Niku, Saeed  

Saeed is absolutly the worse teacher I have ever had. If you are taking dynamics, stay far away from this terrible teacher. The curve balls on quizzes and tests are anything but what you've seen in class or on hw. Speaking of hw, dont even bother doing any. He assigns so much hw that you will be spending valuable time doing work that only counts for 10%. I did all the Hw and recieved full credit on each however ment nothing. On his last final for the summer quater, the average grade out of 40 was a 15. This means that on average most of his students got an F on the final. What is this guy teaching his students???

niku has an impecable sense of making his students fell like complete dumbasses...you will hear him say how easy all of the problems you spent hours on are and his tests often try to trick you. guess it worked though cause his final scores are often good. just be prepared for any sort of tricks on his quizes and midterms

I thought prof Niku was a great teacher. His accent was a little tough to get used to but he explained the material very well. His tests are fair but short meaning you can make a small mistake and screw yourself, but then again you can zip through it with 100%... I would take Niku again if given the chance.

i think Dr. Niku is a good teacher. he makes it very clear that ME 211 is difficult for most students and will require a lot of time. he also focuses on the important subjects and skips or gleems ones that are superfluous. your grade is based on several quizes which are usually based on questions from the book. TRUST ME, quizes are much better than midterms when taking one of these ME classes. homeworks are collected and graded, and he keeps office hours daily and is willing to help with any problem.

Niku's plan for Dynamics was to give and collect homework every class meeting along with the lectures, a few quizzes, and two tests. The homework assigned was very fair but the way it was handled was not. The lectures on the assigned homework were very unclear and muddled. Niku ended every lecture with "It is all the same thing! It is so simple!" but dynamics is quite the opposite. He also never did a full example in any of the lectures. The examples he did do were never complete and did not go beyond the basics of the problem. His quizzes were very fair but seemed to be every day in the last 3 weeks (he forgot to give them during the rest of the quarter). His tests looked nothing, and I mean NOTHING like the homework. I never answered any of the test problems (all 2 of them) completely, and somehow passed the tests. In office hours he doesn't allow you to take notes at all which is not much of a help (he teaches for audible learners). If you don't understand something until you write it down and practice it for a few times, then I would highly recommend you take a different professor. He might be a good professor in robotics, but definately not in dynamcis.

Niku, along with many professors today, thinks that students learn better when they spend 2 hours on 1 homework problem without any help. Concervative professors are much better teachers than liberals. If you take his class go to his office hours every time, if they aren't too croweded.

Niku thought he was clarifying student difficulties. But he didn't. Rarely was the occasion that he was able to understand a student's question, and figure it out on the board. Niku through curveballs on the quizzes, and then expected everyone to know what he was talking about. He also had an interesting grading scale: lots of 2's, some 4's, and if you kissed his ass enough, some 10's. Niku was not a fair professor, especially when he only teaches dynamics during the summer. Avoid this professor at all costs.

This man is a horrible person. He will throw so many curveballs that you won't know where you came from or where your going. Trust me this guy is cool when your in class but the second you have a grade on the line out comes the stickler. He promotes the feeling of Failer to most students in a difficult class. WATCH OUT FOR THIS GUY AND BE ON YOUR TOES.

One thing i like about Niku is that his quiz is not extremely difficult (For most part, provided that you have spent the time doing his homework) But one problem is that all his quiz is one problem long, 15-30 minutes, and 15% of the grade, so if you messed up on one or the formular to use is not clicking, then you basically screwed up!)

