I appreciated this class for the opportunity it gave me to befriend other engineering freshmen, and also for its coverage of interdisciplinary engineering skills such as SolidWorks, 3D printing, laser cutting, Arduino programming and embedded circuits. However, the content taught in class was insufficient, so everyone was relying on their own prior knowledge to make progress on the project. The 3-hour worksessions were thus draining for me, but it helps that this class is a guaranteed A as long as you show up for class and make progress on the rover. I'd advise making sure that you have a good mix of mechanical/electrical/computer engineers in your group for this class as you basically need to know how to CAD, code and wire.

The class is taught by two TAs, who were very helpful and understanding. I say understanding because not a single rover worked properly. That was only due to the time constraint and lack of experience among classmates. The class is graded almost solely on participation. As long as you're working on your rover, you'll get an A. The instructions weren't very clear or organized, but it was a fun challenge to try to figure out what to do. I'd take the class again after experiencing it once and learning what to do and what not to do in building my rover.