The concepts in this class are difficult and Kavepour did a decent job explaining the topics but the goated discussions held by John Hollister really solidified my understanding for this entire class. Homeworks are optional but I recommend going through a few and practicing the previous exams to strengthen your understanding. I averaged a C+ in both my midterms but after taking the final I ended the class with an A.

You probably have to take him. He's really not that bad once you get to know what to expect. He seems really chill but he can be kind of sassy harsh sometimes. Only if you're disrespecting his rules. He has this no phones thing, but there are a lot of "phone breaks" and honestly it works pretty well like you focus a lot. His lectures very rarely are over an hour and a half too so you usually finish early.
Homework means nothing, point wise. BUT YOU NEED TO DO IT. Otherwise you're lost. He does basically no practice problems in lecture. If you don't care about derivations, no need to really attend. But discussion is a NEED. GO TO THOSE. Super helpful.
His entire class is based on eight questions (2 mt1, 2 mt2, 4 final). If you get an A on the final you get an A in the class. If you want to do that, final topics are almost always conservation of mass and momentum (chapter 5), turbulent flow (chapter 8) and converging diverging nozzle with shock (chapter 11). If not, take it seriously. The tests are mad hard and takes a lot of thought and work. I used up all the time each time. Try to be above the mean if you can, it is usually a good spot to be. There isn't really a curve. Good luck!

This class has 8 questions. Each is worth 50 points. Two on the first midterm, two on the second midterm, and 4 on the final. And that's the class! There is the added caveat that if you score above a 90 on the final you automatically get an A regardless of midterm grades. But the midterms are far easier than the final, so lock in early and coast. Exams are open-note, open-book, and you can even download the homework solutions to your device - except you absolutely need the textbook to look up formulas, table values, and curves/graphs. THIS IS A CLASS WHERE BUYING AN IPAD IS WORTH IT. Sitting in a shitty lecture hall desk for exams was a pain, and I couldn't imagine having to rifle through a physical textbook to find it. You can have the textbook open on your laptop, but the logistics of juggling your exam, device, and calculator make it all a little tight to add a thick book on top of it all. There are homework assignments, but they aren't graded. Instead, they're a selection of textbook problems that give you practice with the formula and methods. Worked out solutions are available for these as well.

Kavehpour himself is mildly terrifying. He has an extremely strict no phone policy, and he'll ask you to either explain why you're on your phone during his class or ask you to leave. He also will interrupt your questions with your peers or ask what you're typing - basically if you're doing anything other than silently and attentively taking notes, he'll get mad at you. On the positive side, he does "phone breaks" - if he wraps up a derivation, he'll give you 2 minutes to use your phone and talk (as well as the obligatory 5-10 minute break halfway through the lecture). He also starts class 10 minutes after the hour, so getting to class shouldn't be an issue. Outside of his character and quirks, he's pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a MIT grad.

The lectures for this class can be somewhat overwhelming. It is extremely math heavy, and hinges on your understanding of multivariable calculus. Vectors and vector calculus are critical for modeling how fluids move and behave, and if you want to follow along in lecture it really helps to remember the del operator, flux integrals, partial derivatives, chain rule, etc. Thankfully, none of the actual calculus appears on exams, it's just helpful if you want to understand the formulas you're copying down. In terms of exams, some problems can be solved in less than 5 minutes as long as you know which formulas to use. Control volumes are the bulk of this class, and as long as you make sure to state your assumptions, define your axes, normal vectors, and draw the control volume, you should be good. The last 2 concepts are pipe flow and compressible (gas) flow, and they're more tedious. Having a TI - Nspire or other calculator that can solve algebraic equations makes things a whole lot easier, but in general these types of problems are a bit more computational rather than a lot of theory and a quick plug and chug the way the beginning of the course is. A strong foundation in physics and a conceptual understanding of what's happening makes a big difference when you're identifying the areas of jets, calculating mass flow rates, and doing any of the other fun calculations that appear in this class.

The bottom line is, fluid dynamics are pretty cool and Kavehpour makes this class unique but mostly pleasant. He'll tell you exactly what's going to be on the exams, so just do exactly that and you should be in the clear. Even if you're not going on to MAE 150A or anything else fluids, it's a cool class and the things you learn are worth the effort.

