I want to emphasize that this list is in no way representative of a typical Engineering Physics student. My university education trajectory had many interesting turns, in particular the strong focus of electrical engineering and robotics in second and third year, and a sudden pivot towards theoretical physics and projects in my last two years.
This article is started in the summer of my 4th year and updated irregularly. At this point, I probably have a much stronger love of physics and a more critical view of the engineering courses – I hope anyone who reads this keeps in mind the bias and proceed with a grain of salt.
If a course is not listed, I probably don’t have a strong opinion of it, or I just haven’t gotten to discuss it yet… Some courses that are obsolete (e.g. MECH 260, ENPH 257) will be omitted.
1. Physics
PHYS 250 Introduction to Modern Physics
- Instructor: Thomas Mathison
- Topics Covered: Waves, special relativity, historical events leading up to quantum mechanics, Schrodinger’s equation, hydrogen atom
- Thoughts: This was a very disappointing class. The content could have been so interesting and inspiring, yet the instructor has chosen to fill it with equations and derivations without highlighting the actual physics. This course was also taught during robot summer and at the start of COVID online lectures – felt like the class and the instructors were all unprepared. As the first introduction to quantum mechanics, I really hope the professor can given more conceptual problems, such as what is so special about measurement and why is probabilistic nature surprising…
- Difficulty: 3/5 - Relativity was hard to wrap my head around, everything after felt like plugging into formula.
- Overall: 2/5
PHYS 350 Applications of Classical Mechanics
- Instructor: Mona Berciu
- Topics Covered: Lagrangian mechanics, Euler-Lagrange equations, conservation laws, orbital motion
- Thoughts: One of the best courses I had ever taken – and one that I am truly grateful to have as an exclusive ENPH course. Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics are absolutely stunning – I came into the course expecting to hate it like all the previous Newtonian mechanics course, but this was just beautiful. Super useful in research and projects as well. Mona is so great at explaining problems, she will sit down with you to draw diagrams and try bite-sized examples before going towards a larger problem. Also, this course uses a project as final exam and it was very practical.
- Difficulty: 3/5
- Overall: 5/5 - Practical and beautiful. This course changed my view of mechanics, plut Mona is wholesome and extremely caring.
PHYS 402 Applications of Quantum Mechanics
- Instructor: Robert Raussendorf
- Topics Covered: Hilbert space, formal description of measurement, time evolution, uncertainty principles, entanglement, superdense coding, quantum teleportation, symmetries and conservations, perturbation theory, WJKB approximations
- Thoughts:One of the best courses I had ever taken. This course was full of interesting problems and insightful discussions with peers. The level of math and formalism was just right. And there was an equal emphasis with the methodology of solving problems and their implications. Robert has a short interlude on entanglement and applications in quantum computing, probably one of the best parts of this already amazing course. Though I did find we were a bit short on time and did not give justice to the section about symmetries and perturbation theory. Also, Robert will always answer more than what you ask, but it also makes it less intimidating to ask, in a strange way.
- Difficulty: 4/5 - Hard problem sets, hard material, but also the class is smart and friends tend to help you out.
- Overall: 5/5 - This course gave me both the tools and the confidence to start a summer research position in theoretical physics, what more can one ask for?
2. Electrical and Computer Engineering
ELEC 401 Analog CMOS Integrated Circuit Design
- Instructor: Shahriar Mirabbasi
- Topics Covered: principles of MOSFETs, different amplifier topologies, differential amplifiers, current mirrors, OpAmp design, switched capacitor circuits
- Thoughts: CMOS design is extremely useful in electrical engineering and often some basics in such circuits helps you in many projects. There was a good mix of theory and examples given, and a project at the end for you to simulate your own OpAmp in LTSpice using real process parameters. This course was an introduction and certainly there are more intricate amplifier designs in industry; however I found it to be quite helpful in breaking down larger problems and diagrams into things we can understand. Also, I’m glad some elec course finally demonstrates the difference between theory and simulations and experiment – so SPICEY :)
- Difficulty: 2/5 - I took this course during coop, very laid back, learning a lot while having a good time. Exams were all take home.
- Overall: 4/5
ELEC 404 Radio Frequency Circuit Design
- Instructor: Amir Masnadi
- Topics Covered: CMOS review, RF transmitter and receiver, impedence matching, low noise amplifier, mixer, voltage controlled oscillator, implementations of passive components on chip
- Thoughts: A good follow up to ELEC 401 (CMOS design) and a nice course with mostly projects and simulations in Cadence. Analog design as a field is very deep and this course gives a broad introduction, but I felt the prof tend to gloss over the mathematical fundamentals and only give a conceptual, high-level introduction. (In a way I felt arguments were handwavy.) The homework questions are interesting and got quite deep into some theory, which I liked. This course also did a great job emphasizing and modeling the real life constraints of circuit design such as fabrication issues and noise – quite useful if you plan to do anything in electrical engineering.
- Difficulty: 4/5 - Projects and assignments are difficult and time consuming. Cadence has quite a learning curve.
- Overall: 4/5
3. Math
MATH 401 Green’s Function and Variational Principles
- Instructor: Michael Ward
- Topics Covered: Sturm Liouville theory, Green’s functions for Laplace’s equation, Wave equation, method of images, eigenvalue problems and variational principles, Euler Lagrange equations
- Thoughts: One of the best applied math courses. PDEs tend to be a bit dry and time consuming, but this course was well balanced with manageable problem sets and useful examples. Green’s function lies in the heart of condensed matter physics and variational principle is very commonly used in algorithms. This course will be extremely useful if you do research, but maybe a bit on the theoretical side (e.g. you never implement anything with the variational principles) compared to MATH 406. The class is usually small ~15 people, and all eager to learn which was nice.
- Difficulty: 3.5/5
- Overall: 5/5
4. Project Courses
ENPH 253
- Instructor: Andre Marziali, Bernhard Zender, Dylan Gunn, Miti
- Topics Covered: robotics system prototyping and engineering, CAD and fabrication, sensors and microcontrollers, PID control, hardware and software filters, H bridge, noise considerations, time management, emotional intelligence
- Thoughts: Truly a good project course, for those who want to invest time. Throughout the course, many dimensions related to robotics and prototyping are explored and everyone will learn a lot regardless of starting point. The instructors are knowledgeable and caring, and it’s a great course to practice asking questions and explaining concepts. This course is often hyped up as the best project course, I don’t think that’s the case for everyone – it is extremely important to evaluate one’s goals for the course: to win the competition, to learn skills for future employment, or to balance time commitment with other priorities. Usually teams that have a similar level of time commitment and goals will have a great time in the course…
- Difficulty: 3/5 - Hard to evaluate, but I’d say the course is not difficult, more so it requires a lot of time (like 12 hours in the lab everyday) and a good idea of tools and debugging procedures to speed things up.
- Overall: 5/5 - Very subjective, I like robots.