Niku tries to make a tough class interesting, his lectures are filled with attempts at jokes and trying to get the class to laugh. This is good, because without an entertaining professor, this course could be quite horrible (at least to a non-ME). This class is tough, no matter who you take it with, so be prepared to put in lots of time and effort. Niku is not always the best at explaining things clearly. His theory is that "all the problems are the same", while it is true that dynamics problems follow similar patterns, these patterns are quite difficult to see if you have not been doing dynamics problems for 20 years. This theory also made attaining explanations challenging, since he would always start example problems, and usually tell us to just plug in the numbers (on many occasions I went home and tried "just plugging in the numbers" and couldn't come up with the right answer). Quizzes were very tricky, and I didn't feel that they judged your knowledge of the subject. I felt well-prepared going into every quiz, but these little tricks would still stump me every time. Don't despair over bad quizzes though, everyone in the class struggled with them, the average was usually around a 4/10 or 5/10. Although the quizzes were tricky, they did help prepare me for the final, which was "simple" by comparison. If you work hard, do all the homework and ask for help when you need it, you should be okay. I found that getting help from outside sources (friends, tutors, etc.) helped a lot. Also, even if your grade isnt so hot going into the final, you can pull it up. Study a lot and make sure you understand all the basics; he looks a lot at how much you know on the final.

Grading policy seems average, but we had to pass the final to pass the class. Good thing he curved the scores based on the class. Average workload for a dynamics class (homework 3-5 problems due every meeting). Five quizzes seemed fair, although one had too many tricks. He's a good teacher.

He's a good teacher. A little hard to understand, but pretty helpful person. And he's hilarious in class. Homework is hard but necessary for the curriculum. And throw a big curve at the end.

He knows what hes doing cause hes been teaching for hella long. I was failing the class going into the second midterm, but I studied hard and pulled a C with his help at office hours. Definitely office hours helps because hes quick with his examples in class. His quizzes are more conceptual than numerical so it helps to understand the concepts rather than a certain method of solving problems. Also, his accent isn't dense at all compared to other professors. The only downside is that he collected the homework which was graded for correctness. I strongly recommend to at least try the problems first and then use the solutions to figure out where you went wrong instead of straight copying. If you show you're trying and go to his office hours for help, you'll get a passing grade fo sho.

Professor niku is a harsh grader. We had 4 quizzes, each were 7.5% of your grade. The average was around a 5-7/10. He grades harshly. There was one midterm. The average was a 60% and I got a 26%. He doesn't give much partial credit. The grade consisted of the midterm 25%, homework (due every lecture and graded) 10%, quizzes 30%, final 35%. I went into the final at around a 50% in the class. Pulled off a C. Must've been a massive curve, around 20%. Make sure he knows you're trying.

Saeed NEEkU is quite good at what he does... his accent is not too hard to get used to... and its fun to watch him, as a foreigner, struggle over finding the right word! Course wise, the class was simple, but i have yet to take the final, it was supposedly pretty thorough. No tests, some small homework, a fun midterm project, a final group presentation, and a final comprise your grade

niku gave 4-6 easy homework assignments throughout the quarter. you are required to design and build a midterm and final project. the final project encompasses everything you have been learning throughout the quarter, which is the design process. there are no required books for the class. he does not give any quizes or tests except for the final exam. the final exam consists of 9-10 short paragraph questions that come straight from his notes. if you take good notes and pay attention in class the final is pretty easy. however, most people didn't take notes. niku comes to class prepared everyday and knows the material well. he takes roll everyday and writes down exactly how many minutes students are tardy to class. he is a very nice man and is approachable during his office hours. he makes class enjoyable by mixing some humor in with the material. the midterm and final projects are fun to make and give you a chance to use some of your engineering skills and creativity. i do have two complaints: 1)his grading system is ambiguous. he does not assign a letter grade to the homework assignments so you don't really know what your grade is in the class, 2) for the final project you are assigned to a group based on your last name. basically, you don't have a choice in the matter and you may end up in a group with other students that are unmotivated or just basically suck. i would recomend taking niku for this class. just go to class everyday, don't be tardy, pay attention, take good notes, and don't wait until the last minute to do your midterm or final projects.

Dr. Niku is a very good engineer. Overall, I thought he clarified the subject matter farily well. He is a very kind, and very *very* smart person. However, I was disappointed by how little the class really held for me. I was primarily disappointed because I found it to be pointless. His grading scale was ambiguous and, more or less, was based upon his opinion. Homework was relatively easy (although somewhat pointless). Several of the assignments (including the midterm) can be bypassed with a full grade, *if* you can find a loophole. Thus, he gives the slackers a higher grade for weaseling their way through it (and thus learning nothing but how to do a half-assed job), and those of you who work hard on your idea (but have just *standard* ideas) will get an OK grade (B). I thought his lack of reward for hard work was pretty stingy and discouraging. The final project was a lot of work, especially if you get picked to be in a group (like mine) full of freshmen slackers. Beware seniors, you will have to undoubtedly deal with unmotivated morons. The final was easy. Overall, it was fun at times, but is something I am glad to have run-over and left behind.

