Courses
These are a list of classes I have taken during my school years in Penn State. Each class will show the number of credits each class was, the teacher I had, and my recap of the class. Hope this out some future Penn State students who need to know about a class.
Fall 2009
Spring 2008
- EGEE 102 - Energy Conservation for Environmental Protection (3)
- Teacher: Sarma Ve Pisupati
- Description: Exposure to energy efficiency in day-to-day life to save money and energy, and thereby protect the environment.
- Experience: Coming Soon…
- IST 301 - Information and Organizations (3)
- Teacher: Rosalie Ocker
- Description: Introduction to formal languages, mathematical logic, and discrete mathematics, with applications to information sciences and technology.
- Experience: Coming Soon...
- IST 311 - Object-Oriented Design and Software Applications (3)
- Teacher: Frederico Fonseca
- Description: Introduction to object-oriented applications including applications in an Object Oriented Design (OOD) language or OOD languages.
- Experience: Coming Soon…
- IST 331 - Organization and Design of Information Systems: User and System Principles (3)
- Teacher: Frank Edwa Ritter
- Description: Interdisciplinary survey of topics related to the use and usability of information systems.
- Experience: Coming Soon…
- MATSE 081 - Materials in Today's World (3)
- Teacher: Paul Raymo Howell
- Description: A survey of the properties, manufacture, and uses of polymers, ceramics and metals in today's world with emphasis on modern developments and new materials.
- Experience: Coming Soon…
- SRA 211 - Threat of Terrorism and Crime (Learning Assistant) (3)
- Teacher: Colonel Jacob Graham
- Description: Provides overview of nature, scope, and seriousness of threats to security as a result of terrorism and crime.
- Experience: Coming Soon…
- INART 115 - Popular Music (3)
- Teacher: Olivia Mancini
- Description: An examination of the roots, development, and significance of popular music in our culture.
- Experience: An interesting class for sure. Olivia seemed very nice and explained stuff in good amounts of detail. She also never seemed to mind when you had a problem. Even went over one of my papers to make sure I had the right idea for a topic.
- IST 230 - Language, Logic, and Discrete Mathematics (Teaching Intern) (3)
- Teacher: Kristina Ivanova
- Description: Introduction to formal languages, mathematical logic, and discrete mathematics, with applications to information sciences and technology.
- Experience: Being a Teaching Intern was a new approach to the side of learning. Instead of me learning the material, I knew it and I was helping other students that were like me. It was hard to not give away the answer at times.
- IST 240 - Introduction to Computer Languages (3)
- Teacher: Tracy Mullen
- Description: Introduction to the specification and application of languages and language paradigms that interact with computers.
- Experience: Java Programming was something that I wanted to learn for a while and this class was great for it. The Professor was very nice and gladly helped you out with any problems or questions you had. If I could take another class with her, I would.
- IST 402 - Emerging Issues and Technologies (3)
- Teacher: Jim Jansen
- Description: Introduction to emerging issues, technology forecasting and analysis; overview of emerging issues and leading technologies in IST and how they impact information systems, users, the IT labor force and society.
- Experience: The Google AdWords Challenge was a great class to be a part of. My team took first place in the IMPAQT internal PSU competition and 12th out of 2100+ teams in the external which took place around the world. Professor Jansen was a great teacher and was always willing to give you feedback and help when you needed it.
- SRA 211 - Threat of Terrorism and Crime (3)
- Teacher: Donald Shemanski
- Description: Provides overview of nature, scope, and seriousness of threats to security as a result of terrorism and crime.
- Experience: This class was a very fun class. I got to learn about many different aspects of terrorism and crime. The Professor of Practice had a lot of experience and I got to be in the Red Cell which help developed the story of the final project which was pretty awesome.
- STAT 200 - Elementary Statistics (4)
- Teacher: Andrew Wiesner
- Description: Descriptive statistics, frequency distributions, probability, binomial and normal distributions, statistical inference, linear regression, and correlation.
- Experience: I took the hybrid class of statistics that met only once a week and the rest was online. I would say that you would be better off in the regular course because you could understand the material better but I am not that good at math and some thought the hybrid course was easy.
- EGEE 101 - Energy and the Environment (3)
- Teacher: Dr. K. N. Kumar
- Description: Energy utilization and technological development, energy resources, conversionand consequences on the local and global environment, and future energyalternatives.
- Experience: This class could have been dull at times but the overall course was really easy and as long as you go over the practice problems on Angel and read the slides you should be good on tests.
- HIST 011 - World History II (3)
- Teacher: Christine Reese
- Description: Social, economic, and political evolution of societies and cultures from1500 to the present.
- Experience: This was a very good class with very detailed slides but you also had to make sure to listen to the professor as well because some of the stuff she says will be on the tests. Overall though it was a good class.
- IST 220 - Networking and Telecommunications (3)
- Teacher: Xiaolong Zhang
- Description: Introduction to digital network topologies; transmission media, signalmodulation, digital packet switching and routing, systems integration,communications management, and security.
- Experience: Although the class was confusing sometimes, the class had a lot of knowledge about networking. Zhang is a great teacher to have when it comes to IST 210 and 220.
- IST 230 - Language, Logic, and Discrete Mathematics (3)
- Teacher: Kristina Ivanova
- Description: Introduction to formal languages, mathematical logic, and discrete mathematics, with applications to information sciences and technology.
- Experience: This was a great class and a very easy one with Professor Ivanova. She went through everything step by step and the exams were basically just the in class assignments and homeworks you already did.
- SRA 111 - Introduction to Security and Risk Analysis (3)
- Teacher: Gerry Santoro
- Description: This introductory course spans areas of security, risk, and analysiscovering contexts in government agencies and business organizations.
