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David Akin ENAE483 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/12/2023	I'm rarely inclined to write reviews on any professors, but the reviews here are so atrociously untrue I feel the need to speak up. Akin is a very knowledgeable man with DECADES of experience and expertise. I really don't understand why so many people are on here trashing him. I went through a tough time last semester and Akin was both understanding and compassionate about the situation. His lectures are the most interesting, thought-provoking, and inspiring I can recall in my college years. So what, things are a bit unorganized sometimes. Everything in life isn't handed to you pressed by a cookie-cutter mold. We're engineers, just use your critical thinking skills and figure it out...
David Akin ENAE483 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2021	Dr. Akin seems to be an effective teacher and he has the most detailed slides I have ever seen and ever wish to see. Do not attempt to take notes because you will not be able to. He has a very clear syllabus but his grading is just a black box. I have absolutely no idea what my grade will be in this course because at this point (the semester is over and I took the final over a week ago) I have had 2 homeworks of 7 graded, 0 of 1 midterm graded, 1 of 2 projects graded, and 0 of 1 final graded. As such, I know that I have an A in about 25% of this course but I have no idea what I have for the rest. This class is pretty hard to review because there were so many good moments and so many bad moments as well. In summary, I would say Dr. Akin does teach effectively, does not grade well at all, assigns groups and projects for 484 well, does not communicate well, but has a very nice curve at the end. I haven't taken 484 yet but I'll make sure to review that one as well afterwards.
David Akin ENAE483 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/10/2020	Let me start off by saying, if I could give Dr. Akin a 0/5 I absolutely would with no question. He is the most disorganized, condescending, and apathetic professor I have ever had. In 483 you will learn absolutely nothing substantial, briefly cover a summary of all the previous classes you have taken up to that point, and you will work on lengthy and time-consuming projects with zero guidance that will never even be looked at, you’re basically getting a grade assigned to you at random. The midterm for 483 will be graded, if you’re lucky, by the last day of classes, then you have to turn around and take the final, both of which consist of a watered down version of previously taken content with poorly worded questions and honestly unclear methodology because his PowerPoint slides offer actually no guidance to how to do things like probability or MMOD analyses outside of a blurry graph with no context. I’m honestly not even sure why he bothers making 483 a class in and of itself, it serves no purpose, you won’t get anything out of it, and all it ends up doing is making it so that your capstone project for 484 lasts only a few months instead of an entire academic year. Oh and good luck with the whole “picking your group” he’ll prioritize his favorites who work in his lab and just give everyone else to a random group and random assignment (I wanted to be AFSS, I was instead put on MPA, likewise I wanted to do the Mars mission but again was put in a different group). Half of your team will not do anything for your team but will present results with no justification behind it in PDR and CDR and score significantly better than you because he won’t ask them any questions about their analysis despite being completely and glaringly incorrect. And on that note, he’s going to stand on his grand and prideful podium and give this haughty lecture about engineering presentation format - how to present, how to show data, etc - and then he will never follow his own advice. You can literally count all of the inconsistencies with how he says an ideal presentation should look and how he presents the lessons he is supposed to be teaching. In 484, you are quite literally on your own. He will offer absolutely nothing and contribute absolutely nothing but will be the very first person to laugh at your analysis or progress when you try to ask him any questions. And you better believe he’s going to hate your PDR and CDR, in fact he hates them before you create them. He will call you rude for answering one of his “gotcha” questions (that are specifically designed to stump you up because he derives some sick pleasure in watching undergraduate students stumble and trip up) with something to the effect of “I hadn’t considered that and I will look into it for the next review.” And if he asks you something, you did an analysis that completely supports your assertion but he just doesn’t believe you, he will not look at your evidence, will not even humor the thought that he could actually be wrong, and will spend the next 5 minutes during your presentation talking to another panelist instead of paying attention to you, then complain that you didn’t present certain things when in reality you did he just ignored you. But that’s “what it’s like in the real world,” and he asserts he’s actually being quite generous. What a joke, if industry really was like that no one would ever work in Aerospace. Why Akin is even allowed to teach anyone is beyond any level of understanding. You thought Winkelmann was bad, just wait. 483 and 484 are supposed to be what your degree leads up to - the ultimate experience of undergrad, completing a project you are supposed to be genuinely interested in. Dr. Akin has instead created a medium by which I was absolutely miserable the entire time taking his class. Everything felt like a chore, nothing I did interested me, and I had to spend countless long nights picking up the slack of my teammates who didn’t do a single thing to contribute. Don’t get me wrong, I love Aerospace I’m general, but for a “completely free design course” you are subject to the lunacy and frustrations that come with Dr. Akin’s power and superiority complex.
David Akin ENAE483 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2018	Everything you hear about Dr. Akin being hard to get a hold of, forgetting to post assignments, etc. is true. That said, 483 is both one of the most interesting and useful courses in the aerospace major and he teaches it well. He recognizes his lack of organization and is generally happy to grant extensions and remove problems for assignments posted late if you ask. Despite the communication and scheduling issues, I have enjoyed the course and learned a great deal.
David Akin ENAE483 Anonymous 12/07/2016	I'm shocked and confused about the reviews below, enough to write my own which I never do. Dr. Akin is an extremely caring, intelligent, and passionate teacher. His 483 class is one of the best I've taken in my entire college career. No, he doesn't hold your hand. His deadlines are fluid and he's forgetful. However he treats his students with respect and is willing to show the same understanding towards your busy schedule as he expects that you, as his student, will show him. As long as you don't have a stick up your butt and are able to be somewhat flexible, you will thoroughly enjoy having Dr. Akin as a professor
David Akin ENAE483 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/19/2012	Akin is an awful professor. If it is not too late take the aero track and do not take any electives with Akin as the professor. Here's the bottom line with Akin: He is so disorganized that he will never return any of your homework sets. He will return your midterm 1.5 weeks before the final, so you better hope you did well on the exam you took a month and a half ago. He will also give you homework with less than 5 days to do it. Then he will give an extension at 12:30 the night before it is due. In 484 he will not be involved with your project. The only time he will give you feedback is at the reviews where he and his grad students will snicker at you because what you are proposing is ridiculous to them. He will not give you any grades throughout the semester so he may as well be randomly assigning grades at the end of the semester. He also does not seem to care that you need your grade to graduate or that the grades are actually due by a certain time. Overall, 484 is a class that should be the best class in college and Akin makes it the worst. But let's dive into this. At one point we had a parts list all ready to go. We heard nothing from Akin, but ran into him by happenstance when trying to talk to another professor. We asked him about our parts list and he said that one of the grad students wanted to check it over in its entirety. So we went to that grad student who said Akin doesn't do shit and he didn't get the parts list. Then he and a different grad student fought about our parts list until they finally just let it go through. By the time our parts arrived we had 2 weeks to CDR and had to stop thinking about building and start putting slides together. Later on, after CDR I talked to Akin and he said that we should have ordered the parts earlier. Like everyone else who has reviewed Akin, I had a miserable time in his class. The most shocking thing was grading in 484. I don't know how he did it. It was either he had two hats one with our names and one with grades and essentially made grading random or it was based on how much he likes you. He may also call you snotty while his grad students are trying to tear you apart. AVOID AKIN. You will not like his class.