Mello, Joe  

Alright, Joe is literally one of the sickest teachers on this campus. His classes are fun, which is hard to do seeing as how they are 3 hours long! But he presents everything very clearly, and on tests he will give you certain hints to help you through it. As long as you go to class and pay semi-attetion, you will do really well in this class.

Mello was really enjoyable in ME 128. It's not a difficult class regardless and doesn't require much work, but Mello was lenient about the work that was turned in and got rid of many assignments. Also, he was a great resource in class because he could help us understand anything we weren't sure about and was also a cool guy in general. Mello will be a great experience for this class for sure!

Mello is really helpful if you reach out during lab. You almost never have to do any work outside of class for this, and the labs are generally kind of fun. There was only one lab where my group had to stay late to finish and got pretty frustrated, but other than that, the class was a breeze.

Mello is great teacher, he takes difficult and complex material, makes it easy, and if you have any questions, he answers them completely. He is helpful in office hours, and is flexible if something comes up. The only real catch is that you have to keep up, he wont re-teach you something from a month ago and wont help you if you just dont do the work. I didnt do all of the homework and that hurt me. Take him if you can.

Mello was an awsome teacher. The class was 3 days a week, and homework was due everyday, which forces you to keep up with the material. We had quizes every wednesday, which made up 60% of your grade. This actually worked out ok because Mello would take as long as we needed before the quiz to go over any questions we had on the previous nights homework or on whatever else we had questions on. Also, he gave us about 20, sometimes 30 minutes to take the quiz so you never had to worry about running out of time. This made it easier to do well on the quizes. He did not give any midterms. The quizes took the place of any big tests. He was very helpful in office hours and overall made the class as stress free as possible.

He's an awesome teacher. He's really good at explaining both in office hours and in class. He's a little picky with the format of how you do your problems but you get used to it. Mello is a fair grader and everyone pretty much gets a grade reflecting the work you put into the class. I would highly recommend him.

Mello is the the best professor I\'ve had at Cal Poly. I took him during summer quarter so I\'m not sure how much this review applies to others, but take him if you can. He has an incredible understanding of the material, which is only matched by his enthusiasm. He was helpful during office hours and the tests and quizzes were very fair, as was his grading. Homework was a bit much at times, but do it and you will surely be rewarded.

MELLO IS THE BEST! I was honestly so scared to take this class, but he did a really good job explaining everything. I took it over the summer so it was definitely a lot of work and hw, but he is really fair on his tests and quizzes....take him if you can

Energetic during lecture and great at applying to real world. Kind of an asshole in office hours, and treated me like I was five. Other than that pretty solid professor. Would recommend only if there are no better options

Dr. Mello subbed for my professor, who had a medical emergency mid-quarter. With that being said, he came in with expectations for us to understand HIS way of teaching, although it was not what we had learned. Overall, he often made us feel dumb for not understanding statics in the affinity that he understood it, and when asked questions about point distributions for exams, he would feel threatened by a student challenging him and threaten to take off MORE points :( He definitely knows his stuff but was often unapproachable and not understanding

Mello was pretty good. The class started off a little rough because it took a while to get used to his method of teaching, which is kind of scattered and all over the place. It is clear he understands the material well, but he is unable to communicate it sometimes. In class, you basically do practice problems and nothing else. His homework questions are often confusing because they're not from the textbook. The midterm questions are on the easier side and he ensures that you will have enough time for them, but they don't really prepare you for the pace you will need on the final exam. Also, he takes off an extreme amount of points for the simplest mistakes. He is definitely a good option for statics but probably not the best.

Dr. Mello seemed very engaging in Class. But in office hours he was hardly acceptable. He became very arrogant and made many, including myself, look stupid if they didn't get the most basic concepts. I actually passed the course overall, but because I failed the final he failed me. Mello rarely teaches dynamics. But if he does, don't let his rating fool you. He chooses problems for his weekly quizzes based on material he likes, rather than pertinent material. He grades harshly, and doesn't seem to care if you don't understand the material. Homework is piled on daily, and is due the next class period. Be warned.

