Earth Resources and Environmental Engineering

This guy is great. I took the class because all the other professional level engineering courses just didn't look interesting. It was the best choice I've made so far. The classes are interesting, the material is not hard at all. Yes, you have to study for this class. Yes, it helps if you have a good base in calculus. But, still, even that is not required, since professor Lall does a good job of explaining everything very simply. What's best about him is that he is very friendly and very accessible. Also, he puts a lot of faith on first-year students. His big thing is getting you to work on problems that you never thought you could tackle, but sure enough, with some help, you're modeling a 2-level atmosphere by the end of the year, or working on a project on PCB's in the Hudson River, or working with the guy who programmed SimCity (true story) on solutions for polution in New York. Cool stuff. Much better, from what I hear, than Electrical Engineering or Designs of Buildings Bridges and Spacecraft. Take this course.

A first-year course basically designed to give freshmen a general sense of the field of environmental engineering. As such, it performs quite well. The textbook is excellent, the lectures are interesting and replete with real-world anecdotes, occasionally, there is some class discussion. I came out with a desire to pursue EEE as a major. The material is presented at a level appropriate to people with little background in science. Be on guard, however, as he occasionally likes to put differential equations on the board. Professor Lall also has the unique ability to get money out of thin air. This man got the department to purchase copies of SimCity 3000 for the students to use to model environmental processes. (The game was used once in a never-to-be-forgotten assignment which had the whole class up all night, and then never mentioned again). By the end of the semester, he had also conjured up enough money to pay for fellowships for students who wanted to go on into EEE. On the whole, prof. Lall is very accessible and friendly, and patient with students who don't understand concepts. He teaches with a passion for environmental engineering and honestly cares about his students. With the class in general and the final project especially (see below), what you get out of it is based mainly on what you put into it: this class can either be a mindless gut or a stimulating course that offers you plenty of freedom to explore the terrain.