Adam Hsieh

This professor has taught: BIOE120, BIOE399H, BIOE404, BIOE489C, BIOE489H, BIOE602, GEMS296, GEMS297, GEMS396, GEMS397, GEMS496, GEMS497

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Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2014	Although it is somewhat hard to stay focused in his class, Hsieh is a good professor. He is a really smart and fair guy, and wants to make sure his students do well in the class. The grading policy he has is amazing and the tests are fairly straightforward. Make sure to make awesome cheat sheets for the tests and then you don't have to worry about the biology. (I wrote in all of the biology notes in size six font on one side of my cheat sheet for each exam, didn't study it besides actually typing it out, and it worked out really well.) Also Hsieh was really approachable if you had any questions and is happy to help.
Adam Hsieh BIOE120 Expecting an A- nbarshain 02/26/2014	Not an engaging speaker, which made it difficult to pay attention sometimes. However, he was good at answering questions and explaining concepts. Depth of material was good and tests were challenging but fair. Powerpoints were easy to follow and thorough. Homework was handled well: we had to answer questions in a word document and submit it online. It was mostly putting the calculation techniques that we learned in class to use. Group project was debating about controversial issues in the modern day fields of bioengineering. Very interesting, and it helped pad my grade a lot.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/09/2014	Dr. Hsieh, though monotone and boring, is a good professor. He is very straightforward with what material you need to know. So that makes it easy on the tests because not only do you get a cheat sheet, there only so many types of questions he can ask. His grading policy is the best I have ever seen! 30% HW (8 homeworks, drop 2 lowest), 6% quiz (8 quizzes, drop 2 lowest), 20% project, 20% exam, 20% exam, 4% lowest (grade exam), 4% extra credit (which is just attending discussions!). You are almost guaranteed an A. I could have gotten an 0 on the final and a 50 on the project and still have a 90 some in the class. However, try REALLY hard on the homeworks. Homeworks are the most important part of the class! They are extremely tedious and would usually take 5+ hrs during the first half of the semester. Also, the notes he posts online are really helpful, so you don't really need to go to class if that's how you roll.
Adam Hsieh BIOE120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2012	Initially, I was very skeptical of how his teaching style was and the material he covered in lecture. But as the class went on, I began to enjoy the material we were covering. This was only a 100 level course but the depth of material that we covered was far beyond an introductory class. Regardless, his tests always contained the most nuanced material, so it was imperative to actually read every single word of the assigned readings or you would risk missing a question he might ask on the exam. However, this actually makes you learn the material because you have no idea what will be on the test so you attempt to memorize everything. Hsieh is also super helpful and receptive during office hours and strives to help you as a person in his class. He might seem dull and inattentive at times but he is pretty intelligent. I doubt he'll teach this course again but if he does, I would definitely take it with him if you want to learn cellular biology.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting a B+ thearn182 12/17/2012	Dr. Hsieh is a pretty decent professor. His class can be tough to sit through since he's a quiet, monotone speaker. Homeworks require some effort, but the exams are usually based off the central idea behind a single homework plus biology. I recommend putting all the biology on your cheat sheet for the exams and just knowing how to do the math. Oh he drops one exam, so do yourself a favor and just do well on the first two because the final usually falls on the same day as 340 which is not fun.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting a B pat 02/29/2012	This guy is pretty amusing - he gets COMPLETELY confused and thrown off by his own examples. It is worth it just to go to class to watch him get vortexed into a blank stare by his own typically simple examples. This class starts out pretty awesome actually. You gain the ability to analyze some interesting statics and dynamics problems applied to the musculoskeletal system. The second half is when this class is just a complete drag because of soooooooooooooooooooo much superfluous biololgy. We literally spent 4 or 5 weeks straight on just straight bio (which constituted a LARGE amount of his exams (this is where I lost all of my points.)) This wouldn't be a big deal if he directly connected it to what appeared to be upper level mechanics theory, but he did a HORRIBLE job in this regard. His notes are generally very vague, but if you really understand them (stare at them for long enough) then you should be able to do the homeworks just fine. The project turned out to be great. Like I said, I got particularly boned on the exams by all of the truely superfluous biology that I didn't give a shi* about. Bottom line - memorize the stupid biology crap for the tests, forget it, move on. Also make a really good cheat sheet with as much bio on it as you can.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting an A zhangsta 11/04/2011	Dr. Hsieh is a fairly approachable professor and pretty helpful in his office hours. His exams were very straightforward, but tended to cover a lot of material so to do well, you need to know just about every small detail from lecture. He also loves to use matrices to solve just about everything so this class might be a little hard to follow unless you know linear algebra. Typically, his homeworks tended to be very mathy and based on examples he would work out in lecture so if you were careful and knew what you were doing, those were easy points. His exams tended to cover mostly the anatomical stuff he goes over in lecture with one or two math-based questions.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/22/2010	Dr. Hsieh was quite disorganized in the material that he covered and never really settled on what the course was to be. He was frequently confused by his problems. The tests were very easy for people who had recently taken mechanics but those who had forgotten it did badly.
Adam Hsieh BIOE404 Anonymous 04/14/2010	Straightforward, very good notes and explains everything very well. Make sure to go to all of the lectures, or the class will become very confusing very fast.