George Deodatis

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.

Deodatis is the king of clarity. He is the best teacher I've ever had at CU. In lecture, he organizes his blackboards with superb readability and logical layout. He emphasizes important points verbally and with body language. He doesn't skip "obvious" steps in examples. The first portion of the class was a statics review, and you're never directly tested on that material. He literally tells you 5/6ths of what is on the final. Late homeworks are not penalized at all. You can use an old edition of the textbook with no problems. You should go to the ends of the earth to take this class from Deodatis.

George Deodatis is the friendliest, most helpful professor ever. He has absolutely no professorial ego, and will explain things till he's blue in the face. He is always open for questions in his office, whether it's office hours or not, and if you don't have the homework prepared for class, that's fine with him - hand it in when you have it done. When I was having trouble with a homework and presumptuously called the guy, he even called me back and left a message. He gets the "above and beyond the call of duty" award in my book. Deodatis is a good lecturer, even if the material is a bit dry. He speaks very precisely and organizes his talks in a way that helps note-taking. His greek accent is "cute", nothing that makes your life difficult.

A great professor in all respects. His notes are very clear, he is very much in charge of every lecture, and makes the material stick in your mind. Very humane: wouldn't give the midterm the Monday after spring break "because it wouldn't be a real vacation." Suggest plenty of good outside reading and relevant museum lectures, if you're into that kind of thing. There really is nothing to critisize! Prof. Deodatis is not merely approacheable, he seems eager to help you any time anything isn't clear. You would have to put effort in being confused about the material after he has explained it to you.

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. Some quite easy, a bit tougher toward the end. Almost all problems from book. 1 Midterm. No direct statics questions. Most test problems drawn from the two HW's immediately preceding the test Final: He tells you what's on it.

10 hwks throughout the term (fairly easy for those decent at physics), including 2 based off observational labs. Midterm (easy), Final (medium). 2nd half of semester is dominated by guest lectures whose presentations are not on the final.

Standard. Weekly problem sets from the textbook that can easily be done using class notes and are often given extensions on.

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.

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.