Amir Riaz

This professor has taught: ENME331, ENME332, ENME641, ENME646

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Amir Riaz ENME331 Anonymous 10/16/2024	Like the previous review, his nice personality is a deception. He coteaches with Cecelia so they both have the same problems. Horrible teaching, near impossible exams, and harshly graded lab reports. Most likely will have to drop the class.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/20/2024	Beware it may seem like he cares about the students but he doesn't. Exams are unfairly difficult and are grade harshly.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/10/2023	Lectures are confusing and he barely goes through problems. The only time I learned anything was in studio where the professor was more helpful answering questions. Top 3 of worst professors I've ever had. Exams are resonable if you put in enough time studying. The entire class is a struggle so I wish you luck if you have this professor. Labs are very laided back and can be completed in the lab time if you want to do that.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2023	He presents the slides in a nice format to give you an overview of the concept and posts annotated notes after class usually within the week. He sometimes gives ungraded quizzes at the end of lecture which reinforce the concepts presented. The lectures he gives are a good introduction to the studios and homeworks, where those are the real opportunities to learn the content for the exams. He could give more examples and plan less tedious labs.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting an A+ ChocolateDough 02/01/2023	Dr. Riaz is probably my least favorite professor at this university. I don't think he cares about his students or about how well they understand the material. The lectures feel robotic and hardly worth going, but sometimes he doesn't post lecture notes until up to a week after the lecture (after homework is due), so you have to go and scribble down the equations that he wrotes. Most of the time is spent deriving an equation that you'll never use and then doing an example that's either way too hard or way too easy and you don't get anything out of it. Working/ listening through the studios and doing the homework are the only way that I learned any material for this class.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/24/2022	Riaz is personally nice, but I wasn't a big fan of his teaching methods. Endless derivations in heat transfer are less useful than lots of examples so we can understand what kind of approach to apply to a given situation. I also didn't appreciate that we were told three different grading schemes by each professor and the TAs. Please communicate with each other! I don't have anything personal against Riaz but I'd avoid any of his classes in the future if I had a choice.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting an A+ tortoise7 12/23/2022	Riaz is a good professor. His lectures aren't super exciting, but he is clear in his explanations. The final, both midterms, homework, and labs are all worth %20 of the grade, which made the final much less stressful. Homework can be a bit difficult, but the TAs are helpful. There were two labs and both were quite easy. Exam questions are much easier than the homework.
Amir Riaz ENME331 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/25/2022	I honestly don’t see why Riaz doesn’t have a higher rating. His lectures are very useful and he has them posted so you can refer back to them. The lectures are pretty straightforward and relatively easy to understand. He is a VERY accommodating professor, he allowed me to make up homework’s and even a midterm when I really didn’t have a good reason to miss them. Midterms are usually pretty reasonable, and are very very similar to the practice exam he gives to you. His lectures are pretty quick but that’s to be expected for a class that’s only 50 minutes long, with the amount of content we have to learn. The text book sucks pretty hard tho. They seem to overcomplicate a lot of topics so I do not recommend using it. Labs are kind of a pain, but there’s only 6 of them. The grade distribution is beautiful, 20% midterm 1 20% midterm 2 20% labs 20% HW 20% final It’s a very fair distribution. If you study an average amount you can easily get a B or better
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/13/2022	I got a B- or B in ENME331 (fluids) when it was virtual. I really struggled in that class, I tried office hours and doing textbook problems, but everytime I saw a new problem I had no idea what to do. I think my error was a) taking it online (people cheated and I struggled to pay attention) and b) just trying to understand/memorize the problems rather than the actual concepts (like definitions of terms and what assumptions actually mean for the problem). I applied this in heat transfer and it really helped. He reads off slides and sometimes answers questions, its a fifty fifty sometimes he acts like stuff is obvious because he doesn't feel like explaining. I got a 65 on two of the three exams and was fine. If you are going to take either of these classes, my advice is to actually just go to the studios. And then redo the problems afterwards sometimes. I only did this sometimes and still got an A. 90% of people skip them (because they are usually at inconvenient times and maybe because Professor Das talks so loud its basically yelling lol) but they are much more helpful than Riaz's lectures, and the problem sheets from studio aren't posted until right before an exam but it's helpful to have them as practice before you do the homework. Also actually do the homework even though they give you the solutions- the solutions are sometimes wrong and you will fail the tests. That being said, I felt somewhat let down by Riaz. Nearly everyone was good about masks, but he didn't remind people to pull up their masks above their nose or not to eat or drink during class. During office hours if I was stuck even when I did everything right he just said oh you'll figure it out. His lectures were sort of dry, but more interesting in heat transfer (which was likely due to pandemic). I also heard about an issue with an ADS exam where there was a misprint and the professors didn't respond right away, but my friend said they got it sorted out it was just annoying. In fluids the grade point averages were "higher than normal" and he was pleased, but didn't seem to realize this was due to people cheating on the zoom exam. Overall an okay professor, you'll pass if you try your best even if it doesn't click for you. The heat transfer labs were much easier (and more helpful for understanding concepts) than the fluids labs. He wore a mask while lecturing btw, used a mic so you can hear him, and did some other things right like let us use zoom rather than HonorLock and even moved exam dates around when people had conflicts. So pretty accommodating in that sense. The exams were easier than I expected based on the other work we did in class.
Amir Riaz ENME331 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/04/2022	Riaz is an alright teacher. He is kind and responsive to students concerns but the lectures are not good. He goes through derivations far two quickly and his hand writing isn't always the best which can get confusing when there are so many similar variables used in fluid mechanics. Also the problems he presents in studio sessions are very difficult and often confusing. However, he does occasionally take the last ten minutes of class to do a non-graded knowledge check as a class, through a google form, and that was helpful. Also the exam review sessions and practice exams are well prepared and the exams are easier than I had expected. He is also a very kind grader on exams.
Amir Riaz ENME331 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/27/2021	Riaz was an okay teacher. He's not bad, but not great, and probably could have passed the course without attending the lectures. The lectures were not necessary since he posts all lecture slides a day or so later. He likes questions, but may not understand your question entirely, so asking one on one at OH would be more helpful. The studios are where you will learn the most on how to solve problems. Homeworks were the most challenging, but still helpful. Exams were easier than the studios/homework, but studying from the studio problems and homework is the best way to prepare. Riaz also has a review session in the class before an exam which can be helpful. The course content seems very challenging and confusing, but the exams are doable.
Amir Riaz ENME332 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2021	Lectures are pretty useless as they're all derivations of equations. literally 100% of my learning in his class came from homework and studios. But I'll give him 2 stars because he's kind and patient and encourages questions.
Amir Riaz ENME331 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/01/2021	He's a nice guy and he knows his stuff. I will say that. But the lectures are mostly derivations and the material is generally useless until you do example problems in studio. The exams are fair and easier than the homework problems. If you get him for studio, he does do a good job of explaining the concepts better in a smaller setting. That being said, I probably zoned out for most of the lectures throughout the semester and did fine in the class strictly because of studios.
Amir Riaz Anonymous 11/10/2021	On god the worst lecturer I've ever experienced. His TAs don't help. If you have a class with him, don't be surprised if the entire class hates him.
Amir Riaz Anonymous 12/03/2020	Fair exams, homeworks, and labs and was a very approachable and understanding professor
Amir Riaz ENME331 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/22/2018	I'm sure Riaz knows what he's talking about, but he really doesn't make it evident in his lectures. He'll click through slides that I don't believe he made himself and often when students ask questions he is unable to answer them. He's a poor lecturer and frankly, I'm not sure why I continued to attend the class when I knew it was more effective to learn the material from the textbook.