Timothy Horiuchi

This professor has taught: EDSP652, ENEE303, ENEE303H, ENEE304, ENEE305, ENEE307, ENEE313, ENEE411, ENEE611, GEMS296, GEMS297

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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 ENEE305 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/27/2025	Prof. Horiuchi is a decent professor and is good at explaining difficult concepts. I didn't really have a very good grasp on BJT/MOSFET circuit analysis after taking ENEE304, but I learned a lot when doing the prelabs for this class. The prelabs teach you just about everything you need to know. There are only 6 labs – for each lab, you get about two weeks for collecting data then another two weeks for the lab reports which can be quite long but don’t really take too much time. There are no exams. The grade is based solely on the lab reports. The reason I took away a star is because Horiuchi’s lectures are quite disorganized and his notes are difficult to follow, but the lectures are not very important since all the relevant material is pretty much contained in the lab manual.
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.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2024	He is really big on this "flipped lecture" style, where you watch video lectures to learn the concepts and take a little quiz on it before every class. Then in theory, you spend all of class time just doing practice problems and stuff. In reality, he actually spent most of class repeating the exact same content that had been in the lecture videos. Some of the lectures are relatively short (like two 20-minute videos) but some of them, especially at the beginning of the semester, could get a little long (like three 40-minute videos). It would sometimes take me several hours to get through the videos, which was a lot considering we had to do it for two lectures a week. Homeworks and exams were tough but fair, he never gave us anything really unreasonable and the TA would usually go over problems very similar to the homework in discussion; they also graded homeworks very leniently. I found this class difficult but I honestly think the average student would be perfectly fine in Horiuchi's 303.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/22/2024	He's decent. He has a flipped lecture style in his classes where you watch pre-recorded videos, do a short quiz (that in ENEE303, you could retake once; not sure if this will be the same for ENEE304), and then go over some more examples in lecture. A decent chunk (I think roughly 45 minutes usually) of his lectures end up being review from the lecture videos and most of the lectures weren't directly related to the HWs (which we all felt were more dependent on what the TA reviewed each week), so a lot of people ended up skipping lectures. Make sure to do practice exams and understand HW solutions fully; even though he has a really nice curve the averages for the midterm and the final were in the mid 60s. He allowed us to bring a cheat sheet for 303 and also said (close to when the exams would be) what topics the exam would cover (specifically question by question), so those who didn't actually skip lectures ended up doing better than the average than those who skipped. All in all, he's helpful/approachable and detailed.
Timothy Horiuchi Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2024	pretty good professor, I wasn't a big fan of the pre-lecture teaching style since you had to spend hours taking notes before the actual lecture but if you do it, it's super helpful. he's a really smart guy and gives you everything you need to do well in the class, with lots of exam preparation material. super organized guy, I'd recommend him to anyone needing to take 303. I never did the prelecture stuff but I learned a decent amount by just going to lecture and learning from his lecture summary that is the first 10-20 mins of class before you go into example problems.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Anonymous 05/16/2024	Dr. Horiuchi leads his class in a flipped lecture style where you have to watch videos and take a quiz on the content before class. I personally did not learn well from this style of teaching and found myself spending 2-3 hours of time out of class simply watching the lecture videos and trying to understand what the content was about for each lecture. My problem with these lecture videos were that he would often draw a random circuit and talk about it for a while so you'd have to sit there and either remember the content as he's saying it, which I'm not very good at, or write it down as he's saying it, which takes a really long time. This meant about 4-6 hours a week on pre-lecture content, not even including homeworks. He does not follow the recommended textbook, often jumping around, adding his own content, or stripping down content meaning that your main source of information is those videos. In lecture, he runs through the lecture content again and then gives you about 3 problems that I found were always too difficult for me and my friends who used to always come to lecture and try for the class. The content finally started clicking near the end of the class when I started doing an overall review for the final but that was also because I started to look for online videos on each subject. The only reason I did well on the homeworks was because our TA was beyond amazing and was able to break down the content in a way that was digestible. The exams were both very difficult and he said that "each problem should take no more than 10 minutes to do if you know what you're doing" but almost every single person in the class would use the full time and still not be able to finish. The final was designed to be a "one hour and 10 minute exam" but nearly everybody used all two hours and most weren't able to figure out all of the questions. Outside of lecture, Dr. Horiuchi wasn't very approachable and couldn't give you answers to basic questions- he'd always give super high level answers which didn't help me at all. If you asked him what he thought was a bad question, it felt like he'd be condescending to you. Overall, this class felt like him flexing how knowledgeable he is on this subject rather than actually trying to teach the content. I feel like the only thing I got out of this course was practice with algebra and using KCL. His grading scale is nice but I'd prefer to learn more from the class than what I actually got out of it.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE611 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2023	Good lecturer, very fair assignments and grading. I highly recommend Dr. Horiuchi.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2023	The class is taught in a flipped lecture style, where we are made to watch lecture videos and complete a short MC lecture quiz before each lecture. And the actual lecture time is spent reviewing the concepts from the video and doing some practice problems together. I would say this would be great if you're actually interested in learning the content. But if you're just taking the course because its required, like me, it was not bad at all either. We had 2 exams 35% each, and we got to bring in a cheat sheet front and back for both exams. Exams were easier than what was taught in class, and the preparation material Horiuchi provides is plenty enough to do well. I had no clue what was being taught 90 percent of the time and was able to pull off an A because the exams :). That said Horiuchi is great for 303.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303H Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/15/2023	I took ENEE303H last semester with Professor Horiuchi His in-class lecture is very useful, and he was very helpful in office hours. The PSPICE hw for the honors section was nice, especially since 205 has moved more towards Circuitlab. Very knowledgeable and helpful professor
