This professor is new and this impacted how the class was structured, as I felt that the professor did not reach a reasonable pacing until later in the class (he would go fairly fast in the beginning where it was not possible to take detailed notes of everything). I did feel like I learned a fair amount about chemical engineering and the thought processes that we need to learn to succeed in our field. The homeworks were in "report" style, where you had to almost draw a diagram or description of every problem (usually around 4-5 problems each homework), restate each question in your own words, and state any assumptions you had to make for your solution. These homeworks took a large amount of time to complete and the pdfs I handed in usually amounted to 12-18 pages of written solutions. The first two exams for this class (the two midterms) were poorly structured to the point where it was nearly impossible to complete everything in the given time limit. The second exam was slightly better in this aspect, we had more time but the exam was still extremely hard (average was in the 40s). However, by the final exam the professor got a lot better at exam design since the final was extremely reasonable difficulty-wise and more reasonable to be completed within a time limit (yet we were given 24 hours). Overall, the professor improved over the course and I definitely believe you will learn a lot if you pay attention and be diligent in your studies.

Professor Yuzhang was very organized and gave a reasonable amount of time to complete the homework. I feel like I learned what was intended from the class and gained some intuition. The exams were fair, low averages but the class is curved. For the final we were given 24 hours which was nice because it took some of the stress off of the exam. He is very very clear and coherent in his logic and lectures were very good, especially for a new lecturer. My advice is start the homework early and make sure you understand the in class examples very well!

This was Professor Li's first time teaching at UCLA and I thought he did a great job. The course material itself was very difficult and mostly just solving problems but he did a great job explaining concepts and his problem solving clearly and concisely. He was very friendly and helpful and just a great dude. The problem sets were given weekly and pretty difficult but doable. The exams were extremely difficult and painful with averages of 59 and 46 on the midterms. The final was significantly easier and was 24 hours while the midterms were timed. Overall I would recommend just doing lots of practice problems and reviewing problem sets for lectures.

Dr. Li himself was good. His lectures were engaging and on-point. I definitely learned a lot about statistics and experimental designs from him. Li also cared about the class, and student learning. He was also considerate about logistics. Slides were released early and all lectures were recorded. Student groups with international students were allowed to pre-record presentations, too. Quizzes were open-note and 24 hours, with collaboration allowed.

Unfortunately, lectures were only a small portion of the class. Non-lecture logistics were very haphazard (although this was Li’s 1st time teaching this class and 2nd time teaching ever). 90% of the class was labs, and labs depended a lot on the TA. A couple TAs were decent, but some stunk at teaching. Furthermore, most of the class was data analysis and report writing. Reports and data analysis were long and very time consuming. Just 1 or 2 bad groupmates can ruin your experience.

Next, grading was very inconsistent between TAs. I did not know why I was graded in a certain manner for lab reports. Quizzes too were graded inconsistently. Some TAs gave differing amounts of partial credit for the same answer. Sometimes 2 students graded by the same TA got different grades for the same answers.

Tl;dr: Professor was good but class logistics sucked. Grading was frequently unclear and arbitrary, due to difference between TA's (and even amongst the same TAs).

I feel like the other reviews were spot on. Prof. Li's lectures were very helpful and to the point, he usually explains concepts and does a few examples (his lectures were a combination of slides and notes written on an ipad). His first 2 exams were not the best in my opinion, which is understandable for a first time professor, but the final was better written. The one downside I can think of is that he does not like answering questions through email. But other than that, I think his class already good and will only get better.

As other reviews have stated this was this professors first quarter and I thought it went pretty well. The two midterms were fairly difficult but I believe future ones will be more reasonable. The final was 24 hours and the average was very high as a result. HWs usually take a long time and so going to TA office hours for help. This class builds on itself a lot and so understanding the first couple weeks is very important for your success. The professor is very passionate about the content and his research and connects a lot of the problems to real world engineering situations.