Owen, Frank  

Professor Owen is a really nice guy. He is very helpful during office hours. If you come see him he will take the time to explain things to you. Unfortunately his lectures are horrible. He rarely does examples of homework problems, which in courses like Dynamics and Statics you need lots of examples. He does not use the class time effectively, on several occasions he wasted time teaching us how to work with vectors in our calculator, which if I really wanted to know, I would just read the manual myself. He falls behind and won't address a topic until one or sometims two class sessions after the homework is do. You turn in homework before he lectures on it. I also felt that I was unprepared for the final exam because he did not cover some topics with well enough.

DO NOT TAKE OWEN! His classes include examples that he puts students in groups of 3 to work on, and doesn't spend much time explaining what the problems are about. Later on, he skips steps in problems done in class and his office hours are group hours with other students. There's barely ever any one-to-one interaction with students and anyone falling behind won't understand anything because he is not open to help. I tried scheduling an appointment for one-to-one help and he refused! His quizzes are hard, and though I found one of them easy, he grades too harsh to be fair. I have a C- at this time in the class and feel like I don't know anything. Last week, I asked what angular momentum is and he replied, "p=mv." Did you get it? Formulas won't help me understand the concepts! It's clear from Professor Owen's resume that he knows what he's talking about, but he doesn't know anything about teaching the material. Simply stating p=mv doesn't help me understand what's going on. Don't take him! You'll regret it. How bad is he really? Even if I pass the class with a C, I plan on re-taking it with Locascio to actually understand what dynamics is all about.

Dr. Owen is a good professor. He explains the course material very well and is easily approachable. He is also quite helpful in office hours even though lots of people show up. My only complaint about his style is that sometimes he makes the lectures seem pretty simple and then the homework turns out more challenging. Fortunately, his quizzes are doable and usually easier than the homework.

Dr Owen is a professor I would strongly advise anyone to avoid for dynamics if at all possible. I worked very hard in this class and learned very little. His lectures were terrible because he did not use the class time to work example problems or explain problems related to homework and quizes. Instead he divided our class into groups and let us try to figure out on our own a problem that he would write on the board. This method of "teaching" was very inefficient because our class was only able to look at 2 problems every 1.5 hours of class. Office hours were also ridiculous because they were held in a classroom. So many people came to these office hours that there was no way to get individual help with a problem. The assigned homework was difficult and we had weekly quizes instead of exams. The quizes were easy if you understood the homework.

Learn to do any problem that has to do with an airplane or helicoptor. These will be test questions.

Frank doesn't know what he's doing. In class he will do extremely simple examples and then every night he'll assign you problems that are 10x harder than what you did in class and, yes, you have to turn it in for a grade. If you spend time actually trying to figure out the problems, you'll find yourself even more confused because everything the book teaches conflicts with Frank's methods. Luckily, his quizzes are based off of his lectures so you'll do fine on those as long as you pay attention, but when the common final rolls around you're screwed. Oh, and 9% of your grade is based off of earning "bucks" for participating in class, which can help or hurt you based on your personality. Frank's a nice a guy and he'll do his best to help you, but he's just not very good at it.

Above all else, I would advise not to take Owen. From what I gathered he understands the material well enough himself but the way he presented it made lectures a struggle to understand. Another important note: if you are not prone to actively (and competitively) participating in your classes, then DO NOT take Owen. 8% of your overall grade is participation, which you earn by competing with your classmates to answer questions in return for paper money. At then end of the quarter, the person with the most money gets the full 8% and everyone else is graded in relation to the person with the most money. Besides that, there was a serious disconnect between what he taught in lecture, what the homework problems were on, and what the tests were on. I'm pretty sure the only reason I passed is because Cramster "helped" me with every single homework problem. Again, DON'T. TAKE. THIS. TEACHER.

Every lecture was pretty much useless, he went over the very basics/derivations of formulas that didn't teach how to attack dynamics problems at all. The book, though i thought was good for statics, was not sufficient in teaching me. Plus his way of solving problems are different from the book. In doing one of our homework problems on the board he couldn't even finish it. Also he uses "bucks" for participation which pretty much means wasted time of him egging on one or two people so they can get bucks. Office hours were always crowded because he never got anywhere in lecture, so it was just as meaningless.

Owen's grading is fair, but his teaching is below par. Owen did not nearly teach enough to work the homework problems he assigns and his quizzes had scores in the extreme highs and extreme lows. My major problem with his teaching is that he does not work practice problems in class. For an important engineering class like dynamics, I would not recommend taking Owen.

Professor Owen may be slightly quirky in his ways, but he really is a decent guy. If you get to know him well, and show that you care in his class (even without the best test grades), he will take the time to help you out. Owen has been teaching for a long time at other universities so he has some good things set in place. His website is easy to use and clear, he often posts supplemental material and past quizzes/midterms as examples. Dynamics is a hard class to teach. In the end it comes down to the student to learn it well.

