ENEE304 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE304 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2025	This is an odd situation with 304 atm. The department isn't on the same page about what the content of 304 should be and what ratio of semiconductor physics to circuits to use. I believe Horiuchi's ~75 percent circuits is the highest of anyone for 304. Class Structure: - 30% homework (x10, due Tuesday nights with M/W lecture, content was always covered in time to do the homework) - 70% exams was a bit of a sore spot. The lone midterm was 35% and brutally difficult, with the median and mean in the 40s. - It was a tale of two halves. The first half: several weeks of diode and BJT semiconductor physics, then BJT circuits until the first midterm. Second half was minimal MOSFET semi-physics with lots of circuit analysis (the more popular part). - Second midterm (aka the final) was easier, there was extra credit if you worked very hard, and the cutoffs were lowered from the start of the semester. +: Dr. Horiuchi is an thoughtful, intentional, careful, and systematic teacher with no hint of maliciousness or carelessness like you'll find with many of the higher level teachers. He speaks clearly, lectures well, and there's nothing I hated about him. That's all you can ask for from a teacher, and you win if he's an option when it's time to take 304. -: I save 5 star reviews for the very best of my teachers. I'd maybe give a 4.5 here, since finding teachers who don't make your life miserable with their negligence is hard. I know it's a new course, but we were overwhelmed at almost all times with the difficulty and organization of the content. We had extra time at the end even after covering things that were never going to be tested, so hopefully we adjust in the future to give time to go slow when learning how these devices work. Verdict is to probably not sacrifice your schedule to get him, but you will be happy to have him as a professor if you can fit it in.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE304 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2025	I was initially going to give Horiuchi a low rating, but after everything this semester, I've decided to settle at 4 stars. The first half of the semester was incredibly rough, but Horiuchi really improved over the course of the semester. Horiuchi's lectures are okay. He posts lecture notes on ELMS, but does not record. My issue with his lectures is that they tend to focus more on theory and less on problem solving. Because of this, HWs became quite difficult to complete, as it was hard to know whether you were in the right direction or not. Additionally, I think the HW problems could have been a clarified a bit more, as often times it was sort of unclear what was expected of you for certain problems (Ex. for one of the differential pair problems, we only had to do small signal analysis for a single transistor as opposed to the whole circuit, but many people, myself included, thought we had to do small signal analysis for the entire circuit). There were also HW problems that were hard to figure out with the information we had from the lectures (Ex. the differential amplifier problem). Because of this, it would be better if we had ample practice problems in lectures to become more familiar with the material, and how to solve problems. By far the most rough part of this class was the midterm exam. The midterm was so unbelievably rough - the mean was a whopping 48%, which is the lowest average for an exam I've ever taken. Not only this, but the upper quartile was a 56% (in other words, almost everyone failed). This is mostly because Horiuchi gave us very little practice for the midterm. The practice material consisted of a couple "quick quizzes" (a set of short questions to test your general knowledge on the topics) as well as a practice exam. The quick quizzes were fairly useless, and the practice midterm contained questions that were way, way, way easier than the actual exam questions. Additionally, it's important to note that neither the practice problems from lecture notes (which were far and few between), nor the HW problems, nor the practice material prepared us for the exam. The exam contained such incredibly complex questions that almost not a single person was prepared for. Horiuchi was very disappointed with the midterm grades, and he realized that he fell short in many ways. He accounted for this by giving us an optional extra credit assignment that could boost your midterm grade by up to 15%. This massively helped everyone's midterm grades. He also gave us much more practice material for the final, with the material being incredibly relevant and helpful for the final. Because of this, I went into the final exam feeling well prepared, and I also found the final to be relatively fair. I'd also like to point out that near the end of the semester, he posted his old ENEE303 lecture recordings at the request of students. I wish he had done this in the beginning of the semester itself, as it would have helped massively (his old recordings are quite good) but nevertheless, I'm very happy he did this. He was also very, very lenient with the final grades. He has a really nice inbuilt curve - you need an 85 for an A, 80 for an A-, 65 for a B-, 50 for a C-, etc. But in addition to that, he boosted the grades of people who showed a drastic improvement between their midterm and final exam scores. Not just a small boost, mind you, but a large boost. I found this to be a really nice thing to do, as it shows he was understanding of our poor performance on the midterm and was willing to account for it. Towards the end of the semester, I began to really enjoy MOSFET circuit analysis, and I think I came out of this class a lot better at circuits in general. All in all, Horiuchi wasn't perfect this semester, but he made up so much for his shortcomings that I truly believe he deserves a rating of 4 stars. I'd recommend him.