WOW. When I was starting the quarter off taking this class, the first thing Kavehpour said was no phones, or you'll be 'asked to leave' (i.e. he calls you out and you stumble over your words). He followed that up with your grade being made up of ONLY the two midterms and final with no curve(8 questions in total).
Now after taking this class, I have to say I'm disappointed that he only teaches one undergraduate class, because I would love to take him again!!
In terms of grading, the TAs and him gave a generous amount of partial credit, enough that the averages of the first two midterms were in the high 80s. He tells you exactly what is on the exams, and sticks to it.
As a lecturer, he was really engaging. He often ended his lectures early by almost a half hour. The TAs do most of the practice problems like something seen on a test, while the professor goes over the derivations.
Overall, I would 10/10 recommend taking him if you have the chance! I believe that he is a much better teacher in person than he was when it was an online format.

There are so many bad reviews about him and I have no idea why? This has been one of my favorite classes and most stress free classes in the Mech&AE department. He had prerecorded lectures that you could watch at any time and were just 1 hour long most of the time. His explanations are concise and to the point, which makes learning way more enjoyable. He often "roasts" students but it's all in good spirits and you can see its out of humor and nothing malicious. I really really enjoyed this class and it never felt like attending lecture was a chore. He gave us 1 midterm worth 40% and 1 final worth 60%, both we straightforward exams and had nothing out of the ordinary. In my opinion this was an easy A. He also had two whole lectures towards the end of the class to just solve example problems which was really helpful and the exams were pretty similar. I highly recommend this class and the professor!

The covid-19 tests were brutal and took around a dozen hours each, but his lectures, the homework problems, and the discussions were exactly what you needed to be successful in the course. Great professor, you will learn a lot.

Ok I came into this class thinking it was going to be really bad, but turns out I think I'm just stupid and I didn't go to lecture and when I did I didn't retain too much. Maybe he liked our class but I thought the midterm and final weren't too bad if you actually kind of went to lecture and did the homework problems. Every time we had a test, I would teach myself everything because they were 24 hours, but usually many of the questions are similar to problems in the textbook and the homework problems (which are from the textbook also). Definitely do the homework and go to discussion because they do example problems there that Kavehpour doesn't always do too much of. Overall I would take him but if there's a better prof you should prob go with him. BUT in person I don't think I would've taken him haha the only reason why I did so well was because I had all day to figure out the problems.

I had this class over during Covid 19 and as a summer session so don't take my review too seriously, your experience may differ a lot. All lectures were pre-recorded Zooms from the last semester and we had two additional post lecture discussions per week if you had any questions/didn't understand certain concepts. We only had 5 quizzes throughout the semester with the option to drop the lowest one. These quizzes were not hard per se but not easy either. They generally followed the structure of a HW problem with a twist. What really helped me through this semester was the discussion class where our TA would review problems and explain his logic going through an exercise. I was honestly a fun experience and am exited to take more fluid classes in the future.

Professor Kavehpour is great and a really engaging lecturer. That being said, he doesn't go over how to solve problems so make sure you go to discussion for that. Midterms and finals are taken from problems from other books. He also will tell you to use a test bank, which you really should, since he reuses questions for the exams. The midterms were pretty easy, but the final was a bit harder.

Cool guy. He doesn't allow cell phones, which I think is good since now you're forced to pay attention and the material is pretty interesting. He starts lecture ten minutes late (on purpose) and usually ends ten or so minutes early (if we have a break about 50 minutes in; if there's no break then we would end 20 or so minutes early).

The two midterms were pretty straightforward and graded very fairly in my opinion. The first one was open book and notes (he allowed digital textbooks aka laptop or iPad but no phones), but he changed that for the second one since the class got really crowded and cluttered and it was hard to proctor. We were only allowed a formula sheet (front and back) for the second midterm. I'm not sure if he'll keep implementing the open book and notes policy, I think it depends on the class size and number of students (and in the end it's all up to him). The questions on the midterms were a little more difficult than the homework problems, but not really by that much. He provides typed-up solutions to every homework assignment so each solution is easy to follow and understand.

Because of the coronavirus situation, he gave us a take-home final that we had 12 hours to complete (8am-8pm). This meant it was open book, note, computer, everything (except the obvious: don't work with other people; not something he could monitor but I hope people had some integrity and didn't do this). I'm not sure if he made the final harder due to the whole weird situation but I thought it was pretty tough.

Overall I thought he was a good professor.