Mello was pretty cool. He did every hw problem that was due and posted it to polylearn after the hw was turned in which was really nice to see how these problems are actually done. Dynamics is tough but I never felt to stressed out thanks to Mello. There is hw due everyday and we had one midterm along with multiple quizzes. Overall take him!

Dr. Mello is one of the best professors I've had at Cal Poly. He presents the material amazingly well. His grading is very fair and his exams and quizzes are very straightforward. He really knows what he's doing. He's fantastic in office hours too. I definitely recommend Mello for dynamics, or any class for that matter.

Take Dr. Mello if you can! He's really interested in the subject and applies a lot of the in class problems to real life situations whether its his hot rod or his bike riding. There was homework every night, usually about 3-6 problems depending on how difficult he thought they were. He only had 1 exam (a true midterm) and quizzes every week to keep you on your toes. Don't get me wrong I put a LOT of time into this class and it was very difficult, but with the right attitude, a strong study group, and this professor you can't go wrong.

Every single lecture was worthwhile. Mello is a cool guy with a lot of valid insights from working in industry. He also has a good ability to convey the subject matter of ME 328--from a lot of prior firsthand experience. Try to get into an early section of his class, because he gets more unstable LATER in the day (more easily upset by students being distracting, etc. during lecture). Overall he's a great teacher--I still don't know what grade I got in the class.

Mello doesn't lecture, he interacts. He has an unbelievable way of teaching you how to think like an engineer. His labs are pulled directly from industry, and us as the students do actual projects he has taken part in. I feel he is one of the best professors in the ME dept.

I don't know why Dr. Mello has a high rating because I don't think he is such a great instructor. His lectures are ok but he always does basic and easy problems which of course are too easy to be on a test so, I will like to see him doing more complicated problems that way we can understand more the material. Also, the questions on the test are sometimes hard to understand.

Dr. Mello is a great teacher when he's at full energy, but he had to miss a few classes this quarter due to pneumonia, which was a little unfortunate. Ignoring that, he relates everything we learn in class to the real world, and is good at reducing the clutter of the textbook, especially in the failure criteria section, to the core concepts we need to know. Lab felt pretty informal. He had high expectations in terms of what content we needed to include in our write-up and the completeness of our analyses, but we rarely had to write full-blown reports, which kept the focus on the procedure. I will say that he underestimated a lab's length on a few occasions, but he usually adjusted the rest of the schedule to compensate, so everything ended up fine. The bottom line is that Mello is a solid, practical, knowledgeable teacher who conveys his knowledge and experience to students well. I don't know what more one could ask for.

GREAT professor who REALLY cares about his students. I would have gotten an A in the class but I kept on making stupid mistakes on the tests that I would realize right after walking out of the room. The tests are also hard to finish in the allotted time so BE WARNED!

Mello is a really nice guy but a terrible teacher. He has a difficult time understand what students need to learn the material. He is extremely unhelpful in office hours. He gets frustrated with students when they come to office hours because they don't understand the material. He also has a terrible handwriting and stands directly in front of whatever he is writing so its really hard to follow lectures. Luckily I got a copy of the solutions manual for 328 and was able to teach the material to myself from that. If you can avoid taking mello.

Professor Mello is a very successful man and has a passion for everything he does. That being said, I found his lectures really difficult to follow and, while office hours never really helped me, I appreciate the help he tried to offer throughout the quarter. I personally wouldn't take him for anything else as long as I had a choice. Though, he does seem to be fairly liked by other students who rated him. The nature of this subject, combined with my inability to comprehend most classes these days, prevented me from learning as much as I wanted to. But alas, I get to move on...

Had him for lab and lecture... would certainly recommend having same instructor for both. Very experienced and intelligent. On his game in class and office but expects the same from you. Exams were well curved but labs were strictly graded so be prepared to invest adequate time. Also, group grades so avoid lazy partners like I did. Homework was a must. Very reflective of lecture and exam questions. However, Mello is not very helpful with those questions so work with friends or solutions to better understand what tricky assumptions are required.

