demanding Week 10. Compared to the other engineering classes I've taken at UCLA, it's definitely on the heavier side in terms of workload, so I'm not sure why the department listed it as a lower division class. But you can definitely do well in the class if you put in the effort.
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I also just want to give a shoutout to Anthony for being probably the best TA that I've ever had. He is always able to explain the most convoluted concepts from lecture in a way that we can understand. He led review sessions for each of the exams and gave some important insights on how to approach some of the conceptual problems. Technical knowledge aside, he was also very personable and approachable. Thank you for all your help this quarter, Anthony!

Professor Williams is clearly very intelligent and knowledgeable about all of the topics in this class. His slides are organized, and the content of the class is really interesting if you like photonics and solar cells. He often goes over lots of derivations and formulas so it can be sometimes a dry lecture and it can be hard to parse what is actually important. I really did learn a lot in this class that is very applicable in the photonics field.

He gives three quizzes, 30 minutes each in class, and they are very reasonable. They are mostly conceptual with some calculations, and it's super important to actually understand what is happening in class and to connect all of the ideas.

There are three or four homeworks, and the last one on solar cells is the most intensive one. The second one is also derivation heavy. It's all doable but definitely start early on all of them.

The class ends with a final presentation and a final paper on a topic related to the class. The paper is a review so you'll be reading research papers about it and then writing about a 5-6 page paper on it. Because professor williams really knows his stuff in the photonics field you cannot bs any of this at all. If there's a gap in your knowledge he will see right through it. He's honestly probably read all of the papers we all cited and knew specific figures and authors as well. The presentation is also a bit tough, because it's 15% of your grade. He's tight with the timing and will cut you off. If your slides aren't well designed and you don't know your topic well it will show, and his questions that he asks you at the end will show that. Just be prepared for technical questions and to explain all of the concepts, and especially figures of merit, and what the state of the art is in the field.

The only negatives of this class is that sometimes Professor is so knowledgeable about the topic that he can't really fathom ever not understanding it. Sometimes he can be a bit passive aggressive if you ask basic questions during class or in office hours. He's more than willing to go over things again, but there's been more than once where I've felt stupid for asking questions and have honestly just kept my mouth shut. He expects you to remember concepts learned in the early weeks and to keep building on those even though it can be easy to forget. This is a pretty common experience for many students, but it builds tough skin which we all need.

The recitation for this class is honestly just a friday sometimes where his graduate students give presentations about the topics in class. Sometimes this class is so small that there is no TA, just the professor. These presentations are interesting, but the grad students aren't there to be a TA, so it can be a bit difficult in that sense because you can only really ask questions to the professor.

Overall this class is not easy. Professor Williams treats it like a graduate level course, and it's challenging. You will have to dedicate time to this class for lectures, and homeworks, and taking extra time to understand it all. But at the end, it's incredibly rewarding and the content is truly very interesting. Definitely take this course if you're willing to put the work in, and it'll be a good experience.

Prof. Williams' EE101 is challenging but rewarding. His lectures are well prepared and he (naturally) speaks perfect English. There are weekly homework assignments that reflect the material in lecture nicely. His tests and quiz are probably easier than the homework assignments. Prof. Williams is the type who doesn't hand out answers, and would prefer to walk you through a problem instead. I really have no complaints for this class whatsoever.

clear and organized lectures.
Midterm was similar to hw, final was very similar to the type of questions in practice final he posted online.

If you want an easy A in 101, take Ozcan. If you really want to learn a lot about E&M, take Williams. Williams is probably the best professor I've had here at UCLA. Like the previous person said, he does come across as a little serious, but he is definitely the most articulate and concise lecturer I have known. His pacing is good, his explanations are excellent, his homework is challenging (but in a good way), and his tests are fair. To me, they felt comparatively easy given how well prepared I felt from homework and lectures. He was also a fairly generous grader (though not as generous as Ozcan). I would highly recommend Williams for 101!

Ben Williams is a great guy; I took EE 2 with him this quarter because he was teaching it (I took 101 with him last quarter). I love how he goes slowly during lecture so you have some time to process what he is teaching. He always answers your questions, and he knows what he's talking about. He always prepares lectures and posts them online afterwards.