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE304 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/24/2025	I was a lot more negative about my experience with this class during the semester than in reflection. I really wanted to give like a 1 or 2, swearing by this being one of my least favorite classes I've ever taken. And don't get me wrong, I really didn't enjoy this class very much. However, I think part that was due to my general apathy towards the course—it being the only one this semester I took strictly out of obligation—rather than the class itself. Regardless, there are a few points I want to relay. In my opinion, the single biggest issue with this class is its mere existence. Diode/transistor circuit theory and device physics are such different disciplines that attempting to combine them into one class inevitably leads to one getting thrown out. In our class's case, device physics was pretty much spedran in 3 weeks, and the rest of our class was pretty much what ENEE303 was. Meanwhile, I heard last semester's professors just made the class a device physics class, skipping circuits almost entirely. The department shouldn't have combined ENEE303 and ENEE313, and I will never understand how the merge was approved. With this in mind, the first exam for this class was atrocious. None of the content from the first 3 or so weeks of class even approached relevance on the exam. Instead, the only device physics problem we got was redrawing a BJT concentration plot which was featured in one of the note sheets from class, and that was 30%. BJT problems consisted of 45% of the exam, and we didn't have a single homework covering them up to that point. The professor did offer extra credit to counteract poor performance on this exam, which was greatly appreciated. I should mention that the second exam was far more reasonable, not cumulative (MOSFET only), and pretty much fully accurately reflected what we did in class. It may have been made easier compared to his previous ENEE303 classes due to exam 1 performance being particularly poor. This point might just be apathy speaking, but the algebra in this class, particularly for MOSFETs (both DC and small signal) was miserable. It's the physics type algebra where you have to keep all the constants floating around until the end, and we're not given numbers most of the time so these terms often don't simplify at all. It's not terribly difficult imo, and it really is just algebra, but it's probably the most tedious algebra I've done in my life. I was begging for it to just end several times during homeworks 5-7 especially. There seemed to be a fairly decent curve this semester, given that the grade cutoffs are already lower than they are traditionally. I was pretty much at the upper quartile for everything, and I ended a few percent below the 85% cutoff for an A. Given that I got an A, so take that for what you will. The grade is split between 35% midterm and final, and 30% homeworks. Finally, class structure. Flipped classroom was not a thing this semester, so we just had traditional lectures which weren't recorded, though class notes were still posted on ELMS. I wasn't too much of a fan, as the professor is fairly soft spoken, and the way he writes notes feels very disorganized. I wouldn't say he's a bad lecturer or anything, but lectures did not work for me. Overall, there's probably some negative bias I have, but Horiuchi is still a fine enough choice for this class.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE304 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2025	All in all, Horiuchi is a solid choice for ENEE304. To start off, this class is inherently more difficult than ENEE205 - even for someone who did well in 205. The grade cutoffs reflect this: an 85% is an A, 80% is an A-, and so on (I believe it continues to go down by 5%). As of now (just after taking the second exam), there hasn’t been any additional curve beyond that. Homework (30%) There were 10 homework assignments this semester (Spring 2025). They were definitely challenging, but still within the scope of the course content. My recommendation is to make friends in the class and work together - though of course, you’ll need to submit your own work. The homework is time-consuming and tough to grade, so be prepared for delays in getting feedback. Exams (70%) There were two exams: one mid-semester and one during finals week. The second exam was not cumulative - it only covered content from after the first exam. Exam 1, which focused on BJTs, was significantly more difficult than the practice material and homework. The average was extremely low (around 49%). To help, Horiuchi gave us three extra credit problems (worth up to 15 points) based on Exam 1 material. This was a helpful boost. Exam 2, covering MOSFETs, felt more manageable. Horiuchi also provided more resources and practice for it than he did for Exam 1, so I expect the average to be higher. My Thoughts Horiuchi is approachable and willing to answer questions before, during, or after class. ENEE304 is just a tough course, which likely explains the lower grade cutoffs - and that’s not really his fault. Unlike older reviews, this semester didn’t use a flipped lecture style. He uploaded lecture notes before or after class, and lectures mainly consisted of him going through and explaining these notes in detail. Our TA was also helpful. That said, grading was slow - we didn’t get our last homework grade until finals week, although the difficulty and length of the assignments made that understandable. The main reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 is the limited number of opportunities to improve your grade. Beyond the 10 homework sets and 2 exams, there weren’t quizzes or smaller assessments that could’ve helped reinforce content or offer grade padding. I also think Exam 1 could’ve been better supported - there was no review session, and we jumped straight into new material afterward, which was frustrating. However, given the amount of content in 304, I understand the time pressure. TL;DR: Horiuchi is a solid professor, and 304 is just a hard class by nature. If someone like Prof. Murphy ends up teaching it, you might want to compare, but otherwise, Horiuchi is a good choice. Just know there aren’t many chances to boost your grade, so it’s important to stay on top of the content from the start.
Neil Goldsman ENEE304 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/09/2024	Dr. Goldsman is a great professor who knows his stuff. Very friendly, gives extensions if needed, and explains concepts very well. 304 is still pretty new but he does a good job of making sure you understand BJTs and MOSFETs and making sure you get why and how they work. We don't do too many circuit problems but overall the class was good.
Neil Goldsman ENEE304 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/29/2024	Goldsman is a very nice guy but a rather dry lecturer. He spends a lot of class rambling through examples, and often struggles to find the right words or will double back on his sentences several times to amend what he's saying. He always seems to be more or less winging his lectures, and it feels like he doesnt quite know what he is about to say or describe next until he does it, especially when he makes diagrams or graphs and spends half of the time just drawing and labeling different things. He at least explains concepts somewhat clearly, and his assignments clearly relate to what we do in class and especially the textbook. The textbook is being written by Goldsman, and he added a chapter a few weeks before the class ended too (it was a short chapter). Some students dont like how derivation heavy the course is, but its a pretty significant part of the content and is honestly not that bad when you can follow the work in the textbook and on exams the derivations are very straightforward.