Niku is a very fun, creative and fair teacher. He will open your mind with fun projects and interesting lectures.

Let me start by saying that you don't have a choice on which professor you get for ME 234 so it doesn't matter what I write. You have to take Niku. The class was fun and interesting. Very different than other ME classes you've taken. Niku is a very opinionated professor, which was fun at times. What I didn't like was that my grade was pretty much determined the first week of class. We were assigned to group at random by Niku. If you get stuck with a shitty group (like I did), you are stuck with them the rest of the quarter. Most of your grade is based on what you do as a group.

Philosophy of design, what a joke. ... On our midterm design, he told us that our design would not do, that it was against the rules so we had to start over after 1 week of work. But 2 other groups used that same idea on the midterm and got a higher grade than we did!

Why is Niku still teaching this class? I understand why we need to be exposed to this material on thinking out of the box, but why Niku? First off he's hard to understand. Second, we use a paperback book that he created and he's profiting off each copy sold. Third, he wants students to give briliant ideas so he can cash in. He's creative... I'll give him that, but I think we need a different teacher. Lastly, on design projects if you cheat "think outside the box, I guess" he'll give you the one of the highest grades.

234 is mostly about creativity, so if you have some idea thats endlessly creative, but equally illogical, Niku will probably love you. if Niku likes your work and ideas, this is a really easy course. if not, it's going to be a really long quarter. Niku is great though, i would take just about any class from him.

The course itself is pretty fucking boring. I attempted to take notes during the first week and then decided to just nap during lecture. Try to show up for class since he takes attendance but doesn't state this specifically. Make sure you get a good group, or atleast if you think you can't work well with the partners you're assigned to, try to switch because about 70% of your grade is based on group projects. Be prepared to spend a significant amount of time outside of class to work on pretty bullshit reports/analysis and projects. Try to be "creative" when you come up with the solution to the project... creative meaning the easiest way out. Just look at the puzzles for an idea of what he's looking for. The final is short answer and he pulls pretty random questions out of nowhere. I thought I failed it, considering I hadn't taken any notes all quarter, but I ended up with the same grade as I started with so I assume he curved big time.

Niku is a fucking joke. The class is a waste of time and the grading is purely based on creativity like we're trying to be fiction writers. My group got reamed on the midterm project because it wasn't "creative" and didn't get "Niku Factor" points. Fuck that. We made one of the best projects in the class that functioned perfectly, yet somehow still got an 80. It's all bullshit, just try and come up with the most retarded off the wall idea, the less practical the better. Don't buy his expensive book either, it's not worth the paper it's printed on, but still costs $200.

Niku is a cool guy but expects a lot. Had 4 homework assignments. Projects were very cool but make sure to start early. Half the design projects grade comes from your fellow students so be friends with all and get a good grade. Only think I did not like about Niku was that since he made the book, we have a Final based only on the book which is 30% of your grade. That book is cool but the fact that you are forced to read it makes people not interested. Make sure you read the book because the Final was really random and not really one that you can BS. Overall Niku is a cool guy. One last thing is that he kind of screwed up every student because he told us last minute what we had to do our final project on and it was during midterms and dead week. So for advice, once you know your final design project, work with your group right away to get it over with!

The class is about creativity yet he has exact limitations and boundaries on all the assignments even though he won't tell you what they are... so you have to kind of read him to figure out what he wants from you to make him happy and give you a good grade. Also, for the MIDTERM PROJECT, he says the weight doesn't matter but he's totally screwing you over when he tells you that. Some of the dumbest designs got the best grades cause they were light. Make it light and don't worry about creativity if you want a good grade

this class is worthless. all you do if read the ENTIRE book, written by Niku himself, only to be tested on the most irrelevant facts. Projects are a joke; he will never be pleased with what you make. Honestly, sitting in his class listening to him ramble for 90 minutes about nothing was worse than design II and dynamics combined.

