Kevin Chiu

This professor has taught: ENES100, ENES100A, ENES102, ENES197, ENES260

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Kevin Chiu Anonymous 01/20/2026	Dr. Chiu clearly wants you to learn in his class. He is passionate about what he does and will be willing to help you. However, he is very strict. He takes points off for debris and things left on the table at the end of the class and also makes sure you follow the safety rules to a T. But, he has been getting less strict over the years because last year he used to make everybody wear safety glasses at all times and now you only have to wear it when someone is soldering. His style of teaching too is very boring and confusing at times, but for this class that doesn't matter as much since its project based. ENES100 in itself is one of those classes that you get what you put in. Dr. Chiu, while not terribly good at teaching concepts, is a very helpful guide when you are stuck working on your project. You will learn a lot in this class only if you are willing to put in the work and work past many problems that arise when you are building the OTV. I will say that sometimes he comes off as very condescending, especially if it looks like you aren't doing any work. But, he wants you to learn, that's his top priority.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/19/2026	Lots of reviews focus on his harsh grading but he definitely eased up this semester. He is a great guy and always willing to help you, also good with team issues, he was instrumental in helping me navigate some problems within my team. Sometimes feedback can come off as being a bit harsh but he's not mad or disappointed he just wants you to avoid mistakes past students have made--so listen to his advice. Overall would recommend, class isn't too bad, your stress should probably be from other classes.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/10/2026	I took him this past fall for ENES100. I feel like it may have been his first time teaching this class, but he was genuinely alright. I came in with no engineering experience at all as a freshman, and he did an alright job at teaching it. It was not a hard class if you got a group that could all the written reports and presentations on time and get some points on the OTV stuff. I'd take him again if it were a good time slot, but I'm sure there are better.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/09/2026	This guy is my GOAT, the slander that he's a harsh grader were always "coincidentally" from the group project slackers.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2026	Wholesome guy. He cares about feedback from students and is fun to talk to. Sometimes he can be a harsh grader, but it evens out by the end of the semester. ENES100 in general is just a big jump from what most people are used to.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2025	Fun chill guy. When he grades he looks at the rubric verbatem, which makes his grading a little harsh. He knows this however so he curves the class at the end. As far as I know most people in his class got an A. He is pretty hands off in the second part of class (where you actually build the robot car) as he expects you to learn from making mistakes. At the end of the day, however, he meets the two main criteria of a good professor. He genuinely wants you to take away something from the course and he isn't going to skew your GPA over. Happy I took him :)
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2025	He's a nice guy, cares about his students, but grades really hard compared to other professors. You really have to be meticulous and ask as many questions as you can to clarify stuff or else you will just lose points. I guess it prepares you for the real world.
Kevin Chiu ENES102 Expecting a B Anonymous 07/14/2025	I took Nicholas over the summer, he's a nice guy and I could tell he cared about the students learning but he would make a LOT of mistakes while walking through problems during office hours. Sometimes the students at office hours would need to correct his work or he would ask them where he was making a mistake when he was getting a wrong answer. He would mess up or overcomplicate old exam questions and even admitted himself if he were a student taking the class he would get a lot of points off. I've seen the other reviews and understand he's a relatively new professor and maybe that's the reason, but if he ends up teaching a regular fall or spring semester I would recommend switching to another professor that has better reviews and/or more experience teaching the class.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/11/2025	He is a relatively new professor, started teaching Fall 2024, that being said he is very receptive to feedback. He grades more harshly than other instructors, but regardless of who you take this class is time consuming. I found him to be helpful. Sometimes the grading criteria was not properly communicated, but he addressed these concerns and adjusted the cut-offs for the course taking this into consideration. He is very strict with safety measures and will dock points for team members not wearing safety goggles. I honestly found him to be a productive instructor and I appreciated the ways he adjusted the class based upon what students told him.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2025	Even though he is a new professor and first started in the fall semester of 25 (I'm pretty sure), he is a great professor. Forget the bad reviews on him; he is a great professor, and I couldn't/ wouldn't pick another person for this class. He is a little picky with his grading, but not enough to make u not take this class. I recommend taking it with a friend to make it more fun, because in the beginning and later on, it gets a little boring and more focused, I guess, and it's great to have a friend/ familiar face in the class. As he's stated multiple times, this class isn't graded on how ur otv performs independently (but do try to make it work), it's more or less about you guys working together to make it, 45% of ur grade is more OTV focused, and the rest is purely teamwork stuff. The TA for this is great also; she was helpful. Whenever we asked for help, she was always willing to help us. Regarding the OTV, having people who are good at CADing/Coding will come in CLUTCH. You might be unlucky and be placed in a group that doesn't specialize in these fields, but that's a low chance of happening since they try to balance it out. So to end this off. 10/10 professor, 10/10 TA, she's excellent. Class was enjoyable and amazing, 100% would return to retake it. Oh BTW u need to put down like 40$ for ur OTV, and he'll tell you this too, but be prepared to use all the money.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2025	Great guy and great instructor. He's harsh with grading, but it's because he cares about your learning. Take him for ENES100 if you want to learn helpful engineering skills and value a kind, approachable professor.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2025	A harsh grader for an introduction class but is a fine professor and is helpful.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2025	He grades this 100 level class like a 400 level class (his words, not mine). He brought in a past student to talk about his current engineering job/experiences and the student went on a rant about how Chiu was the only prof to give him a B ever. I get why he held the grudge, as Kevin is often difficult to work with. He is known well within the ENES100 community for being very strict on safety policies and will often deduct points for those that do not follow these strictures perfectly. He also keeps eyeing myself and others in class... So if you don't want a strict grader for an introduction to engineering, DONT TAKE HIM!!!!
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/12/2025	Don't take him for ENES 100. He's a really harsh grader for no reason and isn't really willing to help you or your group.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/26/2025	Had problems with my group and professor was so unsupportive and unhelpful. Professor said that the grade in the class is highly dependent on how good your group is and sometimes you just get unlucky. However he is occasionally be funny however it is not worth the stress of how he will insult and belittle you for mistakes.
Kevin Chiu ENES100 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2024	New professor this year and I think he's a really wholesome guy! Chiu (or as he goes by, Nicholas) seems to genuinely care about his students. Throughout the semester, he took the time to speak with each student individually, which means a lot. His grading may be slightly on the harsher side, but this could change in future semesters or be accounted for in a curve. Some of his instruction this semester seemed unconfident, but that was only until the building phase started. Overall, easy to talk to and a really nice person!