Engineering and the Rise of Modern Industry

THE WORST PROFESSOR IVE EVER HAD AT COLUMBIA. Apparently, Jack has gone from being a "free spirit" who doesn't believe in grades to handing out C's for no apparent reason. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS unless you're willing to take your chances and you don't care about your GPA.

Absolutely horrible professor. Ok, well, the class was not at all interesting and it is not because his students don't try. I wrote a good and interesting paper I am sure and he is too much of a self-absorbed . . . I'll stop, but please, do not take this course.

The most important thing you need to know about this class is that it is no longer an easy A!! As far as I know, Jack, cracking under pressure from the spec and probably from higher up in the engineering school and of course due to his lack of personality and belief in his philosophy, handed out grades that weren’t A’s. I heard from a group member that individuals in the class received B’s. However, in my case, after sweating through the class and contemplating dropping it at one point, I managed to get an A even though I am sure jack did not have time to read 200 individual papers and about 50 group papers in order to be fair. Seems like he pretty much gave out grades according to how good the topic title of the group project sounded. The class requirements are ridiculous, as expected, and as everyone probably already knows: you form a group, pick a topic vaguely having to do with technology, pick a book which you will just skim at best, write a 5 page “book report,” and then get together with your group once to slap together a 15 page paper and make a powerpoint slideshow which you will probably not have to present. Because of the unnaturally large size of the class jack had to chose only a few groups to present and then despite that, no one respected his 10 minute rule and only about half the groups ended up presenting.
Bottom line about this class is that it is now a BIG RISK, but if you don’t mind going through a whole semester not knowing whether you are going get an A or a C in a three point class (because there is absolutely zero feedback throughout) then this is the class for you. Oh yea, we were also supposed to “learn” in this class, but I don’t think I did very much of that. Class was boring most of the time, Jack’s lectures just droned on and were mostly uninteresting (no one wants to hear a 2 hour lecture about the history of bikes!!), and class discussions were disorganized and dominated by only a few people. Out of a class of 200, barely a quarter showed up to class and personally I went to all of 4 classes or so all semester. Jack never ceases to amaze me…..and not in a good way, but I shouldn’t be complaining right? I should be like one of those people who write “jack is amazing” in the reviews just because he boosted their GPA….well jack, thanks for the A but the class should definitely be eliminated. The only reason I took it is because I thought it was unfair that people got free A’s the semester before (and to make up for a VERY disappointing gateway grade)

Okay, if like 90% of apathetic college students, you just want an easy A, this is the class for you. I did a whole semester's full of work in 2 days. The 15 page paper my friend and I wrote was so bad that we ourselves were too lazy to read the other one's part to completion.
The only thing you'll learn in this class is that one-sided debates do exist and this is the only line of reasoning used by the professor. Don't get me wrong, Jack is certainly approachable and lovable, and he made the time not only bearable but slightly entertaining, but if you came here to get more out of your education than 2+ hours of someone bemoaning technology and revealing how screwed up the corporate world is, well perhaps you should try another class to fulfill your science requirement...

One of the best profs at Columbia. He makes class fun. The class is very interesting. I highly recommend this class for CC students...if your SEAS and want a guaranteed A, then take this class. You'll learn all kinds of interesting factoids. You'll piss yourself laughing as Atle makes jokes and wisecracks with a heavy Norwegian accent. He is very approachable and will stay late to help you understand topics....