Timothy Horiuchi
ENEE304

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/28/2025

This is an odd situation with 304 atm. The department isn't on the same page about what the content of 304 should be and what ratio of semiconductor physics to circuits to use. I believe Horiuchi's ~75 percent circuits is the highest of anyone for 304. Class Structure: - 30% homework (x10, due Tuesday nights with M/W lecture, content was always covered in time to do the homework) - 70% exams was a bit of a sore spot. The lone midterm was 35% and brutally difficult, with the median and mean in the 40s. - It was a tale of two halves. The first half: several weeks of diode and BJT semiconductor physics, then BJT circuits until the first midterm. Second half was minimal MOSFET semi-physics with lots of circuit analysis (the more popular part). - Second midterm (aka the final) was easier, there was extra credit if you worked very hard, and the cutoffs were lowered from the start of the semester. +: Dr. Horiuchi is an thoughtful, intentional, careful, and systematic teacher with no hint of maliciousness or carelessness like you'll find with many of the higher level teachers. He speaks clearly, lectures well, and there's nothing I hated about him. That's all you can ask for from a teacher, and you win if he's an option when it's time to take 304. -: I save 5 star reviews for the very best of my teachers. I'd maybe give a 4.5 here, since finding teachers who don't make your life miserable with their negligence is hard. I know it's a new course, but we were overwhelmed at almost all times with the difficulty and organization of the content. We had extra time at the end even after covering things that were never going to be tested, so hopefully we adjust in the future to give time to go slow when learning how these devices work. Verdict is to probably not sacrifice your schedule to get him, but you will be happy to have him as a professor if you can fit it in.

