Charles Zukowski

He is a good professor, makes sure there are some kind of office hours almost everyday and accessible lectures. Basically Intro to EE but the proper one (but boring because of the repeated content).

The class is, as to be expected, about circuit analysis with a focus on problem solving rather than the theory behind it. It gives a broad grounding to various methods to approach and solve circuits such as node-voltage, mesh, phasors, and AC. There is a very comprehensive and accessible textbook written by Zukowski himself provided for free along with the course. Zukowski, though a little dry sometimes is a very to the point lecturer, and does a good job explaining everything. He would always go through a few example problems in class which solidified the content. Because of the large amount of practice provided, I came away from this class with a very solid foundation for future EE courses.

Professor Zukowski is an excellent professor. He has carefully-planned lecture plans for every class, where he always connects the theoretical material covered to real-world applications. His lessons also line up nicely with the material covered in the lab component of the course. He also gives all students a complimentary copy of the text HE wrote for the course, and it’s an incredible book filled with practice problems that you can keep to look back on in the future. He cares a lot about his students, I can tell.

The best EE professor at Columbia. Class is organized and guided by helpful psets. Lectures can get a bit dull but course notes written by the professor are absolutely clear and aligned with the class material. TA was very helpful. With a steady and consistent effort, this class leads to a deep understanding of the material

Zukowski is a baller. Maybe not quite like Vallancourt, but a baller nonetheless. He starts class with a song to wake you up, and goes through the material in a very clear manner. He also has show and tell in every class...unfortunately these could be more advanced, sophisticated, and interesting, but they still break up the monotony nontheless. I really enjoyed the material of this course, even if you never really progress past RLC circuits, power analysis, filters, etc. All that stuff is still very useful in building practical devices, even if it is fairly basic. (no diodes, discussion of rectifiers, etc.) Phasor analysis is also very useful. I recommend getting very fast with imaginary algebra...make sure you know how to use a graphing calculator to check your calculations/to save time on the problem sets. The lab for this class is fairly useful and practical thanks to Vallancourt's and the TA's rejiggering of the lab manual, but the lab writeups become increasingly tedious with the LTSpice simulations. Zukowski is kind of a hardliner with deadlines, but the TA also didn't pick up PSets always on time. Zukowski is still one of the best all-rounder profs I've ever had, and the EE dept. in SEAS, like any EE dept, really, probably isn't known for its teaching prowess. But Zukowski really does care, which is incredibly awesome.

Personally, I am disappointed that Professor Zukowski doesn't teach more undergraduate courses in the EE curriculum. He is enthusiastic and approachable as a professor can come around here. It is true that his teaching style is one that adheres to "learn by doing." However, he is willing to discuss the material with you in both the moments after class and in his office hours, be they normal or arranged. Do not show up to these office hours expecting to be handed a solution, Professor Zukowski will talk you through the analysis but will leave you to devise your own conclusion (as he should). This course covers a lot of material, but such is expected by the EE department here. The lectures are well organized and filled with examples, but on your homework you will need to think outside of your notebook and build the intuition. The homework is divided in a unique way. 80% of the homework grade with be based on 4-5 questions, called problems, each assignment. These are often straight forward analysis questions that establish you know what you are talking about. The remaining questions, worth %20 for our mathematicians, will take the same if not more amount of time to complete then the prior. From his teaching style I deduce that he is not trying to fail you but have some sort of way to separate the average student from the above average student without making the class average a 50…

Homeworks: Absolutely insane. There were 6 "examples" and 4 "problems" on each homework. The examples were only worth 2 points and the problems were worth 8 points. Most people ended up doing only the problems, since doing all 10 problems could literally take 20+ hours. They were all very long, very involved, and very hard, and they are also worth 20% of the grade. However, at the end the mean for the homeworks was 75%, so if you just try slightly harder than other people, you should get above the mean. They were also due on Friday, which means that you should kiss Thursday nights goodbye. Lectures: Kind of boring, but they still keep you interested. It's the nature of the subject to be boring, so I can't take it against the guy. He did the best that he could and kept me more awake than other professors, which is a lot to say. Professor: He really cares if you know the material, and he is very approachable. His TA was also amazing and he was even better at explaining difficult concepts than the professor. Material: WAY TOO MUCH! By the end of the class, it felt as if my head was about to explode. The class moves so quickly past the first midterm that it is hard to keep up. Unless you continuously read the book, it will be a bitch come final time.

One of the nicest guys you're going to meet at Columbia. Sure, he's a boring lecturer with a somewhat monotonous voice, but that's partially the nature of the subject. He genuinely cares about the students--just stop by his office hours and you'll see. It's not an easy class and the problem sets can definitely be challenging, but he was exceedingly generous with the final grade in the class--I blew off the homework and didn't do well on the final, but still got an A-. He's one of the rare guys at CU that just cares, period.

Weekly problem sets from the textbook with the lowest two dropped 20% Two quizzes, each worth 20% A final worth 40%

Weekly homework (includes problems from his textbook, with some components that are to be done individually and others you can collaborate on with classmates): 20% Quizzes: 2 worth 20% each Final exam: 40%