MAE 3140

One of the least accessible Professors I've had at college; ignores emails, unresponsive to questions/complaints about Collab errors, generally very blunt in communication. The grading is pretty arbitrary and the test problems aren't really addressed before the test. Make sure to do well on the labs as he doesn't curve I don't think and they are worth 25% of your final grade. Isaac and Kil are both good TAs though and will help.

I agree and disagree with some of the previous comments. Professor Ribando? He has a very quirky sense of humor, and can sometimes waste class time telling completely irrelevant anecdotes. I'm not sure he remembers what being an undergrad is like, and there is surely some kind of disconnect between the way he teaches and what is truly effective in the modern engineering world. From a positive point of view, it's great that he incorporates computer software (which he programmed himself), but you still have to have the basics. The basics, meaning, some homework sets and example problems in class. The entire class seemed to focus around using and learning his Heat and Mass Transfer program. The HMT program should be rather used as a secondary tool in conjunction with the traditional form of learning. The written portion of the tests were easy. Don't let anyone tell you differently (if they have even half a brain, they could do well). The online portion is a much different story.

The weekly quizzes are pain, but whatever. Everyone does poorly on them. The labs are very painful, and there simply is no way around them. Just go with the flow, and get it done.

Overall, a class with VERY interesting information that could be made much, much better.

Professor Riband ois great to talk to, his slides are good, though the subject of Heat and Mass transfer is not particularly enthralling

Heat and Mass Transfer is actually one of the more interesting topics that is covered in 3rd Year Mech. Ribando has PDF files of all the lectures that he posts online so you can print them out before lecture and follow them as he is instructing. The studios aren't bad if you put forth the effort to understand them and this will pay off tremendously as the entire class is centered around the studios

Ribando is an awful teacher. Still using excel programs he developed 20 years ago. Very disorganized material. Used an incomplete textbook written by him which is easily the worst textbook I've ever seen in my life. Poorly designed tests and quizzes.

This is one of the worse classes I have ever taken at UVa. Too bad it is required. Ribando is a terrible professor and uses his own half-written textbook to teach the class. My suggestion is to find a real heat-mass transfer textbook and read it along with the class. I ended up reading a separate textbook before the final and it was the only reason why I remotely understood what was going on. Also, the labs suck and provide no help in understanding the topic. Once again, too bad it's required.

Ribando is a decent teacher for a boring subject. He believes in using software to model thermal systems, and the class is largely based around teaching you to do the same. Doing the excel work and especially the formatting can be time consuming. Tests are well done, and demand that you understand the content, not just memorize it.