Brian Blair

This professor has taught: BIOE120, BIOE121, BIOE372, BIOE488A

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Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2024	For the first couple weeks, we had lectures in person on the history of bioengineering and online lectures about the actual material, when many of my classmates and I would have preferred the other way around. This method made it difficult to ask for more explanation on topics, and while the history of it is fascinating, the history is not a necessary part of the course, and it felt pointless to attend lectures when we were teaching the actual important material to ourselves. Blair seems to care about his students but does not put in much effort towards updating Canvas (the page and many assignments were very obviously from COVID/before and contained outdated instructions) or following up (we created infographics that we were told would be shared with the class for studying purposes which were never released back to us). There were errors on midterm grading where students needed to take their exams back to the TAs to receive points back.
Brian Blair BIOE121 Expecting an A mcfterp 11/22/2024	Most times he doesn't show up so hopefully your TA is nice but very easy class I loved it.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/22/2024	He's so funny and nice but he gives a lot of video lectures over the weekend which took up a lot of time.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Anonymous 05/03/2024	Took him for bioe120 and bioe121. He's very friendly, will give points back on tests if you go chat with him, and overall is good at explaining things. This class is basically AP bio with some more focus on lab techniques, so if you took bio in high school you will breeze through the material.
Brian Blair BIOE121 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2023	He NEVER shows up to lab (or will only show up for 5 minutes). The first week of class, his family had COVID and he still showed up to class, which was not a great start. Also, his pre-labs and post-labs on Canvas were often poorly written or outdated (i.e. it would tell us to reference page 19, but in the lab manual we were using it'd be page 24) which was inconvenient and confusing. Also, the lecture is so pointless, but you have to attend to get the information for participation. The lab is basically run by the lab manager and TA, and mine were nice and helpful so it was fine. Easy class, absent professor.
Brian Blair BIOE121 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Nice guy, the lab is pretty much entirely run by the TA's but he doesn't seem to regulate their work at all as they have little idea what's going on, are unhelpful in the lab, and don't grade anything until the very end of the semester. They'll grade your lab report and tell you to change something in the next lab after you've already done all of the labs. Final presentation/experiment is pretty easy though, and all the guest lecture quizzes are a good grade boost.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	super easy class. i got A's on all the exams and i didnt even put that much effort lol. his practice exams are very similar to the actual ones so i studied that and did well. the class in itself isnt bad at all. we had matlab but the TA's helped and i didnt have to do anything outside of class. we had hw and discussion and they werent bad at all. this class is honestly super chill. at the end you have a group project but I had a great group so it was not hard at all. and theres no final bc technically the group project is the final. one of the easiest bioe classes ive ever taken
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/17/2023	Dr. Blair was a nice guy and clear about what was on his tests. He also lets you have notes on your tests. I'll give him that. He was however, lazy about the content he had to cover. In the beginning of the year, we had "history lectures" in person and the actual science lectures online (probably because he just added the history lectures and already had science lectures recorded). A lot of us would have much rather had the science explained in person and had the history as a supplement online. Throughout the year, he would show up 5-10 minutes late to class (he had another class right before). Then, it seemed like the first time he looked at the slides was as he was teaching them. He also did not know how to do most of the problem set problems without looking at the answer key. He also doesn't grade anything-- it's all the TAs.
Brian Blair BIOE121 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/08/2023	He doesn't care if you show up late once in a while or forget PPE, which is nice. He's not really ever there but TAs make or break the class. Some of the pre/post labs are ridiculously hard and cover nothing about what we've learned, but you have enough chances to get higher grades on other assignments that it all evens out.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/07/2023	Blair is one of the nicest professors you will ever come across. Truthfully a very kind soul and will not hesitate to help you -- the issue is actually finding out you need help. I'll explain. The content for 372 is, believe it or not, extremely simple. It's basic biostatistics, you have a handful of equations, and the whole class is basically just doing t-tests over and over again. There's actually a long list of equations come the end of the semester, but he'll provide some equations on an equation sheet during every exam. DO NOT rely on this equation sheet because it'll only have 1 useful equation, and the rest, you must memorize. Yes. If you do not memorize, you will not pass (I have to say this because Blair says you don't have to, which is false). The issue is exams. Homework is... eh, you'll figure it out, and almost every homework you'll get like a 9.5 or a 9.75/10 because somehow somewhere you were supposed to do something different. Quizzes are online based on video lectures and... well, you win some you lose some. Most of them you'll win, but the ones you'll lose are the ones no one has any idea about unless they read Blair's mind at the time of writing the questions. Exams are the kicker. The exams are NOTHING like the homework or quizzes. They're also NOTHING like the practice exams. Some of the exams may only copy the format/linguistic style of only 1-2 questions from the practice exams, but the rest of the questions, you either need to have everything memorized from lectures or, once again, be a mind-reader, because he will not specify really important details in the questions themselves and will hesitantly talk about them during the exam when someone asks about it. The final exam this time around was very interesting. I believe Blair was a bit disappointed that half of the class stopped showing up during the final 2 weeks (because, respectfully, who holds classes all the way up to the last day of classes? Especially if you're teaching the content blended anyway, you might as well just crunch more of it online), and as a result, there were a few questions that were literally "what was 1 thing we discussed in the second-to-last lecture?". Not sure how this tests for content aptitude more than it would class attendance... but I digress. Long story short: very nice professor, but exams are confusing, the MATLAB component for this class is utterly useless and should be scrapped completely especially given that Microsoft Excel is infinitely more powerful to do statistical testing, and don't expect to really absorb anything from lectures or discussions. Discussions are also utterly useless! Even if it wasn't for completion grades, the content in the discussion questions are way harder than what you'd encounter in the lecture slides or quizzes (nowhere near the difficulty of the midterms, which are only difficult because it's a lot of flash-memorizing a bunch of equations and steps that look almost identical). If you want to get the A (I did not, but I got close), you must do independent practice on your own at least multiple times a week and crunch before each midterm. The final exam is quite literally a coin toss in terms of its content; previous final exams have one type of theme, while others have a completely different theme. Unfortunately I had to deal with BIOE371 and a brand new professor for it, which did not allow me to study the content of this class the way that I could've. The textbook is a better teacher than the slides, which are often blank because he'll draw on the white board instead. He'll draw bell curves and make midsections of it, and if you don't keep up with your notes, you'll have no clue that those blank slides mean something come exam time.
