He's a great engineer, but his teaching skills aren't the best. He would simply read the slides. I had to teach myself almost everything in that class

Dr. Lara... was interesting. If it was not for his AWFUL TA, his class would have been a decent course. Good, enthusiastic professor who cares passionately about what he does. He is extremely vague on details concerning due dates, assignments and honestly he just avoids questions very well. I can not say I really retained any content.

most proffs give you to the end of the week to complete your assignment, he gives you the class period.... yeah.

All other pros give a week to finish assignments, but he gives only one period to finish. It seems that everyone is just playing catch up on assignments instead of learning actual python language. We learned everything by ourselves from reading textbook. Prof and most of the TAs just show confused face whenever we are having questions for them.

He is the only professor to make assignments due the end of class. As someone with coding experience, the difficulty of the class was not the coding, but catching up to all the due dates (lots of useless hw with labs). I also received zeros for assignments I completed and had to email TAs and the professor multiple times in order to fix my grades.

This man literally cant even code. Hes teaching a coding class but didn't know how to print a number. His English is pretty bad making him hard to understand. He tried his best though. Hes likable but get someone else. Hours of work went into getting an A in this class.

For anyone looking to pass 217, Ruiz is not the professor for you. Lectures are confusing, grading is tough, and most of the time he looks just as lost as you.

Proff doesn't know much about coding. Hes a pretty bad teacher but that doesn't really matter if you can learn on your own.

He seems like a nice guy, but the lectures were not helpful at all and everyone was confused by the project instructions, the material, dates, etc. We learned most of the content from the TA's and google. Also the whole class was pretty much group assignments.

Absolutely god awful professor, he didn't teach us anything in his lectures, and didn't even write his own lectures. He used a different professor's curriculum entirely, had his TAs do all of the grading and teaching, and didn't speak to his TAs about anything else. Over half of the class was group projects that you had to teach yourself.

Dr. Lara is a nice guy and he gives you a lot of extensions but he does virtually no teaching and stays on the zoom call for 5 minutes and leaves the TAs to do all the work. The class is heavy group work where group labs make up a hefty 50+% of your grade. Due to the poor teaching if you have no coding background you are basically screwed for exams

Absolutely terrible professor. Never take him. He gives out homework that he doesn't even know how to do himself. He is hard to get ahold of and does not give helpful answers when he does reply. He likes to throw you into the deep end when he only taught you how to walk down the stairs into the kid pool. He is awful!

Terrible professor. He never actually showed us how to code nor does he do his own lectures. Avoid him if you can

Prof is nice but barely even understands the topic he is teaching and probably wouldn't be able to answer any coding questions. All the labs are done as group projects and are super rough. Super hard to get an A without coding experience.

Prof is nice but doesn't even understand the topic he is teaching. All the labs are pretty rough and done as groupwork. The tests are super random and make the class super hard to get an A in without a good amount of coding experience.

NOTHING GOOD TO SAY ABOUT THIS PROFESSOR. Stated we didn't have a final for numerous weeks and just dropped a bomb on the class the last day of classes saying we had a final. Unorganized and all over the place, lectures are boring and useless. Labs are done by TA's. Don't take this guy he's a dinosaur who doesn't know what he was doing.

First of all the lectures have nothing to do with the assignments at all. Each assignment is half group work, half individual so if you don't have a group with people who have a background in coding, you're screwed. Also, the exams are nothing like the material he gives and the formats are like nothing you have practiced. I'm just trying to survive

I knew within two weeks of class starting that it was going to be awful. I was new to engineering and excited to learn but I barely learned anything. The lectures and homework did not match up and the only reason I could even get through the group projects was because my teammates knew coding. I dropped after a month.

Does not teach at all just reads off of the powerpoint and I could do that myself. very hard to understand and textbook doesnt help much at all. Just got a 32 on the final exam and that was the best grade at my table. Might as well teach yourself because he does not help at all. Class made me cry multiple times and the labs are very difficult.

Professor Lara was AWFUL. Had no idea what he was doing, class was completely lead by the TA's. He just read the lectures, which weren't even his, and did nothing else. Group projects and individual projects given out weekly, hopefully you get a good group that knows coding. Class had a TERRIBLY hard final project, and the final was rough too. Gl

He knows absolutely nothing about coding. I came in with prior coding experience so I wasn't 100% screwed, but he doesn't know how to code at all. He takes away all the fun from coding and made me lose brain cells. The final warning is that the midterm and final are much harder than the rest of the class and they focus on all the random junk.

Prof. gives a lecture, made by someone else, every class. It appears he does not understand the material himself. There is a group assignment and an individual assignment every week. Most are not horrible if you know what you're doing. Tests are hard to do well on. The class average on the last test was 56%. Idk how you justify a test that complex.