Oh Niku...he wasn't the worst, but certainly not the best. He could make the class WAYY more interesting but doesn't because he has a monopoly on teaching it. If Davol taught 234 this class would kick ass. But Niku tells you all this crap about ingenuity and thinking outside the box and its super cool with all the puzzles, then hits you with "oh wait there are real-life constraints so throw out creativity" and it gets boring. You have to spend a shitload of time on the group project but to be fair he grades really easy on them. Nothing in that class really counts until the very end, when you have to do really well with like 2 weeks left on a project then the stupid final that had little to do with lecture material. Debatably useful class at best, it's all no brainer material. The only reassurance you get is that no matter what you'll probably get at least a B. It's pretty much useless to say avoid him, because there are no other choices for this class

Dr. Niku definitely does not care what year you are. When taking his class for Philosophy of Design, which he created and wrote a textbook for, I was severely put off. I took it as a fun elective course because I liked the course description, but didn't look here. His book, that he wrote, is very poorly written (how it got published I don't know). His projects and expectations of students are very unreasonable. Just the fact that you can go down an entire letter grade from not properly remembering the assigned reading if called at random is ridiculous. Do not take Niku, he may be good at other classes but as non-ME major taking it my senior year, I realized why I dislike ME classes.

Oh man, what to say about Niku. First of all, the class isn't hard at all. There are 2 projects, 1 final test, and a bunch of random assignments. The worst part is the reading due every class period; niku makes you read the ridiculously overpriced book he wrote cover to cover. It is almost useless, and for the cost an absolute rip off; BUY IT USED FROM SOMEONE OR OFF AMAZON. The final is on random bits of the book but it isn't very hard. Niku's biggest problem is his vagueness in all of his assignments. Clarify with him during office hours if you need to, especially on the projects. Don't worry to much though,as unless you do a terrible job, your grade pretty much always comes out to be a B or an A. Hopefully you have a good group also, as the two projects are assigned to your group that he picks. Niku knows his stuff about the class material, but since the class material and book are worthless, I feel like I got nothing out of the class. If you can, take the other professor.

He's a very bright man who brings his imaginations to life with puzzles, riddles, and mind games. However, his accent can be a bit difficult to follow. And reading his book was quite cumbersome. You are expected to be able to speak in front of the class about the content if you are chosen at random. I would take notes on every chapter. The class was intriguing, somewhat irrelevant at times, and VERY time consuming. I found his final exam REALLY difficult and VERY random. My group got high A's on both midterm projects yet I still ended up with a B in the class because I failed his final. Groups are chosen based on responses to a personality quiz so hopefully you get paired with self starters. If possible, you should try to get Sarah Harding for 234 as she teaches it occasionally. Niku was a solid "ok" for this class but I couldn't ever see myself taking him for something like Statics, Dynamics, or Design Communication. Just, no.

I took NIku for Philosophy of Design (me 234). He's a nice enough guy but this was hands down the worst class I have ever taken! After getting through the quarter, I can pretty confidently say that I didn't learn Jack Shit! Every day before class, you are required to read the course textbook (written by Saeed Niku himself) and each day one random person is chosen to recite what they read. Now, this wouldn't be too bad except this book isn't worth diddly squat. Its is incredibly redundant, boring, and by the time you finish reading each chapter, you are seriously considering just burning the book. The class periods are only 1.5 hours long, but they were by far the longest 1.5 hours I've ever felt. They sucked the soul right out of me and made being trapped in an Iron Maiden sound heavenly. The class period is filled with about 20 minutes of lecture, and the rest is filled with useless puzzles. It pretty much rendered it useless to come to class but watch out. Niku is a hawk and if he see's that you're absent, then he's gonna make you pay. The final was very hard to study for. No study guide is provided and the only helps he gives is to "study your notes." Well, no notes were ever taken in class because his lectures were just a summary of the book reading, so, studying for the final meant re-reading the whole book. In my opinion, there should not have been a final in this class. Not enough useful knowledge was acquired in that class to even justify a final. I was excited coming into this class because it had potential to be interesting and informative. However, under Niku's instruction, I found it to be boring, uninformative, and a waste of time. Under the right teacher though, such as maybe Duval or Larson, this class could be the bee's knee's and something that people look forward to going to.

