Gilmer Blankenship

This professor has taught: EDSP652, ENEE222, ENEE322, ENEE408I, ENEE463

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Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2021	I would only take this professor for 222 if you are already comfortable with some of the basics of signals and systems and want to really challenge yourself. His problem sets are challenging and require lots of outside research to finish, which he will warn you of during his lectures. The tests are also very challenging and for my semester all of the averages were in the 50s. The curve he gives is substantial and he expects the grades to be low on most of what he assigns. I was very frustrated about this at first, but compared to the students who took other professors for 222 my understanding of signals is much higher. The professor is also very accommodating and gave reasonable timelines for assignments and extensions when asked for. If you are interested in feedback and controls and actually being good when you get to the real world this is your guy, if you just want to pass because it is a required course you should probably steer clear of him.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/02/2021	He was objectively a nice person, but at the end of the day, his class was one of the hardest classes I've ever had, at an unreasonable rate. I currently have a different professor for 322, and we are currently doing 222 review, all of which I did not learn in Blankenship's class. Yet, the remaining topics in 322 after the first 3 weeks is stuff we did in Blankenships 222 class, no wonder it was so unreasonably hard. His exams were ridiculous diff eq and lin alg heavy and homeworks were near impossible.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE322 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2019	Nice guy, hard to hear. Expect to spend a lot of time reading the material outside of class and not comprehending it. His text is poor and the homeworks and tests are difficult to near impossible. Large curve to make up for this.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE322 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/19/2019	He doesn’t know how to explain. Even the average for the class is really low.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting an A+ jjjnmk 11/13/2015	He seems like a very nice guy. From what I heard, he pretty much takes on any senior looking to do a project for ENEE499. There's a lot of learning that you have to do on your own for this course, so if you're afraid of that I'd recommend Papamarcou over Blankenship for that reason. Blankenship tends to teach like a graduate professor, in that it's not as organized and structured as some of the better Undergraduate professors in the department. If you take Blankenship for 222, you will be pretty much set for 322, because he kind of teaches 222 like it's 322. Homework problem sets involve a lot of Matlab, so if you weren't familiar with it before you will be after this course. Tests were a little tricky just because we weren't as familiar with the course material, but to be honest he told us a couple of the test questions in class..essentially word for word. You can also find some of his old exams online, and he tends to recycle exam questions.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/29/2015	Professor Blankenship is very fair. Although he does teach like a graduate professor, he takes into consideration every question the students have. I got an A+ in this class although I didn't do very well on the first exams. His final exam is pretty much the other exams put together, so study them. The homework is doable, and he definitely curves everything. I would take his class again.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 soulelite 05/17/2015	DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY FOR ENEE222. I took 322 with Rotkowitz, and Blankenship basically taught everything I learned in 322, but in such a disorganized and unintelligible way. I highly recommend taking papamarcou or anybody else than blankenship for 222. This was my first course ever in signals, and Blankenship made it so convoluted and hard to understand. I hated signals after taking it with Blankenship, but after taking 322 Rotkowitz, I realize it's actually pretty interesting.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE322 Expecting an A- smhmd0521 12/24/2014	As you progress through the EE program, you will realize that this guy is good. He grades primarily on setting up and approaching the problem as opposed to memorizing formulas and carrying out long derivations. However he does expect a proficiency in MATLAB that the class itself does not quite warrant, and rushed through 322 material to incorporate 463 material into the class so the syllabus isn't great.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE660 amercado 10/11/2014	Very approachable and friendly. Very clear in his lectures. No nasty surprises on the exams. You get the feeling that an engineer is teaching you, not an applied mathematician. Overall, really good.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE322 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2014	First off, I'd like to point out that I did not have Blankenship for 222, and that I survived the course. Blankenship is an extremely nice guy, and I found him to be rather hilarious. My only complaints about his personality is that his voice is soothing and it makes me fall asleep in a warm room. It is true that he teaches every semester slightly different, that his homeworks are very difficult and his exams fall somewhere between fair and impossible. However, I do believe that he keeps the material interesting, and cares more about whether or not you understand the concepts than if you can apply it or not. He spends a lot of time reviewing things that he talked about last class, which is EXTREMELY nice (albeit boring), because it really emphasizes what he thinks is important (and what will be on the exam). I found his lectures to be extremely well put-together, and mostly engaging. Keep in mind he tells you the exam questions before the exam. I must say that even though I found this class to be stressful, I learned significantly more than in a lot of my other classes, and I really enjoyed it overall (which I found strange). My advice to someone who is considering taking him: sit in the front, attend every lecture and discussion, pay attention, and abuse your TA. Attending lecture is crucial because otherwise it's impossible to know what he talked about, and he often gives out test questions. Your TA is your friend and will help you with the homework. Don't try to do it completely by yourself because you will die. Remember that it is your TA's JOB to help you. Also keep in mind that if you're struggling with something, chances are everyone else is, too. Overall, Blankenship is an awesome professor and his class is completely doable, even if you're taking 18 credits, if you approach it the right way.