Dr Lara does not do a good job at preparing his students for tests. He usually leaves halfway through his lecture and lets his TAs answer all the questions. He specifically told us not to come to his office hours which with disappointing to hear from a professor.

Definitely avoid this guy. This class is entirely coding-based and since he doesn't teach it very well, you are basically screwed if you have no background knowledge of coding. He also goes off on tangents about his own field of study that has nothing to do with coding. Also, he spends too much time in lecture instead of letting us do group work.

He does not prepare you for any of the exams until the class before the exam. Would not recommend him. His class is based on his interest in climate change.

I truly believe that Lara is a really sweet man who cares about his students however he cannot teach to save his life. He mumbles in lecture and his lectures were always a week late. The TA's were not helpful either they didn't know what was going on in the class. He accidently deleted our midterm exam, he doesn't know how to work computers.

You will 100% want to avoid this professor if possible at all. He just lectures on about information you can understand better by just reading for 10 minutes. He does not show up to his own office hour nor read his email and leaves the class earlier than the students. He never does anything for student's success but tests you on imaginary material.

The absolute worst. We would get 2 days for assignments while others got a week! This is coming from someone with Python experience. We were not prepared for the exams at all. He mumbles during class and only cares about his passion for sustainability. I do not recommend at all. Please, take literally anyone else!!

Definitely one of the worst professors I have ever had. He doesn't really even know what's going on in his own class (he accidently repeated an entire lecture). He also comes off very condescending when you ask him literally anything. Lab TAs wont even read the lab manual before they show up to the lab either so don't expect the lab to be better.

Dr. Lara rambles on during lecture and can barely teach to save his life! AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Had a 97 in class prior to final. Final was way harder than review and in class material given. Final dropped majority of people I know to a B, in which he won't release the final exam scores to us because they were so bad, so we just see our final grade and do not know final standing in class. terrible.

This professor is absolutely terrible. His lectures are not helpful and will leave you with less understanding of the material but they are mandatory. The final is insanely hard and he does not prepare you. I had a 99 (A) in this class, but when my final grade was posted I was given a C, and the final exam grades were never posted.

Lectures are weak and often hard to follow due to him delivering them in an absent-minded fashion. Late to class occasionally and then won't extend the time that the in class assignments are due. The one upside is that the homework and assignments are freebies. Overall the course structure is very poor and the final will drop students to a B.

I can't believe I spent money to take this class. The lectures are useless, he reads off the slides and goes on 30-minute tangents about who knows what. The final is ridiculously hard and nothing he teaches you will prepare you, the average grade in my section was a below a 40. I only got an A because I took statistics in high school.

I'll break him down in bullet points -terrible lecturer -hw and review didn't prepare me for the final -has good intentions but has terrible execution TLDR: I barely scraped away an A because I had like 98 in the class and had taken stats in high school. The class average was a 40 with a high of 70. Quite literally nobody got above a 94.

DO. NOT. TAKE. You learn nothing in lectures. Final exam is much harder than homework and content covered in class. Your grade is composed of labs, homework, and final exam. Make sure you do really good on the labs so the final doesn't kill your grade. Not passionate about the class at all. Learn stats yourself to survive the final.

DO NOT TAKE HIS CLASS!!!! He is the worst professor I have ever had, doesn't care about anything. He never thought us anything and said he expects us to learn everything on our own. ALL FRESHMEN SHOULD AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. If you want to actually learn the concepts pick a different professor it will help in the long term.

He is objectively a bad teacher. He was late 10 minutes for every lecture so your class will be behind. He is difficult to understand, and he does not focus on the materials you need to succeed but will focus on easy concepts. The big issue though is that he doesn't really answer questions, so you have to figure things out on your own.

He lectured on windmills and conservation of mass when that's not part of the curriculum, and because of that we didn't even touch on ethics in class. He was late to class and hard to understand. Homework was mostly easy though, and if you are good at physics then the class won't be too bad. Still not worth it to take his class IMO.

Teaching style is ineffective. You get your learning from the Zybook readings, and even then, you still won't understand---especially if you have no experience in coding. Even those with coding experience still struggled. Get a good group!! You'll need to work together to survive, the labs get overwhelming and super-time consuming.

Dr. Ruiz is a great guy, but he LITERALLY does not know how to code. Stay away from him for 102.

This man does not teach the information at all, his lectures drone on and he often goes on tangents that have no relevance avoid him at all costs

He's just so bad, whatever you can do to avoid him...do it.

Dr. Lara is a tough grader and does not do a good job of connecting with and engaging his students. There are weekly quizzes, in-class activities, readings, homework, and lab assignments. The lectures are difficult to understand because of the heavy accent he has, and he doesn't teach beyond the slides provided by the university.

