Catherine Hamel

This professor has taught: ENES100, ENES100A, ENES102, ENES102H, ENES115, ENES232, ENFP405, ENFP621
Information Review
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/21/2024
ENES232 might be one of the best taught and structured courses at this university. Having Hamel makes it definitely the best taught and structured courses at this university.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
10/14/2024
This is the best professor I had at UMD. There are no criticisms one could have. I wish all of my courses could be taught in the same manner with the same passion.
Catherine Hamel
ENES102

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/09/2024
An absolute GEM of a professor. Catherine's teaching style is clear, easy to understand, and passionate. Her notes and lectures are easy to follow. Attending office hours really helped me with the tougher homeworks. Overall, I can't recommend Catherine enough, and I feel really lucky to have been in her class and learned from her.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/04/2024
Great professor. Super kind and knowledgable.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/01/2024
She is the BEST. If you you really wanna enjoy thermo and understand it easily just take her section without any hesitation.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/23/2024
Had Catherine for ENES102 fall as well and she is by far also the best professor for ENES100. I wanted to take Micheal Galzynski as I watched his videos during 102 and heard his classes always do best in 100, I also heard he is really entertaining. Although this is all true, I am very glad I got Hamel, I knew people in Mike's classes and they had to do a lot of quizzes on his videos which hurt their grades and took a lot of time. Mike's class also started their actual project a couple of weeks after ours making it more stressful. And yes they got more overall top scores, Hamel's class had a higher average score so overall Hamel's class actually did better. Catherine is the best professor I have had, there is a reason she has 23 reviews and all 5 stars. 100 tips: Please don't do gears and treads (you have no idea). Learn some Arduino coding. Know what the whole group is doing so you can fix mistakes. Don't get too stressed when things don't work. If you can, be the group leader, will be a good experience and be good on your resume. Almost everyone gets a good grade so don't worry, if you just want a good grade it will be an ease, but you should also want to do good and learn which is what this class is about, not getting an A.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/09/2024
Really great professor! She really values inclusion and is passionate about everyone learning something new while taking the course. The class itself is quite a lot of work and content-heavy, but Hamel is really understanding and is always there to help. Hamel really pushes us to aim high and wants us to all succeed in the class. If you are taking your first engineering class, take it with Hamel. The best and nicest professor on campus!
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2024
A great course and an awesome professor, I also took ENES 102 with her and she is the type of professor that truly wants you to understand and learn, she was encouraging us through out the whole semester and wants to help.I 1000% suggest to take all possible courses with her
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2024
She was very enthusiastic about the class and seems to truly want us to succeed. Made the class very beginner-friendly as well. I would definitely recommend her as a professor.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2024
She is very nice. Does not assign too much work. Cares about students.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/08/2024
She takes time to help our team by answering questions about our project
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/08/2024
Best enes100 teacher by far! So approachable and understanding!
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/14/2024
I had a 9am and never skipped once, she is INCREDIBLE.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Anonymous
02/29/2024
Amazing professor. Clearly passionate about teaching and ensuring that you understand the content easily. BTW, the actual exam is much harder than the practice ones.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/26/2024
Ditto the other comments.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A-
acthakur
01/24/2024
Absolutely and easily the most helpful professor I have ever had. Do not skip out on her office hours they are easily the most helpful resource she offers. Depending on your TA luck, they also have great office hours. The lectures themselves are mediocrely helpful, but that's more the nature of the content than the professor. If you are struggling just talk to her and she will almost ensure that you are all caught up in your understanding. Again, do NOT skip out on her office hours, I would have an A+ if I had started going before the first exam.
Catherine Hamel
ENES102

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/23/2023
Great teacher, I was the first class she taught ENES102 and she did great. It is kind of a physics class so understanding some concepts was hard, but if you follow lecture, do homeworks (DO NOT PROCRASTINATE THE HOMEWORKS), and do test practice problems, you are good. But Professor Hamel was one of the best teachers I have ever had, take her if you can.
Catherine Hamel
ENES102H

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/16/2023
CATHERINE HAMEL IS A QUEEN. She's SO nice and SO helpful. This class is pretty similar to AP Physics, but just more focused on the application of formulas in real-life scenarios. There are 3 midterms and a final, but the final is basically a fourth midterm. All exams and homework are the same across all ENES102 courses, so nothing special. However, Hamel was so nice, and learning from her was so easy. It was her first time teaching this course, and she did a PERFECT job.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/15/2023
If you have the opportunity to choose prof. Hamel as your instructor for any course, please do yourself a favor and choose her. I took her thermodynamics course in the fall of 2022, 1 year ago, and I am still close with her today. During the time I had her I could sense that she cared not only for success in her class, but in my career as a whole. At the time I was new to the university and was navigating through the different engineering resources in terms of internship searching. She introduced me to careers4engineers and how to navigate that, and she was always encouraging me to ask her questions not related to the course if I had any. Through this class I feel like I built not only thermodynamics knowledge but an important and meaningful connection. I have asked her for multiple recommendations and she happily did all of them on top of her day-to-day work and busy schedule. She is a genuine individual and as long as you show her that you are willing to put in the work to understand the materials, she will literally bend over backwards to help you succeed.
Catherine Hamel
ENES102H

