Professor
Rafael Zaldivar
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - If composite manufacturing and testing seems interesting to you, then you will love this class and how this guy teaches these topics. I believe this is just his side gig from his regular job at Aerospace Corp or something similar, but he is definitely very good at teaching. Most of his lectures are centered around industrial practices and standards instead of endless theory. A lot of his exam questions are "This happened so how do you fix it" or "why did this component fail," so you'll need a pretty hefty understanding of the content to do well, but the practicality makes the content a bit easier to retain than giant equations and theory (except for the certain stupid ASTM standards that he says you won't need to memorize but really you do) . The downside is that if you don't absolutely love composites, this class becomes a major hassle. The workload is pretty low, but the exams are by no means easy if you haven't developed a near perfect understanding of his lecture. To be fair, his class is probably more palatable in person than online since he seems like the type to hand out samples to look at. A lot of people P/NP'd the class that year despite doing well because the exam scores for an open book exam were stupid low. For me, this class was a clear indication that I should move away from composites. My friend took the class with me and is still pursuing the field, so it is really dependent on your interests whether this class is worthwhile for you
Spring 2020 - If composite manufacturing and testing seems interesting to you, then you will love this class and how this guy teaches these topics. I believe this is just his side gig from his regular job at Aerospace Corp or something similar, but he is definitely very good at teaching. Most of his lectures are centered around industrial practices and standards instead of endless theory. A lot of his exam questions are "This happened so how do you fix it" or "why did this component fail," so you'll need a pretty hefty understanding of the content to do well, but the practicality makes the content a bit easier to retain than giant equations and theory (except for the certain stupid ASTM standards that he says you won't need to memorize but really you do) . The downside is that if you don't absolutely love composites, this class becomes a major hassle. The workload is pretty low, but the exams are by no means easy if you haven't developed a near perfect understanding of his lecture. To be fair, his class is probably more palatable in person than online since he seems like the type to hand out samples to look at. A lot of people P/NP'd the class that year despite doing well because the exam scores for an open book exam were stupid low. For me, this class was a clear indication that I should move away from composites. My friend took the class with me and is still pursuing the field, so it is really dependent on your interests whether this class is worthwhile for you
1 of 1
