120A is one of the first difficult classes for chem e's. He does a pretty good job at tackling the class and occasionally makes a few errors but that is normal. Make sure to read the book and do the examples or you will have a tough time in the class.
Helgeson is not the best lecturer in the world and makes occasional errors but is incredibly invested in what the material is about. The coursework is difficult but manageable, though more practice than just homework problems should be done to succeed.
The professor does things like pop quizzes and spot grades, and the homework makes this course very unpredictable. He also will get mad if you email him for help. He put a section of material that was not covered in the lecture or part of the assigned readings and stated that it was a section that we did not need to read but put on the exam anyways
120A is a behemoth of a class, fluid dynamics is often some of the most technically difficult math you will see in your coursework, so I know that Professor Helgeson did his best with an already confusing and hard subject. I appreciated that he was willing to meet me for extra tutoring, because I really struggled in exam-taking for this class.
Professor Shell waxes poetic about the usage of Maxwell relations in this class. I personally am anti-differential equations, but I appreciate Professor Shell's diligence in making sure we understood the class content. He is very accessible during office hours and will give you the "hot goss" on professionalism and grad school during recitation.
120A Mid lectures at best. Easy midterm but impossible final worth 40%. One of the problems we never once did anything related on a HW so no practice. I stg he picks HW problems via throwing at a dartboard, not whats covered in lecture. So many errors in notes, HW solutions, even exam questions. I feel like I barely learned anything. Underwhelming
A professor who tries his best but falls short in more fields than he succeeds. Lectures are jam packed with material in too short of a time frame that it feels like he's just regurgitating discombobulated information at you with little to no coherency. Assignments do not align with lectures and textbook felt close to useless. Bad at emails.
I do sincerely think while he makes mistakes here and there, he is the best professor I have ever taken in UCSB so far and will be one of them by the graduation.
Grades fairly hard but the class ends up having a nice curve, so it is passable. He told us that he did "very bad" on his first chemical engineering test, but he got a C! He also claims to give a lot of partial credit on tests, but I didnt experience that first hand. Overall, do the homework and put in the effort to understand it and you'll be fine
Tough class due to lots of problem sets, relatively difficult exams and it being the first real ChE class. Good lecturer, made some mistakes here and there but really helpful in office hours. Other than being super smart, he's very nice and not intimidating. Utilize office hours!!!
Great Professor
Probably one of the best professors at this whole university. Relates curriculum to the real world, intertwines professional skill building into curriculum, CRYSTAL clear lectures. Super helpful and a wonderful human being. Homeworks are fairly time consuming but doable. Midterm was easy, final was pretty hard. Be lucky you have Shell!
Helgeson probably gives the most homework of all the chemical engineering professors. Good notes, good lectures. You learn a lot, tests are more challenging than the other chem e professors.
Really nice guy. Lectures were awesome. Long tests and HW, but he is always willing to help everyone. He is by far my favorite professor.
He is hands down the best professor I have had so far and I am almost done with my third year. Inspirational and supplies everything you need but won't hold your hand which is the only reason the easiness isn't a 5. The class is tough but that's because of nature. Definition of a good teacher.
Shell is definitely one of the best professors I have ever had. His lectures are great; he really wants people to understand the material. The exams are pretty fair; use prior homeworks and book problems to study.
Great professor. Thermo is hard, but Shell is an excellent teacher and really wants students to learn and grow. The exams are slightly harder than the homeworks, mostly due to the time pressure
Helgeson Round 2. Pretty good class. Organized notes. Answers questions promptly. Good luck to future classes!
Class is all theory but homework and tests are all applications. Expect to always go to office hours or to get help from someone who always goes to always hours when taking his class.
Great professor. Very clear during lectures and office hours. Grades fairly but writes extremely difficult exams, but he's always willing to help students.
Really nice guy, and very willing to help students. The midterm was reasonable, and graded strictly but fairly. Unfortunately, the final exam was straight out of left field, much harder than the practice exam or any other problems we had ever seen.
Nice professor. Very helpful. Exams are rather challenging
Excellent professor! Very clear lectures and lets us know his expectations for homeworks and exams. One of the most approachable professors I've had, and is willing to help students no problem. That said, he expects students to put in work. Grading was very fair. Lectures often kept me awake as they were taught with great enthusiasm.
Great professor, expects a lot from the students but is rather fair. Many times he has accommodated due dates with concurrent class midterms. Very approachable and is wiling to work with students who are struggling. Taught a really great intro to che class. 10/10 teaching quality!