Timothy Horiuchi
ENEE304

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/25/2025

I was initially going to give Horiuchi a low rating, but after everything this semester, I've decided to settle at 4 stars. The first half of the semester was incredibly rough, but Horiuchi really improved over the course of the semester. Horiuchi's lectures are okay. He posts lecture notes on ELMS, but does not record. My issue with his lectures is that they tend to focus more on theory and less on problem solving. Because of this, HWs became quite difficult to complete, as it was hard to know whether you were in the right direction or not. Additionally, I think the HW problems could have been a clarified a bit more, as often times it was sort of unclear what was expected of you for certain problems (Ex. for one of the differential pair problems, we only had to do small signal analysis for a single transistor as opposed to the whole circuit, but many people, myself included, thought we had to do small signal analysis for the entire circuit). There were also HW problems that were hard to figure out with the information we had from the lectures (Ex. the differential amplifier problem). Because of this, it would be better if we had ample practice problems in lectures to become more familiar with the material, and how to solve problems. By far the most rough part of this class was the midterm exam. The midterm was so unbelievably rough - the mean was a whopping 48%, which is the lowest average for an exam I've ever taken. Not only this, but the upper quartile was a 56% (in other words, almost everyone failed). This is mostly because Horiuchi gave us very little practice for the midterm. The practice material consisted of a couple "quick quizzes" (a set of short questions to test your general knowledge on the topics) as well as a practice exam. The quick quizzes were fairly useless, and the practice midterm contained questions that were way, way, way easier than the actual exam questions. Additionally, it's important to note that neither the practice problems from lecture notes (which were far and few between), nor the HW problems, nor the practice material prepared us for the exam. The exam contained such incredibly complex questions that almost not a single person was prepared for. Horiuchi was very disappointed with the midterm grades, and he realized that he fell short in many ways. He accounted for this by giving us an optional extra credit assignment that could boost your midterm grade by up to 15%. This massively helped everyone's midterm grades. He also gave us much more practice material for the final, with the material being incredibly relevant and helpful for the final. Because of this, I went into the final exam feeling well prepared, and I also found the final to be relatively fair. I'd also like to point out that near the end of the semester, he posted his old ENEE303 lecture recordings at the request of students. I wish he had done this in the beginning of the semester itself, as it would have helped massively (his old recordings are quite good) but nevertheless, I'm very happy he did this. He was also very, very lenient with the final grades. He has a really nice inbuilt curve - you need an 85 for an A, 80 for an A-, 65 for a B-, 50 for a C-, etc. But in addition to that, he boosted the grades of people who showed a drastic improvement between their midterm and final exam scores. Not just a small boost, mind you, but a large boost. I found this to be a really nice thing to do, as it shows he was understanding of our poor performance on the midterm and was willing to account for it. Towards the end of the semester, I began to really enjoy MOSFET circuit analysis, and I think I came out of this class a lot better at circuits in general. All in all, Horiuchi wasn't perfect this semester, but he made up so much for his shortcomings that I truly believe he deserves a rating of 4 stars. I'd recommend him.

Timothy Horiuchi
ENEE304

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/24/2025

I was a lot more negative about my experience with this class during the semester than in reflection. I really wanted to give like a 1 or 2, swearing by this being one of my least favorite classes I've ever taken. And don't get me wrong, I really didn't enjoy this class very much. However, I think part that was due to my general apathy towards the course—it being the only one this semester I took strictly out of obligation—rather than the class itself. Regardless, there are a few points I want to relay. In my opinion, the single biggest issue with this class is its mere existence. Diode/transistor circuit theory and device physics are such different disciplines that attempting to combine them into one class inevitably leads to one getting thrown out. In our class's case, device physics was pretty much spedran in 3 weeks, and the rest of our class was pretty much what ENEE303 was. Meanwhile, I heard last semester's professors just made the class a device physics class, skipping circuits almost entirely. The department shouldn't have combined ENEE303 and ENEE313, and I will never understand how the merge was approved. With this in mind, the first exam for this class was atrocious. None of the content from the first 3 or so weeks of class even approached relevance on the exam. Instead, the only device physics problem we got was redrawing a BJT concentration plot which was featured in one of the note sheets from class, and that was 30%. BJT problems consisted of 45% of the exam, and we didn't have a single homework covering them up to that point. The professor did offer extra credit to counteract poor performance on this exam, which was greatly appreciated. I should mention that the second exam was far more reasonable, not cumulative (MOSFET only), and pretty much fully accurately reflected what we did in class. It may have been made easier compared to his previous ENEE303 classes due to exam 1 performance being particularly poor. This point might just be apathy speaking, but the algebra in this class, particularly for MOSFETs (both DC and small signal) was miserable. It's the physics type algebra where you have to keep all the constants floating around until the end, and we're not given numbers most of the time so these terms often don't simplify at all. It's not terribly difficult imo, and it really is just algebra, but it's probably the most tedious algebra I've done in my life. I was begging for it to just end several times during homeworks 5-7 especially. There seemed to be a fairly decent curve this semester, given that the grade cutoffs are already lower than they are traditionally. I was pretty much at the upper quartile for everything, and I ended a few percent below the 85% cutoff for an A. Given that I got an A, so take that for what you will. The grade is split between 35% midterm and final, and 30% homeworks. Finally, class structure. Flipped classroom was not a thing this semester, so we just had traditional lectures which weren't recorded, though class notes were still posted on ELMS. I wasn't too much of a fan, as the professor is fairly soft spoken, and the way he writes notes feels very disorganized. I wouldn't say he's a bad lecturer or anything, but lectures did not work for me. Overall, there's probably some negative bias I have, but Horiuchi is still a fine enough choice for this class.

