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Higgins, Brian

Cumulative GPA: 3.35/4.00 with 17 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.24
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.29

Mechanical Engineering Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ME 446 Graduate Student Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 3:28 pm, Apr 23, 2003 Report Evaluation		The tests weren't cool, there was always a question out of the blue that threw the class off. The projects were alright, but the requirements weren't really stated clearly. The fuel cell stuff went by a bit fast and made things confusing for the test (thus the grade.) The profs (Higgins and Thorncroft) try to make the class interesting, but the class lacks a bit of structure.

ME 446 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 2:46 am, Apr 23, 2003 Report Evaluation		Higgins is a nice guy, and easy going with grades. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem very educated in the subject matter. This is the second time I've had him as an instructor. Don't expect much from this class, you won't learn much. If you're looking for an easy and interesting elective take it. If you're looking for a more productive use of your time, then take something else.

ME 313 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:32 pm, Mar 19, 2003 Report Evaluation		Brian is good... particularly at expressing the material in a concise fashion... he tells you what is expected right from the get, so you wont have to worry about a bunch of tricks on the exams. However, this is a difficult course because of the ammount of material and the lack of time. I personally found the material fascinating, and this professor had a particular style that was easy to follow

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:35 am, Mar 5, 2003 Report Evaluation		This man is the king of tangents. His lectures are extremely enternaining and intriguing, but generally do not pertain too much to the homework. The tests are reasonable, but sometimes he pulls questions out of the blue. He's a fun guy, he just likes taking the scenic route.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:29 pm, Dec 24, 2002 Report Evaluation		Funny guy and real laid back. Tests were easy, open book/open note, and there wasn't very much hw. Only real compliant is the lectures are hard to follow sometimes, but if you have had any physics experiance in high school the class is easy so it doesn't matter if the lectures are hard to follow sometimes. However he's a funny guy so the lectures are entertaining. Overall good guy.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 2:29 pm, Dec 23, 2002 Report Evaluation		Professor Higgins is the best teacher ever! The homework that he gives you is never a waste of time, it really teaches you something and he doesn't give very much of it. His tests are all open notes so as long as you pay attention you should do fine and he gives wonderful partial credit! Professor Higgins is the reason I switched to Mechanical Engineering!

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:41 pm, Dec 19, 2002 Report Evaluation		Higgins is probably the best man for this course. He is extremely nice and very helpful and knowledgeable. He sees what people have trouble with and is willing to deal with it. I would say he is one of those teachers that isn



ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 2:59 pm, Dec 18, 2002 Report Evaluation		Higgins rules the school. He is funny as heck, he is totally laid back, and he is an awesome teacher. Sometimes his homeworks were a little hard, but it was only one problem so you can manage. He purposefully made the tests super easy and they were open book and notes. ME 134 is a super fun class and he made it even better!

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 1:09 pm, Dec 18, 2002 Report Evaluation		Great professor...extremely laid back. Didn't really give a crap, yet he gave all the crap in the world when it came to helping us understand ME. He made the class easy on purpose and his tests were a joke. Take him if you can.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 6:53 pm, Dec 17, 2002 Report Evaluation		This class is pretty easy so don't get stressed out because the homework problems are hard. The tests are pretty easy if you know how to apply the formulas he gives you. Higgens is a good teacher and it should be a pretty laid back class.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 10:03 pm, Dec 13, 2002 Report Evaluation		Higgins is a very chill dude. He teaches stuff that the homework sometimes has nothing to do with and the homeworks isn't actually that easy. But he's always willing to help during office hours and you can always get some help from some really smart dude in your class. It's not that hard of a class so just relax and chill with higgins for a bit.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 1:44 pm, Dec 13, 2002 Report Evaluation		I have to say, Prof. Higgins sure took a lot of stress off my quarter. The class itself was an introductory expose of some different kinds of problems that us ME's would be faced with in the future. Because we hadnt completed any support courses beforehand, the homework consisted mostly of elementary physics and basic unit conversions. As anybody could have sneezed through teaching this class, I commend Mr. Higgins for making his lectures interesting and funny. The homework is not tough, and the midterms were straightforward, for the most part. I highly recommend him for any ME class in the future.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:50 am, Dec 5, 2002 Report Evaluation		Higgins was a regular goofball. His lectures were pretty damn funny and well organized. Every lecture is a piece of what you deal with in ME later on(after sciences and math courses are completed). He does a good job covering entire courses in a single lecture. The whole idea of this course is to expose you to ME. Tests are fairly easy, homework assignments should always be done and labs are the biggest joke ever(don't take Roger Keech). The labs might have been better if I had actually got the teacher I signed up for(Ludin). Despite the paltry labs, Higgins did well with the lecture- I'd take him again for any upper div ME course.



ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:32 am, Nov 22, 2002 Report Evaluation		Professor Higgins is a very good teacher. This class is fairly simple, seeing as how most of the topics revolve around general physics. There is a Final and a Midterm, as well as homework once a week. He is VERY helpful, funny at times...the hour in class FLEW bye!! He curves the grades slightly, but there isn't much need to, seeing as how most people got A's and B's on the tests. I would recomend him for 134 (is he the only person teaching it?). Oh, he loves to surf.

ME 446 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 10:57 am, Nov 20, 2002 Report Evaluation		Prof. Higgins is a great professor, particularly for this course.

ME 134 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 5:24 pm, Jun 7, 2002 Report Evaluation		Higgins explained the material well. He is extremely helpful in office hours, and seems to generally care.

ME 446 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 9:52 am, May 31, 2002 Report Evaluation		First off, Brian Higgins does not even use his own notes for the classes he teaches. He copied notes off of the internet and tries to explain them to the class. He gets confused when students ask him questions about his lectures but can't come up with explanations most of the time. This is very annoying. Also, Higgins is very unclear with grading procedures. He handed out the grading scale AFTER our project was due and used it to evaluate our grades. It ouwld be nice if he told us our standards coming into the project. If you want to be confused and sit through a quarter without getting much concrete knowledge, take Higgins.

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