Dr. Owen is without a doubt knowledgeable in his subject, but boy does he teach it poorly. In lecture he derives formulas and uses extremely basic practice problems which may lead you to believe you understand the concept... until you start the homework. It feels like he chooses the hardest problems for each concept and assigns them to you, basically necessitating that you attend office hours or some other study help. He also makes actual class participation 8% of the grade, which really hurts the quieter people. He grades formatting VERY strictly, which would be acceptable if he didn't spring all these conventions on us AFTER grading the quizzes. Fortunately, quizzes are only as complex as the lecture problems. Avoid this class

At first, I was extremely off-put by professor owen. For the second week of instruction, he went abroad for some conference and left us with an Italian exchange grad student as our stand in lecturer. Owen can be hard to follow sometimes, but he's willing to help and extremely knowledgeable. He has a slightly different method of teaching dynamics, and I really appreciated it. While his midterms were really hard, they helped me learn dynamics very well (albeit usually after I got the midterm back, but that's on me)

Owen really knew his stuff when it came to Dynamics but the structure of his class was not ideal. He had a shitty participation grade that was based off of how many questions you could answer (correctly) throughout the quarter. I failed it with him and took it again with Birdsong who had a much more involved and active learning style that resonated with me much more. Unless you like to do the bulk of your learning through book examples and HW problems DO NOT TAKE OWEN. He will go over concepts derivations and an example per section in class clearly but will not do much more than that. Overall Dynamics is a tough course that I underestimated the first time taking it. Owen is not the best professor but he's not the worst. IF YOU FEAR LACK OF MOTIVATION, TAKE BIRDSONG HE WILL KEEP YOU ON YOUR SHIT.

I would not be scared away by some of the other reviews on this site. Granted, the class is hard. The work load is manageable, a homework set of (~8-10) problems per week. His lectures can go either way: but he really understands what he's talking about and will slow down if you don't understand how something works. One downside is participation, which is 5% of your grade. He gives out "bucks" which honestly wastes class time. The person with the most at the end of the quarter gets the full 5% and everyone else gets whatever fraction of that (20 bucks vs 40 highest, you'll get 2.5%). Overall he's a very smart, nice guy, and the structure of the class works for those who try. (His website is also amazing and you can look on his courses taught page to see what I mean- I've NEVER had so many AMAZING resources)

I am currently taken this course and have not received a final grade. I just want to warn the students of Cal poly what a misogynistic prick Owens is. If you are a woman or a DRC student you shouldn't take this professor. I am registered for the DRC and he straight up denied to comply with my accommodations that he is legally obligated to comply to. He gave me a zero in my grade for a test that I missed due to a disability related reason. I followed the drc's instructions to a tee when using this accommodation. The worse part is that he wouldn't respond to my emails and made me explain to him what my accommodations are and why I have them in front of the whole class. I honestly can't even evaluate his teaching skills because after publicly shaming me multiple times, I stopped showing up to class. This review is based strictly on his awful personality, and I am currently filling a report with the student equity center, but he's ten yeard and can't be fired. He also wont respond to your emails, and wont be helpful in office hours. This is a character review for owens and I really hope that this can provide the warning that I needed.

Dr Owen is a great guy. I'm not too sure about the lower division classes he teaches, but he did a great job w/vibes. In the lab, he walks in, tells you to get started, and leaves. I thought it was great! We actually had to figure it all out on our own, which made it way easier for those who didn't hang for the ride w/their lab partner. On the down side, he does pick favorites in class. But, oh well. You're just going to have to break out of your shell and talk to the guy outside of class so he knows who you are. I think he's a pretty good judge of character as to who is a competent student. Hey, it's a competitive field. Get used to it.

Owen does not seem to know the materal well. He only does one exaple in class over and over again. We spent almost a week on how to use calculators and simotanious solutiouns, first TI and then HP. It was boring and a waste of time if a student has already taken Statics and Dynamics and all the math to go along with it, It is almost insulting that he thinks we don't know hoe to use a calculator. He means well but he is a little slow, and expects alot.

Dr. Owen is the first and only Cal Poly professor to have given me a C. I would accept that if I felt that I deserved it, but it was unwarranted. I think I did my part of the job, but he certainly didn't do his. From what I saw, he doesn't have much right calling himself an "instructor." Unfortunately, I learned nothing in his class, I think most of my classmates agree. He is overly picky, and it is pretty obvious that Dr. Locasio is his hero. That wouldn't be a problem if he could teach like Dr. Locasio, but he is nowhere near that level. It is my plan to avoid Dr. Owen for the rest of my stay at Cal Poly.

Dr Owen speaks slowly in an articulate matter, which would seem boring, but somehow isn't, especially considering the subject matter. He has been in industry most of his life-- see his web page, and is a sharp individual. Keep up with the homework, or you're sunk. Controls is a tough class, no doubt about it. The lab was easy but maybe its because i had Ludin for that part. Be familiar with all the labs before walking into the final, as you will have to do a small part of each one, taking and interpreting data in the computer lab, all in 2 hours. I think i must have bombed the lab, or the curve was mean, because I staggered out with a D.