Timothy Horiuchi
ENEE304

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2025

All in all, Horiuchi is a solid choice for ENEE304. To start off, this class is inherently more difficult than ENEE205 - even for someone who did well in 205. The grade cutoffs reflect this: an 85% is an A, 80% is an A-, and so on (I believe it continues to go down by 5%). As of now (just after taking the second exam), there hasn’t been any additional curve beyond that. Homework (30%) There were 10 homework assignments this semester (Spring 2025). They were definitely challenging, but still within the scope of the course content. My recommendation is to make friends in the class and work together - though of course, you’ll need to submit your own work. The homework is time-consuming and tough to grade, so be prepared for delays in getting feedback. Exams (70%) There were two exams: one mid-semester and one during finals week. The second exam was not cumulative - it only covered content from after the first exam. Exam 1, which focused on BJTs, was significantly more difficult than the practice material and homework. The average was extremely low (around 49%). To help, Horiuchi gave us three extra credit problems (worth up to 15 points) based on Exam 1 material. This was a helpful boost. Exam 2, covering MOSFETs, felt more manageable. Horiuchi also provided more resources and practice for it than he did for Exam 1, so I expect the average to be higher. My Thoughts Horiuchi is approachable and willing to answer questions before, during, or after class. ENEE304 is just a tough course, which likely explains the lower grade cutoffs - and that’s not really his fault. Unlike older reviews, this semester didn’t use a flipped lecture style. He uploaded lecture notes before or after class, and lectures mainly consisted of him going through and explaining these notes in detail. Our TA was also helpful. That said, grading was slow - we didn’t get our last homework grade until finals week, although the difficulty and length of the assignments made that understandable. The main reason I’m giving 4 stars instead of 5 is the limited number of opportunities to improve your grade. Beyond the 10 homework sets and 2 exams, there weren’t quizzes or smaller assessments that could’ve helped reinforce content or offer grade padding. I also think Exam 1 could’ve been better supported - there was no review session, and we jumped straight into new material afterward, which was frustrating. However, given the amount of content in 304, I understand the time pressure. TL;DR: Horiuchi is a solid professor, and 304 is just a hard class by nature. If someone like Prof. Murphy ends up teaching it, you might want to compare, but otherwise, Horiuchi is a good choice. Just know there aren’t many chances to boost your grade, so it’s important to stay on top of the content from the start.

Neil Goldsman
ENEE304

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/09/2024

Dr. Goldsman is a great professor who knows his stuff. Very friendly, gives extensions if needed, and explains concepts very well. 304 is still pretty new but he does a good job of making sure you understand BJTs and MOSFETs and making sure you get why and how they work. We don't do too many circuit problems but overall the class was good.

Neil Goldsman
ENEE304

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/29/2024

Goldsman is a very nice guy but a rather dry lecturer. He spends a lot of class rambling through examples, and often struggles to find the right words or will double back on his sentences several times to amend what he's saying. He always seems to be more or less winging his lectures, and it feels like he doesnt quite know what he is about to say or describe next until he does it, especially when he makes diagrams or graphs and spends half of the time just drawing and labeling different things. He at least explains concepts somewhat clearly, and his assignments clearly relate to what we do in class and especially the textbook. The textbook is being written by Goldsman, and he added a chapter a few weeks before the class ended too (it was a short chapter). Some students dont like how derivation heavy the course is, but its a pretty significant part of the content and is honestly not that bad when you can follow the work in the textbook and on exams the derivations are very straightforward.

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