The Art of Structural Design · Civil Engineering And Engineering Mechanics
There were 6 homework assignments with the lowest one dropped There was a single midterm and final exam. Homeworks 30% Midterm 30% Final 40%
The course content was refreshing as a CS major, I have always enjoyed looking at the different towers and bridges and wondering about how they worked and the history of them and this course delivered on that.
Lower than your typical engineering course.
Very interesting course with an exceptionally clear professor. Be warned that there is a good amount of hard memorization -- i.e. long lists of bridges and who built them. However, it's not that bad with flashcards. The math is fairly simple, especially for BMEs who've taken the intro BME courses with biomechanics. Literally did not learn anything new... But I imagine it's somewhat difficult for freshmen who are new to physics. However, he is very available and very approachable. He also breaks down the principles so that they are exceedingly clear, unlike Ed Guo of BME lol.
Weekly problem sets that often take less than an hour. The Midterm and final aren't necessarily easy but they are straight forward, and you know what you're walking into. Highly Recommended if you're an engineer in need of a tech elective.
Deodatis is my favorite professor I've had at Columbia. He's a super nice guy, and explains things clearly. This class is half slide lectures, in which he goes over influential structural engineers and the development of architecture techniques, and half him at the board explaining the math behind structural analysis. You need no previous knowledge, besides an understanding of basic algebra.
Six assignments: all given a week+ before they're due, the first assignment was given two weeks before it was do. They're really basic and he usually does extremely similar things in class. Unlike other classes you take as an engineer, there's ONE midterm. The final is very easy if you went to all the lectures.
Deodatis is very endearing; he is one of the best professors you'll ever have at Columbia. He is very passionate about what he teaches and has a great sense of humor. He really cares about his students and will explain things to you as much as you want if you don't understand something. He is very approachable even outside of office hours. He doesn't really care about late homeworks but he gives your a lot of time to do them. He's a great lecturer and worth coming to all his classes.