Education

Chase Sun (Research Associate at the Black Carbon Metrology Group of NRC)

Micro & Nanoparticle Engineering is a fantastic course for both knowledge in the field of nanoparticle technology and an introduction to the style of graduate level coursework. I found that the course topics are always engaging and contextualized with real world importance. The assignments and project are not like those of any other undergraduate course I have taken at Carleton, with a focus on conducting research through the textbook and academic papers instead of using listed equations to solve problems. The course is very challenging and Professor Kholghy has high expectations for his students, but I found that by focusing in class, reading the assigned material, and completing all homework assignments, I was able to achieve a high mark in the class and walk away with knowledge which helps me greatly in my current job in the field of nanoparticle research. I would recommend this class to anyone interested in the behaviour and application of nanoparticles as well as students who plan on perusing a master’s or PhD after their 4^th year in Carleton Engineering.

Comment #2:

Reza is a great teacher, he makes complicated course material make sense. His passion for the topic makes you want to try harder. The course was very interesting, and I think the mini project is a great idea for people planning to do research. The assignments were very difficult, and often extremely time consuming. Obviously in an upper year engineering course assignments are expected to be difficult and time consuming, but it often felt like there was a gap between my knowledge and the assignment questions. Normally, if I understand lecture content, I can apply the knowledge to a slightly harder assignment. But in this course, I felt confident in my understanding of lecture content, and still felt like I had no idea where to begin solving assignment questions.

Comment #1: Overall the professor seems caring, but too much focus is placed on derivations and not enough on examples. He seems to think we have all the time in the world to work on this course outside of lecture time, and we simply don’t.

Comment #2: Professor Kholghy is someone who clearly enjoys teaching and making a difference in his students’ lives. The class is hard, but there isn’t too much he can do about that.

Comment #3: The lecture structure was a bit confusing, especially at the start of the semester. It was often hard to tell what was an example problem and what was the process for deriving an equation for a specific situation. It definitely became a lot easier towards the second half of the semester as you started to follow the slides more. I found that the fast pace of the lectures was sometimes hard to follow along with, which could easily just be a result of having had very few synchronous classes up till this semester, but when I was able to keep up it was very interesting listening to the way you explain the concepts. It was definitely never a boring class. I also found that doing the first two lab reports really helped me understand the course content.
Thank you