Mello means well, but teaches 328 expecting students to come in with a lot of design experience already which I did not. He uses a lot of jargon that he doesn't explain and spends much of each lecture going on about his life while in industry which is sometimes helpful but often times seems like he's reliving his glory days. The material is interesting and he has a lot of passion about the subject, but isn't very good at explaining course material or answering questions clearly. Exams are fair and he grades fairly, hw is often pretty difficult.

Joe Mello is brilliant. Not only that but he's worked in every engineering field imaginable - twice. This is good because he can field any question and give you real, practical answers. It's bad because real and practical are much more work than fake and theoretical. 329 has so much ground to cover that you've got to stay on top of your game. Don't get behind on homework. Don't wait till the night before. His lab projects require a good deal of outside work. His tests are difficult and stretch the limits of your capability. But it's very rewarding. And in the end you're going to know how to design real parts, deal with real design issues and address real manufacturing concerns. Think of Mello as the boot camp drill instructer that whoops yer ... ummm ... backside, but you're thatnkful that he did.

Design is a hard class to teach because it is so open ended. Our book was hard to understand and Mello did a pretty good job making the subject a little clearer. He did very helpful examples in class. My only complaint is that he very started with the basics and always assumed that stundents knew what he was talking about. He lectures as though every student was familiar with all the car parts and other parts when many weren't and struggled to understand.

Dr. Mello has got to be one of my top ME professors at Poly. The guy is very knowledgeable on the subject (he has worked in industry for years and brings examples from past jobs to class all the time), and he does a good job of teaching it to the class. Like someone mentioned below, he is also great to talk to and has a life outside of class/Poly. He keeps class light-hearted and i was never bored. I got a D because of the lack of effort I put into the course, and thus it should not reflect at all on Mello (i didn't do any of the homework assignments, and didn't even get the course book until about the 7th or 8th week in). He also learns most, if not all of the students' names and actually wants us to do well in the course/Poly/life. I thought his tests and grading were very fair, and would strongly recommend Dr. Mello.

Mello is a genuinely great guy. His tests were reasonable and graded fairly. His lab was a lot of fun and was sort of open ended and directed a bit by students. Try and you will do just fine. He brings many hands on things to class so you can see what you are sizing and designing for. You do get greasy, but hey...you are an ME. One of the best ME professors at Poly...take him.

Mello's classes are hands on and practical. He brings examples of different parts/failure modes/work equations to all his classes, I've had him for three different ones by now. If you get him for design, he'll teach you the material, which is hard and there is a lot of - make sure you do the bookwork - but mind that he's exactingly fair in grading, personable, and that his labs will actually teach you how to become an engineer. I don't know if you'd miss anything for not taking him, but he's definitely worth it if you get a chance.

Dr. Mello is definitely one of the best ME Professors at Cal Poly. He's a gearhead and genuinely passionate about everything ME. He is very helpful in office hours and easy to approach. Lecture is very informative with quality examples that definitely aid your understanding and are good references for midterms. Lab is awesome, with the philosophy that all the work should be done in class (for the most part), so you aren't working insane hours outside of lab time. I would highly recommend taking Dr. Mello for anything ME.

Professor Mello is awesome. He uses a lot of general jargon that at times can be confusing, but other than that he is an understanding and righteous dude. He's also hilarious.