poo

Niku wasn't a good professor but he wasn't necessarily a bad professor either. You could tell he was really excited by the subject and cared a lot about it. The projects were pretty fun I thought although they were pretty time consuming and the way Niku graded them was pretty harsh. The lecture wasn't super exciting but it also wasn't exceedingly dull. You mostly just discuss the reading and then do puzzles or discuss various design related things. Niku never talked about the final other than saying to read the book again for it and it was much more difficult than a lot of people expected and I think caught a lot of people off guard. Don't avoid taking Niku if you want to take ME 234 a specific quarter but if you have other options then take a different professor.

Ok, so I went into this class expecting it to be a more laid back class (should have read polyratings) instead Niku assigns an absurd amount of reading in a book which he wrote. I'll admit it had some helpful topics, but for the most part the book was just so much repetitive previously learned concepts and ideas. The Rube Goldberg project could have been fun, but took about 30-40 hrs per person total to complete it and then he grades it so harshly. The final project was okay, not too much work and only slightly pointless. My biggest complaint was how useless the class was to go to. I didn't take notes even once, but if enough people miss the class, he gives a "quiz" where everyone who did show up just writes their name down.

Now that the quarter is over, I can honestly say I really enjoyed this class and thought Niku was a good professor! I was hesitant taking him because of his bad ratings but I'm so glad I did! He's got a fun personality and his passion for the subject material shows. Yes, he has a few strange teaching antics that I could see getting on some peoples nerves but nothing I found unreasonable by any means. I found most of the chapters we read of his book pretty interesting. His lectures I found interesting and for the most part pretty interactive. The two projects (Rube Goldberg Machine & Designing A Solution to a Problem) were fun, just be ready to set a lot of time aside to work on them. The final as people have said was pretty random specific questions but if you paid attention to the reading and lectures, it wasn't bad. Overall, it was a nice break from your typical calculation-based ME classes and I would without a doubt recommend Niku. Bottom line, DON'T AVOID TAKING THIS CLASS WITH HIM- It's not as bad as people make it out to be.

Niku is not only a bad teacher, but also a rude and condescending person. Since Professor Niku reads these, I will be specific with my complaints. I asked for help on a drawing assignment and he told me "read the book." I pointed to the exact section of the book and told him that I was still confused, and he repeated "read the book." Also, the book has several errors in it. Niku makes you read almost the whole book so that he can summarize it for an hour and a half at the beginning of every class period. We asked him what would be on the final and he said that it would be on the general topics. One of the questions was from one line in the book.

He makes $160,000+ per year and $$$ from the textbook he has written costing students more than $200 each.

His actual class was the biggest waste of time. I'd recommend sitting in a corner and doing homework for your other classes while he lectures on the BS in his book. The reading is required. This class is supposed to promote creativity, but he's actually quite condescending. It's very subjective too, so try to get on his good side???

Try to take another teacher if possible, although it usually isn't. This class has potential for being fun and interesting but Niku kindof makes it into a circle jerk about his book, and it ends up being wayyy more work than it's worth. He essentially forces you to read his book by assigning everyone in the class a number and pulling random numbers out of a bag each time, selecting students to come up and present that weeks reading. So if you didn't read you're going get railed by Niku and lose a letter grade. The book will sometimes have an interesting topic, but then he spends 15 pages describing one technique in depth and completely kills any interest you might have had. After forcing you to read and having the students explain the chapter, he spends the rest of the HOUR AND A HALF re-explaining what you already read about and showing way too many examples of shit he found online. There's a midterm project, final project, and final exam. Final exam is bullshit, random stuff from the book and brain teasers, so there's not much you can do to prepare. Most of your grade is based on how Niku feels about your projects, as it's all based on "creativity" and whatnot. If you have a choice, take Harding, but there's a good chance you'll be stuck with him anyway, so good luck.

