Westphal, Russ  

Professor Westphal cares a lot about his students. He organizes additional homework help sessions to assist the students. Westphal believes class grades are a reflection of his "Grade." Good professor.

Fluids is what he loves but he is still an excellent teacher for Thermo too. Favorite teacher at Poly!

Lectures were fairly straighforward in class. I would have liked a few more examples or different types of examples, would have better prepared us for the midterms. Brings great industry experience (like wind tunnel design) into the class, rather than just going on with boring material. Made me want to go to class every day!

Awesome teacher. Westphal made me enjoy fluids. Everything is straight forward. His tests are fair and are based on homework. He gives practice midterms, which were a good example of the real midterm. He loves his job and is a funny guy. He also likes to talk about real life examples of fluids before each class. He is very helpful in office hours and study sessions, so go to those for help. I would definitely take him again if I had the opportunity.

He's a great guy, he cares about his students learning the material and it shows. I'll definitely be taking him again if I can. Class was based on 3 midterms and a final along with weekly homework. Everything was graded fairly, one of the midterms everyone bombed and he let us make up some of the points. Take him!

Westphal tries really hard to get his students to ace his tests. He grades himself based on how well his students perform on the midterms. The class consists of 3 midterms. The average on the first midterm was really low, so he decided to allow us to resubmit the midterms for half the points you missed only if you get the right answer. I got a C on the 1st midterm which ended up being a solid B on the re-submission. The midterms got a lot easier when he started giving us study guides the lecture before the midterm to practice. Reviewing the material through the study guide and homework should suffice in preparation for the midterms. The final was easy too. My midterm grades were B+,B+, A and my final grade was a B+. Westphal gave me the A- even though i was 0.6% off. He is one of the best professors in the ME department

Russ is the best ME professor there is at Cal Poly. As a BMED I had to take a couple ME classes and none of the professors really cared about students really applying and learning the subject, compared to him. He grades himself along with the class, so you know he wants an A and we will try to make sure everyone has an A. He also gives you practice test before the exam which are somewhat helpful and many worksheets to do in the class that are helpful for the test. He also makes separate study sessions in the library for extra help or just to come in there and do your homework with him. Super helpful during office hours. Highly recommended!

Amazing!! Russ is the best, he actually wants you to well and does everything he can to help you. He loves fluids and you will too after taking him!

coolest professor you could ever ask for. he's fuckin hilarious, and his goal is to make you want to go to class. his class is completely fair, and the best part is, you really do learn a ton. he applies everything you do in class to real life, and just... damn, he's awesome.

I can't say enough good thing about this guy. He made me LOVE fluids, I'm not kidding. I've never enjoyed going to a class so much, I had fun and learned a shit ton, how often can you say that about a class?! Homework's were weekly and well made, tests were very reasonable and he told you exactly what would be on it. He'll make you enjoy whatever subject he has to teach you, and his charismatic personality will brighten up the room and your life.

Westphal kept a really difficult subject somewhat manageable. Unfortunately, I didn't know what Reynolds Transport Theorem or continuity was until I got to Thermo II. When I took this class the average score on all three midterms was an 84%. In my opinion he's a good professor (not amazing) but I'm not complaining about my B+.

This man is the best teacher I have had in my whole ME career. He knows heat transfer extremely well and presents the material in a way that is clear and interesting. I have never had a teacher who cares more about how well his students are doing, he gave out his cell phone number for the studnents to call him when they get stuck on homework. His quizzes and tests are very fair and test your understanding of the material. He is not an easy professor but he doesn't make the material harder than it needs to be. He does assign a solid homework load but doing it pays off because you learn the material and are prepared for the quizzes and final. Again, best ME professor I have had, it was a joy taking his class.

Take him for heat transfer if you can! He's an awesome guy and a great teacher!

Professor Westphal was an excellent teacher. The midterms in the class were very reasonable and the material was presented clearly. He cares immensely about how students are doing in the class because he believes their grade reflects his. He loves airplanes and can tell you anything you want about the way they work. Wind turbines are also a specialty of his and I think he puts more emphasis on that section of the book than other instructors do. He usually started off class with a big picture of some interesting real-life example projected on the screen. He would then relate this unique machine to something we were studying in class. I was always excited to go as a result. Westphal is the kind of guy you can go to for fluids questions throughout your time at Poly. He\'ll talk to you about any fluids-related topic you want in office hours. The guy knows his stuff. Do ALL of the homework, go to the lectures, take good notes, you won\'t be disappointed.

I worship the ground this man walks on. He is by far, BY FAR, my favorite teacher at Cal Poly. I had him for both fluids I and fluids II, and because of him, I love fluids. He teaches fluids in ways that students can comprehend, throwing out derivations and any double integrals that might come our way, and replacing them with terms that we can actually picture in our heads. He grades very fairly, he is fine with everyone getting A's in his class, cause that would mean he got an 'A' too! And he starts every single class with "Who's ready for more fluids?!". I love this guy.

Easily the best professor I've ever had at Cal Poly. I had a bad teacher for Fluids 1, and hated the subject. Then I took Russ for Fluids 2. He completely turned around my perception of Fluids and made it my favorite class. He is full of real life examples, and has a passion for fluids that wears off on you. He is such a good teacher, his class is easy to pass! He lets you know exactly what to expect on tests, and is always available if you have any questions. I also had him for lab and he was a great instructor. Take this class if you want to learn a ton, not have too much homework, and pass without difficulty. Russ is the man!

I thought Russ was good. The kind of guy you wish was your grandpa. His wife made cookies for our class when the average was an A on the first quiz (which are basically tests). Flexible when it comes to his grading scheme, and chill about the class in general. While he was good most the time, he was sometimes hard to follow when explaining things as he sometimes was all over the place, but not bad by any means. Make sure to do the practice quizzes he hands out as they are very similar to the actual quizzes you do. Plus half of the points on the quizzes are take-home, so there really weren't too many points in your overall grade that were based on in-class quizzes/tests. Overall, I would recommend Russ. He will welcome you to Heat Transfer nicely.

Fantastic professor. Loves to teach, tests are very fair, and he even has a fun personality!

Best professor I ever had at Cal Poly and it's not even close.

Compressible Flow was one of the classes I was looking forward to the most in the MSME program, and Westphal's class paid off in spades. The material is interesting to begin with, and Westphal brings in a lot of personal experience with his work in aeronautics. He begins every lecture with a few minutes of some background information about a related subject or application, usually with some really interesting way to tie it into something he's done. His lectures are very clear and directly relate to what's in the homework and tests. The subject matter is pretty heavy in thermodynamics/fluid flow, but even if those aren't your strongest areas he reviews what you need to know throughout the lectures. Grading was very fair - 3 tests account for half your grade, and the rest is divided between 6 homework assignments and 2 research reports. The only thing to be aware of is that while the tests are very representative of the homework and are open-book, they're long enough that you'll need to be efficient at solving the problems. Overall this is by far the best grad class I've taken and the most grounded in real life applications, and Westphal is one of the best instructors I've had in the ME program.