Brian Blair BIOE121 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2023	Took 121 with Blair in Spring 2022. Extremely chill guy. Labs are easy to follow, but the pre-labs might be a bit challenging as the course progresses. Post-labs are not too bad, but they will take off points for something very minor, so just make sure everything's perfect before you submit it (same for your lab notebook). Make sure you also choose a good group (will come handy later and for the final).
Brian Blair BIOE121 Anonymous 12/27/2022	Blair has a lot of experience doing research, and it shows in this class. Unlike other 121 professors, he is much more practical and will not throw you out of the class because you forgot goggles one time or showed up 10 minutes late once. Some of the pre and post-labs are hard, but in the end, he gives everyone pretty high grades so don't worry.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting a B HannahRasmussen 12/15/2022	Dr. Blair is definitely a great teacher to have. It is true that his lectures do not have much to do with content until the end of the semester and the practice problems are difficult, but he gives you SO MANY opportunities to do better and improve if you just ask for it. His teachings are mostly on recorded lectures and can be a little misleading in the level of difficulty. I struggled with this format but after emailing him and going to office hours, I saw my grade improve and I would argue that Dr. Blair is definitely not lazy. He has spent countless hours helping me and accommodating me to make sure I fully understand the material. As long as you reach out and ask for help, the class is very enjoyable and no stressful. I highly recommend taking this class for everyone.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/08/2022	Best of a bad situation. He doesn’t care about whether or not we understand. He’s chill but exams are sooooo stupid, hw is unrelated, and he’s just lazy, distant, and doesn’t seem like teaching this class is a priority
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/29/2022	Blair is just lazy. He does not use his own materials and it shows. This would be fine if he actually taught, but he doesn't -- he just reads from the slides and you don't learn anything. His exams are nothing like the practice, they're WAY TOO LONG and more difficult. Literally on the 2nd midterm only 2 people finished. He deadass said "yeah I will have to curve that one." On that exam, one question was like a third of the page in writing. He couldn't have given us a table???? He just tries to take the shortcut at the cost of his students not knowing anything. Wtf is the point of having like 10 assignments for a final project if there is no guidance whatsoever???? He literally gave up on making videos halfway through the semester and will assign groupwork on Wednesdays that no one knows how to do. Instead of ever explaining to us how to do the problems, they just disappear. I am telling you, he is a nice guy but not a great teacher. He would be a good teacher if he gave a shit. Also, matlab sessions on Fridays are so irrelevant and unnecessarily difficult. He doesn't even show up. Again, I like the guy. He's nice. But I pay too damn much for shitty education at this school. Tired of BIOE professors just half-assing shit. UMD needs to check they hiring department onggg
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/07/2022	Blair is one of the best professors I have taken at UMD and really helped me in learning the subject material. His past experience as a cancer researcher at Hopkins helped tied in many concepts to bioengineering and made lectures more interesting. All exams are also open note.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Anonymous 05/16/2022	Dr. Blair is such a sweet and passionate person!! He is probably my favorite professor ever. His lectures are very interesting and not hard to understand. After lectures he is always willing to stay and help you understand a concept if you have a question. The exams are not too hard nor too easy, however my second exam was pretty difficult and he made the final much easier after hearing that students really struggled. My main issue with the course was that a lot of the lectures were online/out of the classroom so you learned more by yourself. Personally, I do not learn well with recorded lectures so I did not like that aspect of the course. Overall, he is the best professor to take!! I cannot say enough good things about him.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/16/2022	I am not sure why Dr. Blair doesn't have more reviews. I loved his lectures because they were super interesting and he is such a fun person to listen to and he is also really knowledgeable. I do not think the course content was too difficult, but take advantage of your notes and make sure you don't fall behind. He is the best biology professor in my opinion so you are lucky yo have the opportunity to be his student.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2022	He's such a great teacher. Very passionate, very caring. He will stay after class if you have any questions even though it might impede on his time. he's also very understanding. One of the best teachers out there. He is a very fair grader, and he even tells you what will and won't be on the test, so you know what to study.
Brian Blair BIOE120 Expecting an A idonthaveapisskink 12/10/2021	Dr. Blair is one of my favorite teachers I've ever had! In addition to being very understanding and a fair grader, he keeps lectures interesting and to the point.
Brian Blair BIOE372 Expecting an A blue_footed_booby 05/15/2021	Doc Blair keeps his lecture short and sweet with no extra BS. There are sometimes issues with clarity, but if you point it out to him, he will explain further and fix his mistakes with no ego. He is super understanding of students' situations and is very nice to talk to and ask questions to. The only qualm I have is that he does not give enough practice, but I am sure there are plenty out there that I am just too dang lazy to look for.