NOTE: I actually took BE 188 (Cell Engineering) with Dr. Li, not 176.

Well, the main positive thing from the class is that you learn a lot about topics in cell biology and immunology (e.g., immunomodulation/immunoisolation, stem cells) that you do not really get in the other electives in the BE program at UCLA.

However, I felt that the negatives definitely outweighed the positives for the following reasons:

1. The professor is not good at posting things on time. Lectures and other materials were posted 1-2 days (or more) after he said he would post them, which is inconvenient for students who may want to take notes on the printed slides or who want to access lab protocols and homework on a timely basis.

2. The class had a big load of work. Midterms and Final combines were about 45% of your grade (I think it was midterm 20% and final 25). A group project (a 1 page proposal+8 to 10 min presentation + final paper of 10 pages max) was worth 15%, homework (you got full credit for completing it and turning it in on time, which is a positive) was worth 20%, and labs were worth 20%. If you don't think that's bad, then you are mistaken, which brings me to the next point...

3. The labs were not well structured at the beginning. The first lab was like a battlefield. People were rushing to and fro trying to complete everything AND Dr. Li was there, unable to control it. He is the HEAD of the department, and I don't think it fared well on him. Also, he initially wanted to have groups of 2, but anyone with two working eyes could have seen that there weren't enough hoods for that to happen (again, he is the department head, and this doesn't make him look good). But that's not all! He told us to complete the "Chemical, Biological, and General" lab safety courses for lab. News flash: Those titles don't exist at UCLA! And yet again, this makes the head of the BE department seem like he is not as up to date about lab preparation guidelines as he should be. After the first two labs, the TA thankfully stepped in more and wrote fairer labs. However, the last lab should have been shorter or modified more since it was hard to get all of the microscopy images for the following reason...

4. Lack of space and equipment. When we went into the lab in Boelter, the people from the other 188 were there, so it was inconvenient to say the least. During the actual lab, there was not enough ethanol to go around to spray and disinfect everything as needed. The incubator got contaminated, so we had to repeat an experiment. There were only 2 working microscopes and they were in separate rooms! We were about 18-20 students who had lab 2-4 PM on Fridays and 6-7 PM-ish on Mondays/Wednesdays (the latter M/W times are to basically change cell culture media, and attendance is based on what you set up with your group members) WHILE BE 167L has a max of 12 students per session with a total of 6 HOURS of dedicated lab time. The BE Dept SERIOUSLY needs another lab!

5. Midterm grading. It took the professor almost a month after the midterm to FINALLY give the key to the TA to grade. It should not have taken him that long. Seriously.

6. Student input. He gave anonymous surveys, but he delayed this (as is his custom), so I think he gave them too late. HOWEVER, I will give him the good point that the Final was actually not so bad. It was relatively fair and I felt more comfortable with it than the midterm.

PROTIP: For the Restricted Core Elective, it does NOT have to be a 188 or any BE class in the list they give you. It can be ANY Upper division BIOENGINEERING course as long as you fill out the petition corretly. For the Regular Electives, you can take any upper division course that is SOMEHOW related to bioengineering (e.g., chemistry/biochemistry, biostatistics, life sciences, mcdb, mimg, psychology) that is not counted for any other requirement.

I recommend to stay away from this class if you can. You do learn some interesting things, but the delays and disorganization were NOT worth it.