Expecting an A
dgreg
12/13/2023
THE GOAT. 💪💪💪💪💪 Can't be beat. #1.
Catherine Hamel
ENES102

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2023
Honesty the goat of mechanics. Her notes are so neat and she explains everything with such good detail. TAKE HER!!!
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/07/2023
Goated. Absolutely amazing professor. Good notes, lectures, extremely helpful inside and outside of the classroom. If you do not have her as a professor at some point, you're missing out.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Anonymous
08/26/2023
You're going to have a great time, Hamel is the most encouraging professor you could ask for. The objective of the class is pretty intimidating, but it's not the end of the world if things don't go your way. Feedback is constant and positive, Catherine will always keep a smile on your face.
Catherine Hamel
ENES100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2023
I don't really know why this class is one of the first classes you take as an engineering major. I get the idea behind it, expose us to hands-on learning right away, but the amount of information and things we need to know is insane. However, Catherine was so helpful in this class. She's probably the nicest professor on campus and is always available to help you with any issues you have from team management to engineering skills/calculations. She is extremely good at explaining things, and she made the best out of a poorly structured class. I'm extremely lucky to have taken her for ENES100, as she made my first year as an engineering major so much more fun.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/17/2023
Catherine is the best engineering professor I have had so far. She truly cares about her students learning and even takes the time to learn all of our names. Her lecture style is good and not just reading off slides. She does the examples with us, and takes the time to fully explain and answer questions. The class isn't bad, you get to take all of the midterms twice, but there is no partial credit which kind of stinks. They are pretty lenient when grading homework and studios, however they grade the final project harshly so make sure you put effort into that, especially the formatting.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2022
Don't even need to explain. You need this professor period. But do watch out for the final project it's werid
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2022
Goated.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/20/2022
Professor Hamel is the best professor I've had because she treats her students like people, not numbers. She goes beyond her call of duty in terms of helping students and holding office hours. She not only knows her material, but she also knows how to teach it well. She understands her students and concerns the class may have.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/19/2022
Professor Hamel is probably one of the only professors I’ve had who actually puts in visible effort into her students. I had her over the Summer and despite the short time she had to give us material, she put in her best effort to make sure everyone understood the topics. She also gave us multiple opportunities to receive extra credit to boost our grades. Hands down one of the best professors I’ve had so far.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2022
Catherine is the best engineering professor I have ever had, without a doubt. Her friendliness and genuine care for her students make it a pleasure to interact with her. She goes above and beyond to be helpful in office hours and on the course Piazza. Thermo is a difficult subject, but all assignments and exams are fair. It may take a significant amount of effort to do well because of the nature of the material, but it is definitely possible, especially because Catherine is such a good professor. She explains things clearly, takes questions, and will slow down or repeat things if asked. The combination of how good she is at explaining difficult material and how much she genuinely cares about your success make this class thoroughly enjoyable.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2021
Professor Hamel is one of the best ENES teachers I have had. The course content is very interesting to learn about but is also complex. However, Hamel is able to make the content understandable and not that bad. The grading method, conceptual fluency, can be very frustrating at times and probably was more annoying than the content itself. Professor Hamel is one of the very few teachers that want to connect with her students and did so by plays music at the start of class, shared thermodynamic memes, and talked with her students briefly during studio instead of just the assigned work. The memes can be dry at times, but that just shows that Hamel really wants to connect with her students and to make the course as enjoyable and interesting as possible. If you put in the work, ask for help, and do the homework and studios, you are on track for success in the course.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Anonymous
05/20/2021
One of the best professors at this school. She manages to teach a complicated and confusing topic in a way that makes it enjoyable and straightforward. The grading method takes some getting use to but it helps in the long run.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/23/2020
Professor Hamel is one of the best professors in the Maryland capstone department. She, not only cares a lot for her student's success, but has the capability of actually teaching her students, allowing them to be successful. Also, a very engaging professor. If at all possible, take this professor for any engineer course possible.
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
01/20/2019
One of the best professors I've ever had, she took one of the most dreaded engineering courses and made it approachable and enjoyable. You can do well in her class as long as you put in an honest effort, but be aware that there is very little curve for the class so you have to do well. I wish I went to lecture more, she even brings candy sometimes. There are so many nuances to this class that even if you do well on the homework, you can still mess up the exam due to small things. Make sure to show up to lecture to learn the tricks around these nuanced things
Catherine Hamel
ENES232

Anonymous
12/11/2018
Really just an all around great professor. She's extremely friendly and helpful, and does her best to make sure her students succeed. Her lecture is easy to follow and engaging.