One of the most useless classes I've taken at Cal Poly. Makes you buy an expensive book that contains 0 relevant info. Make sure you don't disagree with him or else you'll have a rough time.

Man, fuck this guy. He is so pompous and makes you read his pointless, stream-of-consciousness book that is riddled with grammar and usage errors. I learned nothing in this class and only attended because he takes role. His class is worse than the most boring GE that you can think of.

Alright so I learned pretty much nothing in this class. Niku grades almost entirely off of whether he likes your ideas or not. Solutions are only ever creative when they are creative in his own convoluted way of thinking. He has a total of one patent and he hasn't been able to sell it because it is largely useless. Unfortunately for all of you reading this the university probably won't be getting rid of this class anytime soon and Niku is almost always the one teaching it. All I can do is offer you the advice of going for creativity over function in this class some reason, and to somehow memorize the entire textbook that he wrote because the final is largely based off of it. Oh and P.S. the textbook is almost completely filled with extraneous information that is incredibly dense and unneeded so good luck trying to get through. Good luck to all of you in this class. Oh last thing, if some employer asks you how you liked this class, tell them you loved and you'll probably get hired.

This class is a complete waste of time. Niku wrote the textbook and all he does is require you to read it by randomly picking people to talk about it to the class, then teach it to you again in class, the exact same way as in the text. The text itself is little more than common sense. Despite all of this, the class is a substantial amount of work with all of the useless projects which he grades in an overly biased manner (and not hiding it with his "Niku factor"). I don't recommend, but if you have no better option, then I guess he is okay.

Absolutely, without a doubt, indubitably, the worst "professor" I've ever had at this school. What an embarrassment to this university. I don't even consider this a class.

This class was probably the biggest waste of time. His ego is so inflated that he just uses this class as an opportunity to rant about his opinions about certain businesses or products or whatever the fuck pleases him. Maybe about 5% of what he said was actually relevant to my career (i.e. we spent an entire lecture discussing optical illusions - because this will definitely prepare me for whatever job I might land). The grade you get for your midterm project or final project is mostly based on his "rules" that he changes pretty much every day. I just don't like this man. At all.

Imagine an egomaniacal, fat, self-righteous taco bell employee lecturing you about subjective material for 90 minutes twice a week and you're getting pretty close to what this class is like.

This professor may be the worst professor I have had at Cal Poly thus far. He designed the course himself and I feel that as such, the fact that he ever came to this school is a curse on us all. I'm not going to go into details about how he wrote the book and makes you buy it, or his class structure. Everyone else does a good job of explaining that. I'm going to talk about his atrocious method of assigning grades. I'll begin with this. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT HOW YOU DO ON ANYTHING IN THE CLASS BUT THE FINAL. You'll be assigned into the "E-Teams" that give him a hard on at the beginning of the quarter. You will put in countless hours of work for your midterm and final project. Doesn't matter one bit. When the final comes, I can guarantee it will be a load of BS. You may as well not even study for it because you will be unprepared. Get ready for questions about things that are given one 10 line long paragraph in the whole book (and were never mentioned in lecture), puzzles, and whatever other BS he feels like screwing you with. At the end of the day, he is going to send out an email saying he was "generous with the grades he assigned" and ask you not go be mad at him for your final grade. You'll then see your final grade and notice that you, and most of the class, have received a B to a B+ in what SHOULD be an easy class that raises your GPA. My advice, if you have a little while until you need to take design, DON'T TAKE THIS THIS CLASS. Hold out as long as you can with the prayer that maybe, just one day, the PASS gods will shine their light down on you and Harding will be teaching it for the quarter so you can avoid this awful class.

Niku is a nice guy and a decent teacher. I would recommend him for other classes besides robotics. As of right now he is the only person who teaches robotics. It's a fairly easy and fun class. Take robotics!

This class is a huge waste of time. It is not hard, but you will waste your life away. The lecture is uninteresting, and the lab is A sequence of following instructions-no real learning there. I would avoid this class at all costs! Also, NIku is convinced that this class is the most important one you have, which is absolutely false. Bottom line: Run!

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.