Course evalution summary from 2017

10 of 10 completed the survey

Please indicate the overall educational value of the course. 3.7/5
This course is well organized. [3/4/5]
The course builds understanding of concepts and principles. [3.8/5]
I am generally pleased with the text(s) required for this course. [3.5/5]
The course assignments are reasonable in length and difficulty. [3.2/5]
The exams are reasonable in length and difficulty. [3.2/5]
I am satisfied with how much I learned in this course. [3.7/5]
On average, how many total hours per week did you spend on this course [10-15 hrs]
Please indicate the overall teaching effectiveness of the instructor. [3.7/5]
The instructor explains concepts clearly. [4/5]
I feel comfortable asking questions and speaking with my professor.[4.6/5]

Was your previous course work adequate preparation for this course (explain)? YES/NO

No, the material forces you to think non-conventionally about dynamics and therefore there is really no previous course that can prepare you.
YES'
Yes, My previous dynamics coursework helped at the start of the class when going over 3D kinematics
No. ENG 102 effectively introduces the concepts that are used in this class, but coming in with little Python experience makes translating mathematics to computer code a difficult hurdle.
My previous knowledge about dynamics helps a little in this course.
Yes.

Which parts of this course should be emphasized the most?

The application of the methods through tools like SymPy and PyDy.
sympy method in modeling
Kinematics. Situations with rolling and non-holonomic systems are the most challenging, so more time spent on those areas would be helpful.
There should be more crossover between Python/SymPy and homeworks. Currently, homework is simply book problems (with no solutions available), and there's no incentive to try approaching them using SymPy.
Comparison of Kane’s method with other methods.

What comments do you have concerning the content and grading of examinations and homework?

It would be nice if homework assignments were collected and graded, or at least solutions were posted.
It appears fair.
No
It may be useful to create some simpler homework problems that are mandatory that drive home important key concepts. Or go over some assigned homework problems as a regular part of the lecture.
The difficulty in homework stemming straight from the book means that if the book lacks clear explanations, then doing the homework is a very difficult task since no solutions are available. This makes learning the material difficult and frustrating (esp. with limited office hours available and so few fellow students to work with, especially if half the class doesn't even do the homework since it's not required). Grading was objective and fair.
The midterm exam was too hard and the average score of the midtern exam was too low. It's not good for graduate students especially for PhD students. Because their funding or scholarship is basically related to their GPA. Low GPA will result in no funding.
Homework and exam were hard and had to spend a lot of time to finish. Exam wording was sometimes somewhat ambiguous. Exam grading was terrifying with a hugh standard deviation and a pretty low average. Making the class fall behind compared to students who took other courses. This unfairness could affect graduate students’ GPA, and eventually affect their right to get the fellowship and TA.

Please comment on the instructor’s presentation of course material.

More explanation of the why behind how concepts work and why they matter would be helpful. I found it very hard to understand most concepts in class because I did not understand the why behind them or where they came from.
It was clouded at times. Overall the material was presented clearly.
He presented course material well, but I feel exam time could have been cut down.
The organization of the class is done well. The balance between time spent on theory and sympy application was fairly good.
The presentation of course material was somewhat rocky, but this can easily be attributed to the fact that this was the first time teaching this course. He has a lot of potential and is very approachable - the presentation just needs some ironing out.
Not very well prepared. He had to think sometimes during lecture time whether or not something was right, which was pretty confusing for students.

Please make additional comments on any other aspects of the course including the curriculum, the instruction, amount of weekly work required and on whether you would recommend this course to other students.

I would recommend this course to students who are interested in learning more about how to model, simulate, and analyze multibody systems.
Builds a strong foundation for multibody dynamics principles. Allows you to learn some tools to model and simulate multibody systems.
If a different book was used, or more time was spent on SETTING UP problems (not necessarily solving all the way through since answers are provided in the book), and if more time was spent integrating SymPy into homework problems, I think it would be a better course. The final project left a lot of room for improvement, largely due to the fact that we were asked to come up with our own problem without really understanding the limitations of what we were learning. Instead, perhaps having a few different problems for students to choose from might be an effective intermediate position between "choose your own" and "given". The homework problems took up significantly more time than expected, largely due to the lack of clarity on the book's behalf and the difficulty applying presented material to the problems. The instructor is very approachable and helpful, and will certainly become a highly effective professor given some time to hone his craft.
I will recommend this course to other students who need to learn dynamics.
Might recommend to others, if the instructor could add more information to the curriculum, slow down when teaching Sympy with more examples and give detailed answers to homework and explain some of them during the lecture.

moorepants / mae223

Course evalution summary from 2017 #6