Classes classes classes! Lots of classes! Classes bring choices!
In my vast experience in choosing classes here at USC (I’ve been here for four years now) I’ve had the opportunity to live through classes of all size (units) and shape (types of classes) from Economics, to Sailing, to Engineering and even the Art and Adventure of Leadership (MDA 365).
So then, in thinking about my past classes, I’d like to share with you what has been my hardest class and my favorite class of all time. Without further ado, here are my pics:
Hardest Class: AME 204, Strength of Materials (2nd Year Aerospace Class)
So what is this class all about? Basically, it’s about how solids react to series of forces and moments which are imposed upon them? How do things bend and twist when you twist things? As you can imagine, it’s quite a lot of difficult math. Fundamentally, it’s based on higher dimensional tensor calculus and its roots lie in the diagonalization of matricies using linear algebra (e.g. Eigen Values). Even when you strip off all that math, it’s pretty applied finding all the forces and forced deformations of these deformable bodies. Trust me, it was difficult, but a rewarding class! Had a great time, though it was a struggle to the end. Ended up doing quite well in the class.
Favorite Class: AME 261, Basic Flight Mechanics, (2nd year Aerospace Class)
This class was absolutely awesome! Perhaps because it was all about flying, my favorite! In this class, we talked about all different aspects of flight: Takeoff, climb, cruise, turning, descent, and landing. We also covered turning flight and stalls. I was in absolute heaven in this class. Imagine a class where you talked about nothing but what you daydream about anyways! The art with which Dr. Blackwelder presented the material and sparked my interest in this class keep me on the edge of my seat!
The most fun aspect of the class came in the form of a design project at the end of the semester: Designing a plane that would be fueled by liquid hydrogen and fly around the world at the equator. Our plane came in second (no, we didn’t get to fly them around the world, but we measured it based on rooted aircraft cost. In simple terms, this means that the lightest plane wins!)
Working on stuff that I daydream about- that was priceless and was the main reason why AME 261 was my favorite class!
Let me know if you have any questions about class selection via the VSA e-mail: viterbi.student@usc.edu
Also, be sure to check out all of our other great VSA material we’ve made for you at:
viterbivoices.usc.edu
Till next week, Fight On fellow Trojans!
Warren
