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Mello, Joe

Cumulative GPA: 3.68/4.00 with 25 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.68
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.56

Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:14 pm, Apr 1, 2013 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello is one of the best professors I've had at Cal Poly. He presents the material amazingly well. His grading is very fair and his exams and quizzes are very straightforward. He really knows what he's doing. He's fantastic in office hours too. I definitely recommend Mello for dynamics, or any class for that matter.

ME 212 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 2:50 pm, Mar 26, 2013 Report Evaluation		Mello was pretty cool. He did every hw problem that was due and posted it to polylearn after the hw was turned in which was really nice to see how these problems are actually done. Dynamics is tough but I never felt to stressed out thanks to Mello. There is hw due everyday and we had one midterm along with multiple quizzes. Overall take him!

ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:01 pm, Sep 18, 2011 Report Evaluation		GREAT professor who REALLY cares about his students. I would have gotten an A in the class but I kept on making stupid mistakes on the tests that I would realize right after walking out of the room. The tests are also hard to finish in the allotted time so BE WARNED!

ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:07 pm, Jun 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello is a great teacher when he's at full energy, but he had to miss a few classes this quarter due to pneumonia, which was a little unfortunate. Ignoring that, he relates everything we learn in class to the real world, and is good at reducing the clutter of the textbook, especially in the failure criteria section, to the core concepts we need to know. Lab felt pretty informal. He had high expectations in terms of what content we needed to include in our write-up and the completeness of our analyses, but we rarely had to write full-blown reports, which kept the focus on the procedure. I will say that he underestimated a lab's length on a few occasions, but he usually adjusted the rest of the schedule to compensate, so everything ended up fine. The bottom line is that Mello is a solid, practical, knowledgeable teacher who conveys his knowledge and experience to students well. I don't know what more one could ask for.

ME 412 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 4:45 pm, Mar 28, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr.Mello is an awesome teacher. He relates all the lectures to his real life experience in the field as well as his interests in biking and cars. Composites is a really interesting and practical class. He grades fairly and really wants us to learn the material. A++ would take again.

ME 412 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:26 pm, Jan 27, 2011 Report Evaluation		Mello is a good teacher. I was nervous to take composites as I had heard it was very difficult, but he works to make the class interesting and minimal extra busy work. His lectures are pretty good, they are powerpoints and are sometimes hard to follow at the fast pace he moves, but you can always review them later on blackboard which is very helpful for solving hw problems and studying. I recommend this class to anyone interested in designing and building composites, or just having a fun lecture/lab tech elective.

ME 211 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 5:58 am, Sep 18, 2010 Report Evaluation		MELLO IS THE BEST! I was honestly so scared to take this class, but he did a really good job explaining everything. I took it over the summer so it was definitely a lot of work and hw, but he is really fair on his tests and quizzes....take him if you can



ME 211 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 12:46 am, Aug 23, 2010 Report Evaluation		Mello is the the best professor I\'ve had at Cal Poly. I took him during summer quarter so I\'m not sure how much this review applies to others, but take him if you can. He has an incredible understanding of the material, which is only matched by his enthusiasm. He was helpful during office hours and the tests and quizzes were very fair, as was his grading. Homework was a bit much at times, but do it and you will surely be rewarded.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:51 am, May 6, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello is definitely one of the best ME Professors at Cal Poly. He's a gearhead and genuinely passionate about everything ME. He is very helpful in office hours and easy to approach. Lecture is very informative with quality examples that definitely aid your understanding and are good references for midterms. Lab is awesome, with the philosophy that all the work should be done in class (for the most part), so you aren't working insane hours outside of lab time. I would highly recommend taking Dr. Mello for anything ME.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 9:49 pm, Mar 24, 2009 Report Evaluation		Mello's classes are hands on and practical. He brings examples of different parts/failure modes/work equations to all his classes, I've had him for three different ones by now. If you get him for design, he'll teach you the material, which is hard and there is a lot of - make sure you do the bookwork - but mind that he's exactingly fair in grading, personable, and that his labs will actually teach you how to become an engineer. I don't know if you'd miss anything for not taking him, but he's definitely worth it if you get a chance.

ME 329 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Jun 17, 2008 Report Evaluation		Mello is a genuinely great guy. His tests were reasonable and graded fairly. His lab was a lot of fun and was sort of open ended and directed a bit by students. Try and you will do just fine. He brings many hands on things to class so you can see what you are sizing and designing for. You do get greasy, but hey...you are an ME. One of the best ME professors at Poly...take him.

ME 329 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 5:16 pm, Mar 26, 2008 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello has got to be one of my top ME professors at Poly. The guy is very knowledgeable on the subject (he has worked in industry for years and brings examples from past jobs to class all the time), and he does a good job of teaching it to the class. Like someone mentioned below, he is also great to talk to and has a life outside of class/Poly. He keeps class light-hearted and i was never bored. I got a D because of the lack of effort I put into the course, and thus it should not reflect at all on Mello (i didn't do any of the homework assignments, and didn't even get the course book until about the 7th or 8th week in). He also learns most, if not all of the students' names and actually wants us to do well in the course/Poly/life. I thought his tests and grading were very fair, and would strongly recommend Dr. Mello.

ME 412 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: C Elective 1:56 pm, Nov 13, 2007 Report Evaluation		Mello is amazing. Composites is a complicated subject, and it requires a professor that knows it phenomenally well to handle all the tough questions while being able to relate complex matrix equations into things you can design and build and use. Mello worked very hard to squeeze in as many students as he could into the class, and I could not be more grateful because it was my favorite and most useful class at Cal Poly. It is a tough class, but take Mello, especially for composites.