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a W Anonymous 03/02/2023	Was not a fan of the class structure, which was a flipped classroom where you had to watch the approximately hour long set of videos prior to class, and take a quiz on said videos before class. The classes themselves were like large discussion sections, which I did not understand the reasoning behind since there was already a discussion time built into the class. The homeworks took fairly long, but seemed manageable given you were up to date with the material. The class moves fairly fast and the material is somewhat difficult, so it is quite easy to fall behind and difficult to catch up with, which is what happened to me. Decent lecturer within the videos, although is very theory heavy when most of the homeworks and exams are based on the concepts in practice. Don't recommend unless you have a light workload for the semester or genuinely care about learning the material and don't mind the work that comes with it. I'm guessing all the positive reviews for this professor come from these kinds of students, which I feel do not represent most of the students that take this course. I will give him credit for the curve, though, which has a 50% as a C-.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Anonymous 01/23/2022	He's really nice and gave relatively easy exams (never tested on the harder parts of the material). Lectures were recorded online and a bit dry in my opinion but that's probably just me not being interested in the material. I did think watching the recorded lectures in advance before each class took a lot of time, but it helped me learn.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Anonymous 12/26/2021	This professor cares about his students and wants them to succeed. His flipped lecture style can be difficult at times since you have to watch recorded lecture videos and take a quiz before attending that lecture in person, but they helped me retain course content a lot better. He does a lot of examples in class and in the recorded videos, so pay attentionand do plenty of practice before exams. He wants to set up his students for success, so I recommend taking a course from this professor!
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/26/2021	Great professor who really cares about his students. Online teaching is hard to do but his Livescribe PDFs made it a lot more bearable. I would recommend him for any ENEE course.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE307 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/11/2021	Easy class if you have a nice TA, and Horiuchi is a great professor. 100% recommend you to take him for this and even 303. There are 7 labs in total due every 2 weeks so the workload is very manageable.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2019	Not much workload, and exams are fair. Grading scheme is very easy as well, with a 50+% being a C. Didn't really like the teaching method, which was a reverse classroom structure, but the class was easy enough.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2019	Good professor. Has videos of lectures online so easy to keep up but also easy to fall behind. Exams weren't bad just do as much practice as possible.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Anonymous 12/19/2019	An excellent professor. He had well-written lecture notes, that would supplement his teaching (note supplement, not replace, go to class!) and was clear in teaching, and very helpful.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2019	Great Professor! Very clear lecture notes and really made me enjoy circuits. Exams aren't too bad and there's a nice curve at the end. Highly recommend.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting an A scable 12/16/2014	Horiuchi is a fairly good professor for 303. He goes into a lot of detail about device physics, which didn't interest me too much personally, but it does make the derivations of the equations a bit easier to follow. We spent a lot of time discussing different designs that can be made with transistors, which was nice, but it felt like the second half of the semester was just a million ways to use the MOSFET, with little actual "new" content. Regarding the work, homeworks were fairly straightforward, if sometimes long. They come about once a week, and cover mostly whatever you do in discussion that week. Also, GO TO DISCUSSION. This is where you will get most practice with application of concepts. On exams, the midterm and final were weighted equally and designed with the same expected time and difficulty. You get one cheat sheet, and there are no numbers, which is a godsend for people like myself who tend to think 9 + 2 = 13, or other similar math errors. Overall, a good professor to take this course with.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE313 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2012	The class as a whole wasn't bad, even though device physics isn't really my area of interest. Homework assignments were usually pretty tough, but could be figured out by closely reviewing the textbook or lectures notes. The exams were also tough, but he lets you bring a double-sided sheet of notes, which is more useful as a study tool than for actually relying on during the test. In fact, he tends to give you most, if not all, of the equations that you will need, you just need to figure out how to apply them. His grading scale is laid out in the syllabus, but he will curve individual exams if the class average is really low. Overall, I'd recommend Dr. Horiuchi.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE303 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/26/2012	Lectures were fairly straightforward, assignments were a bit difficult but not unmanageable, and there were only 2 exams, including the final which was designed to be the length of a normal exam. However, my one complaint is that Horiuchi spent a lot of time discussing device physics, topics which never appeared on the homeworks or exams.
Timothy Horiuchi ENEE313 Expecting an A timmycake 02/01/2010	they dont call him tiny tim for nothin!