Mello is a fun, personable guy and sincerely cares about his students. He has a ton of industry experience and is really easy to talk to and work with in office hours. His class seems promising at first, as this is DESIGN and there are no right or wrong answers and everything is iterative, but his teaching only work in theory and are quite poor on an educational standpoint. His lectures are mostly him geeking out about engineering and vomiting a bunch of baseless equations and pictures on the board. They are almost futile in helping you solve the homework problems, let alone prep for the midterms and final. Mello's teaching philosophy is like that of the "spaghetti method" where he avalanches you with information and assignments and then see what sticks. In the world of engineering and building the future, this approach is extremely ineffective and can be dangerous. Secondly, there is a heavy bias in favor of people who grew up designing things or for people who already have experience designing via clubs and internships. Mello assumes that everyone knows the parts and works of cars and buildings and were equally well educated in the prerequisite classes. Obviously we have all had some really fucking shitty classes and teachers and have not had the same opportunities to design, so this assumption is not fair. Overall, Mello himself is a great guy and going to his office hours religiously will help you greatly for as long as you show him you are putting in effort, experimenting with problems, trying to find approaches/research about your problem, etc. Show him your work, research, approaches, etc. even if they are nonsense/trash/or raw genius. The tests are all quite fair, actually, and depending on your exposure to the specifics and the data tables of a course objective, the tests become less of a time crunch. I think this class was not effective in teaching us engineering design and I think Mello really needs to improve his teaching

Professor Mello is awesome. He made ME 329 very understandable and is very knowledgeable about the subject. He has tons of industry experience and often talks about how what we're learning in class relates to industry. He also brings in samples of stuff we're learning about (brakes, clutches, springs, etc) to show the class. He had two midterm exams, both were very fair and doable. He grades fairly. The labs portion of the class was a bit dry in my opinion (the topics we had to "model" were just a bit boring to me) but it works well with the course and the lecture material. Would definitely recommend him for 328 or 329. Or even any other classes, like statics or dynamics. Great guy, great professor.

Simply the best professor in the ME program if you're the type of student that belongs at CP. Although he is a PhD and is a brilliant guy, he doesn't care if you're a mathlete who chose engineering because you love math or a gearhead who barely scraped through the calc series - he can teach you. He teaches this class exactly the way it should be taught - problems are open ended and using conservative, realistic design principles will earn you a good grade. Not only that, but if you go to his office hours he will help you with ANYTHING, related to his class or otherwise. If you don't get on with Dr. Mello, you probably just need to check your ego. He doesn't speak down to students due to status, but appreciates being treated professionally and with the respect you should give your boss or mentor.

Composites is a hard class. Don't expect to leave the class with a carbon bike fork in hand. Dr. Mello is an extremely intelligent guy and knows composites better than anyone at Poly, possibly better than any professor in California, minus a guy at Stanford. He does his best to keep the class pace at an understandable level, but be prepared to relearn writing matlab code, and performing matrices acrobatics. It is easy to get behind, but all grades are curved(generously from my experience) at the end of the quarter. I had Joe for ME329 as well and will take whatever he teaches. (in my top three ME profs with Pascual and Davol)

Dr. Mello is one of those teachers whose obvious interest in the subject matter really rubs off on the students. He's also just a cool guy to talk to and he does have a life outside of school. Great teacher, great guy. He made me extremely interested in composites.

Mello is amazing. Composites is a complicated subject, and it requires a professor that knows it phenomenally well to handle all the tough questions while being able to relate complex matrix equations into things you can design and build and use. Mello worked very hard to squeeze in as many students as he could into the class, and I could not be more grateful because it was my favorite and most useful class at Cal Poly. It is a tough class, but take Mello, especially for composites.

Mello is a good teacher. I was nervous to take composites as I had heard it was very difficult, but he works to make the class interesting and minimal extra busy work. His lectures are pretty good, they are powerpoints and are sometimes hard to follow at the fast pace he moves, but you can always review them later on blackboard which is very helpful for solving hw problems and studying. I recommend this class to anyone interested in designing and building composites, or just having a fun lecture/lab tech elective.

Dr.Mello is an awesome teacher. He relates all the lectures to his real life experience in the field as well as his interests in biking and cars. Composites is a really interesting and practical class. He grades fairly and really wants us to learn the material. A++ would take again.

What the guy/gal below said. Amen. I too took this class and have long since graduated from Poly, but I was cruising Poly Ratings for a kick and thought that I should pipe in and let you know how much of a joke this prof is.