Professor
Laurent Pilon
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - Pilon is alright, but this class was incredibly frustrating. (Taken as an online class). I felt like I had a good handle on everything before the midterm, but the midterm wrecked me so much I had to Pass/No Pass this class. There were two parts on the midterm, one for 'conceptual questions' where we weren't supposed to have a cheat sheet, but all the questions were about details of the equations or plain ridiculous (apparently we had to memorize the critical point of water). The second part, with in-depth calculations were more reasonable, but still more difficult than the homework, and not enough time was given. Because there is only one midterm I didn't feel confident in my grade after it and switched my grade type, which made me lose interest in the rest of the material. The lectures are fine, they are easy to learn from, but because they aren't live it is hard to ask questions or connect with the class. Homework assignments also take forever.
Spring 2020 - Pilon is alright, but this class was incredibly frustrating. (Taken as an online class). I felt like I had a good handle on everything before the midterm, but the midterm wrecked me so much I had to Pass/No Pass this class. There were two parts on the midterm, one for 'conceptual questions' where we weren't supposed to have a cheat sheet, but all the questions were about details of the equations or plain ridiculous (apparently we had to memorize the critical point of water). The second part, with in-depth calculations were more reasonable, but still more difficult than the homework, and not enough time was given. Because there is only one midterm I didn't feel confident in my grade after it and switched my grade type, which made me lose interest in the rest of the material. The lectures are fine, they are easy to learn from, but because they aren't live it is hard to ask questions or connect with the class. Homework assignments also take forever.
Most Helpful Review
I loved Pilon! He's a good professor and even tries to learn everyone's names. Don't be late for class or he'll call you out on it. His tests are actually pretty easy...half conceptual and half analytical. When you solve problems, don't make stupid mistakes cause they're pretty stingy on the partial credit. On the midterm, one of the problems asked you to compare two different values. I solved for the two different numbers (correctly) but since I didn't find the ratio I got 7 points marked down. Kinda unfair in my opinion. Just make sure you read the questions carefully! You kinda have to go to every lecture. He'll notice.
I loved Pilon! He's a good professor and even tries to learn everyone's names. Don't be late for class or he'll call you out on it. His tests are actually pretty easy...half conceptual and half analytical. When you solve problems, don't make stupid mistakes cause they're pretty stingy on the partial credit. On the midterm, one of the problems asked you to compare two different values. I solved for the two different numbers (correctly) but since I didn't find the ratio I got 7 points marked down. Kinda unfair in my opinion. Just make sure you read the questions carefully! You kinda have to go to every lecture. He'll notice.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Pilon is a great guy, but this class was kinda tough for me. He's very particular about everyone being in class on time, no phones in class, etc. It's the exact same as 105D, but with a lot more math involved. He likes to focus on the derivations and proofs of the heat transfer equations, which I wasn't a fan of. The homework took a lot of time every week; without Chegg I would have been screwed. The exams weren't terrible, as long as you understand the fundamentals of the class and not just the equations. The project at the end of the quarter takes a long time, but it's pretty interesting and overall not too bad. I'd recommend taking this class just to get to know Pilon, but the math-emphasis diminished my interest in heat transfer.
Fall 2019 - Pilon is a great guy, but this class was kinda tough for me. He's very particular about everyone being in class on time, no phones in class, etc. It's the exact same as 105D, but with a lot more math involved. He likes to focus on the derivations and proofs of the heat transfer equations, which I wasn't a fan of. The homework took a lot of time every week; without Chegg I would have been screwed. The exams weren't terrible, as long as you understand the fundamentals of the class and not just the equations. The project at the end of the quarter takes a long time, but it's pretty interesting and overall not too bad. I'd recommend taking this class just to get to know Pilon, but the math-emphasis diminished my interest in heat transfer.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Professor Pilon is a cool guy and his lectures are extremely engaging. He definitely has a lot of knowledge about energy production methods, and is great at explaining different concepts as well as answering student's questions in class. His class is also fairly entertaining in the way he will create dialogue with students or crack jokes every now and then. Now for the complaints. Until week 7ish the material in the course was very interesting as we studied different methods of energy production including coal, petroleum, nuclear, wind, solar, etc. However, past this point, Pilon started using lectures to discuss newer technologies being researched which felt like a bit of a waste of time. Specifically, Pilon is obsessed with his "friend" Aldo Steinfeld who does research on concentrating solar power. The previous lectures were very dense with material so I felt like these could've been condensed into fewer lectures. I generally enjoyed Pilon commenting on contemporary energy related events (specifically Russia and Ukraine), but found it irritating when he strayed too far away into politics. My main issue with Pilon was the disorganization of the class. The midterm date was up in the air until about a week before it, and it was EXTREMELY unclear as to what would actually be on the midterm. The grading rubric on the midterm must have been designed by a two year old, because despite having almost the right answer, I recieved a 74% on the free response portion. Additionally, the homeworks for the class were a weird mixture between questions relevant to the course and thermodynamics questions (which we do not cover what so ever). Make up your mind, goodness. Finally, despite portraying himself as someone that can be easily accessed by students, Pilon will frequently and randomly ignore student's requests to meet for office hours. He ignored me on two separate emails. Overall, I enjoyed the class (especially if I get an A because I worked hard). I found the class content very interesting and certainly not too tough but wish that Pilon could improve the class organization and respond to emails.
Winter 2022 - Professor Pilon is a cool guy and his lectures are extremely engaging. He definitely has a lot of knowledge about energy production methods, and is great at explaining different concepts as well as answering student's questions in class. His class is also fairly entertaining in the way he will create dialogue with students or crack jokes every now and then. Now for the complaints. Until week 7ish the material in the course was very interesting as we studied different methods of energy production including coal, petroleum, nuclear, wind, solar, etc. However, past this point, Pilon started using lectures to discuss newer technologies being researched which felt like a bit of a waste of time. Specifically, Pilon is obsessed with his "friend" Aldo Steinfeld who does research on concentrating solar power. The previous lectures were very dense with material so I felt like these could've been condensed into fewer lectures. I generally enjoyed Pilon commenting on contemporary energy related events (specifically Russia and Ukraine), but found it irritating when he strayed too far away into politics. My main issue with Pilon was the disorganization of the class. The midterm date was up in the air until about a week before it, and it was EXTREMELY unclear as to what would actually be on the midterm. The grading rubric on the midterm must have been designed by a two year old, because despite having almost the right answer, I recieved a 74% on the free response portion. Additionally, the homeworks for the class were a weird mixture between questions relevant to the course and thermodynamics questions (which we do not cover what so ever). Make up your mind, goodness. Finally, despite portraying himself as someone that can be easily accessed by students, Pilon will frequently and randomly ignore student's requests to meet for office hours. He ignored me on two separate emails. Overall, I enjoyed the class (especially if I get an A because I worked hard). I found the class content very interesting and certainly not too tough but wish that Pilon could improve the class organization and respond to emails.
Most Helpful Review
This class was a lot of work: problem sets, case studies, project, but I learned a lot about radiation from these assignments. The project required many hours of effort and I felt that the topics were too open ended. Pilon often says a lot of things will happen but they never do.
This class was a lot of work: problem sets, case studies, project, but I learned a lot about radiation from these assignments. The project required many hours of effort and I felt that the topics were too open ended. Pilon often says a lot of things will happen but they never do.
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