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/02/2013	Dr. Blankenship is pretty terrible. He teaches every semester differently and in an arbitrary manner. He confuses almost everyone in the class, and fails to teach in a remotely structured manner. If you want the easy A though, and you're decent at Math, he's the guy to take, since he grades on a really nice curve (makes cut offs on average so approximately 40% of people get As). You might find you learned a decent amount for ENEE322, though the class could be much better used for its 4 credits.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Expecting an A bigbabby 02/13/2012	Blankenship's teaching style is very different from other teachers in ECE. Unfortunately I could not learn very much from him. Lectures are very technical and hard to follow unless you have a prior knowledge of the topics before class. Blankenship has alot of background knowledge which he shares during lecture, but it goes so quickly so that you're not really sure what you just learned when you leave. I had to rely on outside sources and notes to figure out what was going on. He teaches off of a set of notes found online, which is equally hard to understand. Homeworks were assigned about every week (unless he forgot) and they took a good 5-7 hours to complete. Often times the homeworks would be on entirely new concepts, completely different from what was going on in class. Depending on your TA the hw could be graded rather harshly, or more for completion. Tests were...interesting. Blankenship himself says he likes to put new concepts on tests and the result is a combination of things you haven't seen before, and things that you thought you knew - except with a hidden trick or secret. Fortunately the class is graded on a curve so as long as you do slightly better than the rest of the class, you should be in good shape. I really wanted to like this class - I just couldn't do it. Blankenship's teaching style just isn't for me. I feel that if you know what you're doing already on the subject matter, take Blankenship, as he'll throw new concepts at you, but if you don't know the relationships between fourier transforms and fourier series out of the gate you might want to look elsewhere. Edit: He curves generously, but since the content in the course is referred in future classes, I don't feel as confident in much of the subject matter (complex numbers, fourier transforms, etc)
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE222 Anonymous 11/09/2011	First semester at UMCP This "genius" guy intimidated me so much. His lecture is .1% understandable. No guidelines whatsoever. Homework is literally impossible to finish. I feel like being in a PhD class. He lectures with so much confidence as if every one is totally understanding it. I know that I am not alone in this class who have such feelings. He seems like a good guy but knows nothing about teaching. He expects you to be a PhD before he lectures
Gilmer Blankenship Expecting an A Anonymous 08/11/2009	He is a very great guy, and also very intelligent.Unfortunately, he has no teaching skills.Lectures, homework and exams will make you think that they belong in three different classes. My advice is to take this class after linear algebra, calc 3, and differential eqns. Or just take the class with another prof.
Gilmer Blankenship Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2009	Dr. Blankenship -- well his lectures were pretty hard for me to understand. He seems to love to do everything in greek letters; and his "notes" (/textbook) online weren't really that helpful. The homeworks were quite difficult and took a lot of time; but the one thing this class did was make me think. The homeworks contained between 50 and 100% MATLAB assignments and I didn't really know MATLAB that well going into this class but I've learned SO much about it and how useful it actually can be. Dr. Blankenship really emphasized signal processing in the course, which I found to actually be quite interesting. All I can say is that Dr. Blankenship himself said he's not here to hold our hand. In fact, he's more of the type of person to put everyone in the ocean and observe who can swim. His grading is quite lenient though. The way it worked for our class was that if you had one point above the average for the class, you had a B, and if you had 1.1*the average number of points+1, you had an A. His exams are very difficult but as someone else said, he really grades on approach more than getting the answer. Study hard for the first exam and you will be rewarded later as the later exams don't go so well.
Gilmer Blankenship ENEE322 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/09/2008	Nice guy, very approachable. However, lectures can at times seem to have nothing to do with the homework. Pretty decent prof, but I would say I learned the majority of the course material from the TA and not from him.
Gilmer Blankenship Expecting an A Anonymous 12/29/2007	I read all of the comments on pick-a-prof and on here, as well. Blankenship is an EXCELLENT professor. The homeworks are extremely difficult, however, the class is graded on a curve. What I came to realize was that if I couldn't do the homework, neither could anyone else. The exams are exactly what he says they will be with one question that always "tests your actual knowledge of the material". I was aiming for a B when I got in the class, somehow after exam 1 I had an A, then exam 2 I still had an A....and after the final, I had an A. He prepares you for enee 322, you will be ahead of the class when you walk in the door for 322, TRUST ME. Blankenship is a great teacher, plain and simple
Gilmer Blankenship Anonymous 12/23/2007	Prof. Blankenship is one of the few ECE professors at UMD that really impresses me. Not only is he very knowledgeable of the subject matter, but an excellent teacher as well. His lectures would be worthy of recording. Homeworks may be difficult, but they are so for good reason. I highly recommend Prof. Blankenship.
Gilmer Blankenship pelers 11/08/2007	Blankenship is definitely a difficult professor, but he is very fair. He is much more interested in how you set up problems to solve them than he is in the answers you get.