Horrible professor. He dryly reads off slides that do not help your learning and calls them lectures. Most of the class is self taught, just hope you have good TAs and lab group because they will carry your grade if you have no coding knowledge. Try to avoid this prof at all costs because he is not resourceful or helpful at all.

I don't even know how this dude still works here, as he is the worst professor I've ever had at any school. He was absent for 2 entire weeks, and you honestly don't even need to go to class as you won't learn any more or less than if you did. The final is terrible, he does not curve, and everyone with an A+ average ended up with a B or C after it.

RUN, don't walk away from ENGR 102 sections taught by this guy. If you have previous coding experience (Python, specifically), then don't expect to do well on the exams. He tests you on obscure functions and poorly written code that no real developer would reasonably use/write. Save your sanity and GPA, take and another professor.

awful professor. avoid at all costs. He does not know how to teach or code. Exam reviews don't help and TA's carry. I'm surprised he still teaches here. doesn't explain anything besides the lecture slides and provides barely any help.

Only uses lecture slides, the rest of the individual teaching is done by TAs, which they're very good, but I've never seen him walk around the room to help. Directions on some assignments are extremely confusing, unclear, and sometimes not even possible.

Dr. Lara is an inspiration to engineering students. An inspiration to drop out of engineering and go live off the grid. He spends all of class lecturing on the content he just assigned in the zyBooks and doesn't seem even remotely proficient in Python. Instead of a fun final (a video game), we did more data analysis and reports.

Dr. Lara had very terrible lectures. All of your learning will come from the zybooks/TAs. He will not teach you anything, but rather go on tangents about his water desalination research process. When I went to his office hours, he just told me to hardcode it and didn't bother telling me how to fix my code. Nice guy though.

Routinely showed up to a 50-minute lecture over 10 minutes late. Not a great lecturer and reads directly off the slides which are also lacking. Doesn't give homework but gives graded in class assignments so attendance is kinda mandatory. The 217 final is kind of always bad, but he gave our class absolutely no review material whatsoever. Do not take

It is evident that he has minimal experience coding, or maybe none at all. It is typical for college professors to be unhelpful, but this man is the epitome of unhelpful. He never really answered questions about coding, and went on and on about sustainability and his personal research. He is also the master of the Irish exit, he just disappears.

DO NOT TAKE HIM! He never responds to emails if you have any questions, his lectures are pointless and he doesn't even teach what is on the curriculum. Worst of all, he forgot to put numbers on our midterm and no one was able to take it. DO ANYTHING BUT TAKE HIM FOR THIS CLASS!

He doesn't teach you. I learned coding through high school and that was the only way I got a good grade. If you don't know coding before taking his class choose a different prof.

Bad, very bad. Learned nothing and he's prone to the random major pop quiz. Exams are awful and go into the minutia of python that no self-respecting engineer could conceivably use.

He seems like a good guy, just absolutely incompetent as a professor. Lectures were completely useless. Canvas was not organized well, and assignments were not clearly communicated. He forgot to add numbers to our midterm, and our final had about 10 different errors. Study lecture slides and have some good stats knowledge and you should be fine

He just never responds to emails and it's stressful for students. He also didn't grade assignments until the very last week they were due, and I had to rely on my friend's prof's notes to study. I suppose he assigns less work than other profs but his lack of competence cancels the pros out.

Terrible professor. Genuinely horrible, shows up late every lecture, then rushes through the slide show, so you don't learn anything. I have no idea how he is still employed. This guy forgot to put values in for our midterm, so we wasted our time and had to take the midterm in class, further pushing back our lectures. Pls take Ritchey or Moore/

It literally feels like this guy "got rid" of the original professor and is trying his best to "cover up his act". He shows up 10min late everyday. runs through lecture, goes on long side tangents about how "great" an engineer is, doesn't respond to emails, unorganized canvas. However, he gives no HW. GL studying for final. how is he still employed

Very light on homework. Slow unengaging lecturer. Seems like a genuine person, but I would not recommend him as a teacher

This guy is just not good, lectures are difficult to understand and practically useless, he did not prepare us for the final at all and never responds to emails, there lectures were somewhat mandatory as there are in class assignments due at the end. This class is already a weed out and he doesn't make it much better.

Don't take this professor if you want to save your GPA. Never received a curve for an exam that is historically curved and the averages were in the 60s. I should've finished with an A since the labs and assignments in this class are fairly easy. However, the professor rarely teaches the right material and usually goes off on tangents.

This guy cannot teach, the class is really easy though outside of the final exam which is extremely hard.

If you are in this class, you are likely a freshman. All I have to say is GOOD LUCK. Cause you'll need it. Make friends with the PT's as fast as possible.

Bad lectures

Dr. Ruiz will not prepare you for the final and does not reply to emails either.