Timothy Livengood
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Timothy Livengood
ASTR330 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/27/2023 |
This class consists of three homeworks, three group projects, and three exams which are loosely related to the projects. Dr. Livengood is a very fair grader, but prepare yourself for some curveball questions on the exams. As long as you can get your group to work together this class will be fairly easy. Dr. Livengood keeps lecture interesting with his stories. The only negative about this class is that it may not prove to be very useful to you, but if you are interested in astronomy this class may allow you to better understand what NASA is doing with their missions. |
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Timothy Livengood
ASTR330 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/15/2022 |
This class is totally unique, and takes a bit to get the hang of. Dr. Livengood is a professor that absolutely loves to talk-- whether about his work in Astronomy over the years, his adventures at Mauna Kea observatory; past, present, and upcoming missions to all sorts of celestial bodies. You will hear it all! It's in many of these sort of half-on-topic discussions that you realize just how much knowledge he has in the field. That is, A TON. One of the things that sets this class apart from the rest is that, aside from a few classes early on, most classes are not going to be lectures. You will design missions to bodies inside the solar system, then be sorted into groups of people that had similar bodies targeted, and then make a mission together and present it! Three of these throughout the semester. The thing that separates these from higher-stakes presentations in other classes is that you will probably present the same thing about 3-4 times, each time getting direct feedback and conversing with Dr. Livengood in the middle of your presentations! It almost feels like you're brainstorming live at the front of the class. After each presentation, you and your group go home and revise it a little based on what Dr. Livengood took issue with or wanted you to focus more on, and then present it again next class. This takes up almost all of the classes of the semester. By the end, you should have a pretty well-rounded project plan for your mission proposal! In between projects, he usually brings in a guest speaker (and he is WELL connected) and has an exam (which are subjectively easy. Don't overthink them!). One thing you have to take to heart is his suggestions! Don't be shy to ask him directly (even during a presentation) if something is viable/a good idea. If there's an issue, change it before next presentation, and if he has a suggestions, do some research on it. All of this long-winded review just to say Dr. Livengood is one of the more approachable professors I've ever had, and makes the class pretty fun. It will open your eyes to the world of ACTUAL mission design and constraints, without getting too bogged down in the details that you get stuck thinking about budgets and exact launch windows. |
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Timothy Livengood
ASTR330 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/12/2022 |
Very laid-back but interesting class and professor. He is very knowledgeable in his field and the information can be pretty fascinating and loves to interact with his students. The structure of his class is very straightforward, 3 small HWs, 3 "assigned" Group Projects, and 3 mini-tests (they aren't that difficult and aren't meant to be challenging). I definitely recommend taking this course with Dr. Livengood. |
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Timothy Livengood
ASTR330 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/13/2019 |
Worst teacher I've had at UMD. Very poor communication and tries to keep students on edge by surprising them with pointless problems on tests instead of actually teaching valuable material. Avoid this class if you can. |