Though at first, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was struggling and doing poorly on the quizzes. However, I stuck with it, and went to office hours quite often. Also brought some of my old quizes in to have him go over, way before finals week to show my drive to succeed. Dr. Owen is extremely helpful in office hours, even when I ask a really dumb question (which I often do), he'll calmly explain to you what you need to know, without making you feel like a complete idiot as many other professors tend to do. If you work hard and stay on top of the class you'll do okay, do not slack on the HW, or studying for the quizes. I expected a D+,C- in the class and ened up with a grade quite a bit higher than I ever expected. I highly reccomend Owen, for his patience and drive to teach the material as clearly as possible is an asset rarely found in ME professors.

Prof. Owen is a brilliant, suportive, and fascinating lecturer.

I understand that Dr. Owen wants everyone in the class to participate. But offering fake "dollars" that you cash in at the end of the quarter to help your grade is not appropriate for a 400-level Cal Poly course. Aside from that, Owen is an average teacher. He does his best to make an extremely boring class bearable.

Owens controls knowledge seems to be more practical than theoretical, which is bizarre for a PhD. He can teach the course fine, but I get the feeling that he would have trouble getting an \"A\" in a second controls class, which is a little troubling. If you stay on it from the beginning, this class is very simple. In fact, if you do all the homework from the first day, you\'ll never have to study.

He is a quirky guy with his tie-die socks and unicycle riding, but he is friendly and cares about us learning the material. The class is not terribly difficult. During lecture he does make tons of mistakes which is confusing, and his grading isn't the most consistent. Good professor overall.

Owen is probably the best teacher at Poly to teach you controls. Now, saying that, he's not perfect. He likes to throw random curve balls in his quizzes and tests, which gets old quickly. But overall, if you come to class, do the homework, and try to answer some of his in-class questions, there's no reason you should get lower than a B.

With a PhD in controls, one would expect a professor to have a solid grasp of the theory. Somehow Owen doesn't. He teaches this class with the theoretical sophistication of an experience technician. Disregards all theoretical substantiation for his lectures and asks you to blindly follow. It's actually a joke. Instead of midterms, he gives you a few quizzes throughout the quarter. He doesn't give you the whole class period for the multi-section quizzes and arbitrarily picks when to start the test. The irritating part is the structure. Some of the test have upwards of 7 parts, each part building off the previous. One mistake toward the beginning and he'll disregard all of your following work as incorrect even if it's justified based on your previous results. Not to mention his "control bucks" policy. You get a control buck for answering a question. The person with the most control bucks gets 7% extra credit??!!?!?!? So you have a few try hard nerd virgins competing for answers non-stop. Regardless whether their answers are correct. Fun stuff I'll tell ya. He's treating a 400 level ME class as if he's teaching second graders. Pathetic. Moral of the story, take Birdsong.

As far as teaching and knowledge base, Owen seems average to me. Maybe slightly below average if you consider Birdsong and HP. However, I hate his personality. He's been a dick multiple times to multiple students. He has an attitude that pisses me off. He assumes that any questions students ask or bad exam scores students receive are completely due to their low effort, rather than reflections upon his skill as a teacher. He gives participation bucks for answering questions during lectures, but only gives them out upon answering questions correctly concerning subjects he is still teaching in lecture. This makes his participation bucks feel frustratingly like public pop quizzes. I overheard that when he saw one student excercising, he commented on how they should work less on their muscles and more on their brain. Overall, I just don't like him or his personality. Also, he teaches controls using a textbook he wrote himself, with less examples than I would like. This makes it harder to learn if you don't like his way of explaining things.

I had a terrible time with Frank Owen. In lecture, his participation bucks were given out inconsistently depending on his mood and how much he likes you. In lab, he pairs you up in groups of 2 and if you are in a lab with an odd number of students, one of you will be on your own. I spent the entire quarter doing the lab alone, while the rest of the class had a partner. I was told off for collaborating with the other groups when I needed help. For whatever reason, I got the feeling Frank did not like me at the beginning of the quarter and it was very difficult to get the necessary help to learn the material. My grade suffered because he let personal feelings towards me get in the way of his job. I graduated 4 years ago and am now working in the HVAC design industry and Frank Owen sticks out to me as one of the worst professors I had during my time at Cal Poly. Professor Owen failed me as a teacher and mentor and I hope he learns from it and does not do the same to other students.

I took Owen for Senior Design. That would imply that he knows something about engineering design. That would be an incorrect assumption, because he taught us nothing. The only two groups that got A's were a group that had a Controls project, and a group that worked for a company that he has done work for. Basically, he picks favorites, thinks he knows the best way to design everything, and doesn't like you if you do it different. Ridiculous for a Senior Design professor. He also made us read a novel about efficient airplane flight. Yes, I said a NOVEL. He should stick to Controls, but I still wouldn't ever want to take him again.

Owen is a nice guy, but wasn't a great professor for this class. He is disorganized and hard to follow. He taught the class with Davol, and it was a great day when it was Davol's turn to handle the remainder of the class.

Fine teacher, but a little dry in the presentation. I wouldnt suggest having her at 8:00 in the morning, might be difficult staying awake.