ENGR 1620

There were far too many projects that were frequently too close together. The robot design project would have been interesting if the goals were realistic. The group work frequently caused group imbalance and the stream of feedback was slow - frequently we had presentations due before our rough draft papers were returned. There were FAR too many papers due as standalones and parts of the robot design project. All in all, the material was miserable. Archie though is a character. He seems to get bothered when students disagree with him but I suggest maybe visiting him during office hours, he is a reasonable guy and has a great deal of interesting experience.

Very enthusiastic professor, work is a little trivial but Holmes makes it as enjoyable as possible.

Archie is very enthusiastic about teaching the class. It's definitely hard work learning how to use the program that works with the Robot but most groups were able to successfully complete their goals. I have zero interest in working in the electrical engineering field but I still thought it was a worthwhile class.

Archie Holmes was by far one of the most interesting and chill professors I've had. His personality fit well with Intro to Engr. He let us use whatever machinery we wanted, pushed back due dates all the time, hands on projects, etc. TAKE INRO WITH HIM.

Archie is probably the nicest professor I've had while at UVA. When you work with him, you can tell that he has a genuine passion for teaching and cares about his students. During class, we mostly worked on group projects and out of class we wrote short essays. The projects were very interesting (designing and 3d printing bridges, building robots, etc.) and the essays were not terribly difficult. The projects were challenging to complete at times, but they were also very fun. If you're an engineer looking for an intro to engr prof, Archie is one of the best.

Archie is the nicest professor I've had at UVA (granted I've only been here a semester). But he's very accommodating and pushes back deadlines all the time when he realizes that there's not enough time for people to finish them.

The class is based off of various group projects and a final project that constitutes the last month and a half of the class. This year it was an NXT Robot project but he may change that in coming years. The class was really interesting and, though he doesn't really "lecture", I felt I got a lot from the class in terms of learning how to work in teams.

The only negative in this class is that there are A LOT of busy work writing assignments. There are three papers, two are fairly easy but the third is about (1500-2500 words) about an engineering failure by a large company such as the BP Oil Spill or something of that nature. Very tedious, didn't learn much from it, and was annoying. Besides the writing assignments, I would definitely recommend Archie.

Great Professor. Others might introduce you to one specific branch of engineering, but Archie keeps the subject matter general enough to apply to most engineering disciplines. I definitely recommend taking 1620 with this professor.

Archie is the man. Super understanding and an easy grader. Thought I was going to end up with a B-, got an A. Other 1620 classes give lots of work. Take this one. Seriously

Archie is the best. Seriously. I wouldn't say that his class is easy or a joke class, as he definitely requires you to put in work with periodic short papers and the focus on group work. However, he is the most understanding and flexible teacher. He somehow manages to make accommodations and have a fun class environment while still earning all of our respect and not letting himself be the "easy" teacher to just walk all over and take advantage of. Could not think of a better teacher to welcome me into engineering at UVA.

Plus, he's a generally cool guy that you will want to talk to. He even took groups of his students to a nice lunch second semester to catch up and see how we all were.

Another thing, he really values our opinions and wants to make sure that we have the best opportunities. He would sometimes stop and ask us about our opinions on various things that are general to SEAS and UVA since he has some power to make changes for the benefit of the students in his position as vice provost.