ME 328 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:16 am, Nov 7, 2007 Report Evaluation		I don't know why Dr. Mello has a high rating because I don't think he is such a great instructor. His lectures are ok but he always does basic and easy problems which of course are too easy to be on a test so, I will like to see him doing more complicated problems that way we can understand more the material. Also, the questions on the test are sometimes hard to understand.

ME 211 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 4:42 pm, Jun 20, 2007 Report Evaluation		He's an awesome teacher. He's really good at explaining both in office hours and in class. He's a little picky with the format of how you do your problems but you get used to it. Mello is a fair grader and everyone pretty much gets a grade reflecting the work you put into the class. I would highly recommend him.

ME 412 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 12:45 pm, Mar 26, 2006 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello is one of those teachers whose obvious interest in the subject matter really rubs off on the students. He's also just a cool guy to talk to and he does have a life outside of school. Great teacher, great guy. He made me extremely interested in composites.

BIO 111 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 8:49 pm, Dec 15, 2005 Report Evaluation		Alright, Joe is literally one of the sickest teachers on this campus. His classes are fun, which is hard to do seeing as how they are 3 hours long! But he presents everything very clearly, and on tests he will give you certain hints to help you through it. As long as you go to class and pay semi-attetion, you will do really well in this class.

ME 211 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:54 pm, Mar 27, 2004 Report Evaluation		Mello was an awsome teacher. The class was 3 days a week, and homework was due everyday, which forces you to keep up with the material. We had quizes every wednesday, which made up 60% of your grade. This actually worked out ok because Mello would take as long as we needed before the quiz to go over any questions we had on the previous nights homework or on whatever else we had questions on. Also, he gave us about 20, sometimes 30 minutes to take the quiz so you never had to worry about running out of time. This made it easier to do well on the quizes. He did not give any midterms. The quizes took the place of any big tests. He was very helpful in office hours and overall made the class as stress free as possible.

ME 212 Junior Grade Earned: F Required (Support) 2:55 pm, Mar 1, 2004 Report Evaluation		Dr. Mello seemed very engaging in Class. But in office hours he was hardly acceptable. He became very arrogant and made many, including myself, look stupid if they didn't get the most basic concepts. I actually passed the course overall, but because I failed the final he failed me. Mello rarely teaches dynamics. But if he does, don't let his rating fool you. He chooses problems for his weekly quizzes based on material he likes, rather than pertinent material. He grades harshly, and doesn't seem to care if you don't understand the material. Homework is piled on daily, and is due the next class period. Be warned.



ME 412 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 10:20 am, Apr 23, 2002 Report Evaluation		Composites is a hard class. Don't expect to leave the class with a carbon bike fork in hand. Dr. Mello is an extremely intelligent guy and knows composites better than anyone at Poly, possibly better than any professor in California, minus a guy at Stanford. He does his best to keep the class pace at an understandable level, but be prepared to relearn writing matlab code, and performing matrices acrobatics. It is easy to get behind, but all grades are curved(generously from my experience) at the end of the quarter. I had Joe for ME329 as well and will take whatever he teaches. (in my top three ME profs with Pascual and Davol)

ME 210 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 5:54 pm, Apr 8, 2002 Report Evaluation		Mello is great teacher, he takes difficult and complex material, makes it easy, and if you have any questions, he answers them completely. He is helpful in office hours, and is flexible if something comes up. The only real catch is that you have to keep up, he wont re-teach you something from a month ago and wont help you if you just dont do the work. I didnt do all of the homework and that hurt me. Take him if you can.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:05 pm, Dec 20, 2001 Report Evaluation		Design is a hard class to teach because it is so open ended. Our book was hard to understand and Mello did a pretty good job making the subject a little clearer. He did very helpful examples in class. My only complaint is that he very started with the basics and always assumed that stundents knew what he was talking about. He lectures as though every student was familiar with all the car parts and other parts when many weren't and struggled to understand.

ME 329 Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:49 pm, Dec 17, 2001 Report Evaluation		Joe Mello is brilliant. Not only that but he's worked in every engineering field imaginable - twice. This is good because he can field any question and give you real, practical answers. It's bad because real and practical are much more work than fake and theoretical. 329 has so much ground to cover that you've got to stay on top of your game. Don't get behind on homework. Don't wait till the night before. His lab projects require a good deal of outside work. His tests are difficult and stretch the limits of your capability. But it's very rewarding. And in the end you're going to know how to design real parts, deal with real design issues and address real manufacturing concerns. Think of Mello as the boot camp drill instructer that whoops yer ... ummm ... backside, but you're thatnkful that he did.

ME 328 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 10:00 am, Mar 8, 2001 Report Evaluation		Mello doesn't lecture, he interacts. He has an unbelievable way of teaching you how to think like an engineer. His labs are pulled directly from industry, and us as the students do actual projects he has taken part in. I feel he is one of the best professors in the ME dept.

ME 328 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 1:40 pm, Dec 12, 2000 Report Evaluation		Every single lecture was worthwhile. Mello is a cool guy with a lot of valid insights from working in industry. He also has a good ability to convey the subject matter of ME 328--from a lot of prior firsthand experience. Try to get into an early section of his class, because he gets more unstable LATER in the day (more easily upset by students being distracting, etc. during lecture). Overall he's a great teacher--I still don't know what grade I got in the class.

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