- Experience: This class was very fun and it was a blast to have Gerry again as the professor. This class and his IST class were basically one and the same. You have a video project, a podcast project, and some quizzes.
- ASTRO 001 - Astronomical Universe (3)
- Teacher: Jane Charlton
- Description: The development of modern understanding of the astronomical universe fromplanets and stars to galaxies and cosmology.
- Experience: This was my first WEB course and it was nice because I could learn all of the material on my own terms instead of going to class. This class has a lot of reading and 4 midterms and a final, but if you take notes then you should be perfectly fine. The WEB class is set up so that 15% of your final grade is attendance which is reading the online material and the teacher can check what you read and haven't read.
- ECON 002 - Introductory Microeconomic Analysis and Policy (3)
- Teacher: Dirk Mateer
- Description: Methods of economic analysis and their use; price determination; theory of the firm; distribution.
- Experience: This class was a great Economy class with a teacher who knows what he is talking about. This was also my first big class with over 300 people in it. There was an equally balanced work load with one group project, homework, two midterms, and a final. All of which were pretty easy. Dirk is probably the best Economy teacher so make sure you get him.
- IST 210 - Organization of Data (4)
- Teacher: Xiaolong Zhang
- Description: Introduction to concept of databases including the storage, manipulation, evaluation, and display of data and related issues.
- Experience: This was my second IST class and it taught you some unique things about PHP, SQL Server, and MySQL. You will be put into a team and work on group projects during the semester. The big project being making your own website using PHP and MySQL. It was a fun class and Luke can be interesting, but the slides is where most of the information is.
- RL ST 001 - Introduction to World Religions (3)
- Teacher: Curtis Smith
- Description: An historical and comparative survey of the principal beliefs and practicesof the world's major religions.
- Experience: This class was a very interesting class. You learn about the 5 major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. The class has a lot of note taking and the teacher will lecture about everything so you need to make sure that you go to every class or get the notes from someone if you miss one. Also, make sure you read the book!
- SPAN 003 - Intermediate Spanish (4)
- Teacher: Antonia Delgado Prieto
- Description: Audio-lingual review of structure; writing; reading.
- Experience: This was a very fun class. Again, this was an ANGEL Spanish class and it was a great experience. The teacher was very open, active, and willing to help. If you happen to see her name on the Schedule of Courses, make sure to get her.
- CMPSC 101 - Introduction to C++ Programming (3)
- Teacher: Yogi
- Description: Properties of algorithms, languages, and notations for describing algorithms, applications of a procedure-oriented language to problem solving.
- Experience: Now, I know programming in Visual Basic and QBASIC. I know those are outdated, but C++ relates to those programming languages. You would think I would know what I was doing right? Well, unfortunately not, but it is a class based more on homework than exams. The teacher was a grad student who just started teaching my semester, and I don't think I learned as much as I should of, but she is probably getting better as the semesters go on.
- ENG 015 - Rhetoric and Composition (3)
- Teacher: Karen Walcott
- Description: Instruction and practice in writing expository prose that shows sensitivity to audience and purpose.
- Experience: This class was interesting, somewhat. The teacher had us write about 7 papers and that was our grade, no midterms or finals. I met some people in there and we had some open discussions from time to time, but the main point of the class was writing. Karen was a very nice teacher and will help you out if you have any problems.
- MATH 110 - Techniques of Calculus I (4)
- Teacher: David Little
- Description: Functions, graphs, derivatives, integrals, techniques of differentiation andintegration, exponentials, improper integrals, applications.
- Experience: Well, you would think this is basically Calculus in High School again, but it isn't. This is where I noticed how some departments in Penn State operate. This class is based mostly on midterms and finals. What happens is, the Math department sets a preferred percentage of their grades from midterms, quizzes, and the final. This average was 75% for my semester. My class did good in the quizzes and first midterm which bumped our average up to 80%. To go with their preferred percentage, the department made the second midterm significantly harder, causing half of my class to fail. The class was in an uproar at the teacher sending him emails, going to office hours, and complaining in class. Unfortunately, the teacher had no answers and wouldn't do anything to change that. Luckily, I passed, but the teacher David Little will only put examples on the board and not teach you much. Oh ya, one more thing, the study guides won't help you much.
- SPAN 002 - Elementary Spanish II (4)
- Teacher: ?
- Description: Audio-lingual approach to basic Spanish continued; writing.
- Experience: Spanish is usually cool, but not when it is 9 in the morning. Other than that, this was a fun class and I really like the ANGEL Spanish classes. What that means is, your homework is all on ANGEL and you can do it on your own time, as long as it is done within a week. You also have two in class midterms and a final.
- CAS 100B - Effective Speech (3)
- Teacher: Ben Henderson
- Description: Principles of communication, implemented through group problem solving, with some attention to formal speaking and message evaluation.
- Experience: This was my first class as a student at Penn State and it was a great class. We were split into groups of 6 and were doing a bunch of activities using public speaking and communication. Ben made the class very interesting and is a very great teacher. If you happen to have to take CAS 100B, make sure you get him as a teacher.
- IST 110 - Information, People, and Technology (3)
- Teacher: Gerry Santoro
- Description: The use, analysis and design of information systems and technologies to organize, coordinate, and inform human enterprises.
- Experience: IST 110 was my second summer class during the summer session. This class is the first class for me involved with IST. The class was fun! We were split into the same group of 6 as CAS 100B and were told to make a video and a podcast involving topics based on technology. Gerry is one of the best people I met in IST and is high up in the IST chain.