The best parts of this course were the effective lectures and interesting material, which covered a new field of research. However, the course was quite disorganized. The professor did not make his expectations for assignments clear and did not give enough feedback on homework. Suggestions for improvement included a better overal structure, clearer directions for projects, and more feedback. The course requires a decent background in biochemistry. If you are not interested in metabolic or biology-related engineering you might not enjoy this course.

The interesting content and the passionate professor were some of the best aspects of this course. Students liked how practical the information was, and liked being able to apply the methods covered in class to metabolic systems. Students found that the lectures were sometimes quite long, and that the materials were not explored as deeply as they would have liked. Students also disliked how much of the information for homework had to be learned on their own with the textbook, and they wished that the instructor worked through more example problems. Suggestions for improvement included having more 63 in-depth lectures that relate to real-world situations with practice problems as well as modeling and calculation. Students also thought that the course would be better taught over two days instead of once a week with weekly homework assignments. Prospective students should be familiar with MATLAB, biochemistry, and some algebra. Students interested in the field of metabolic engineering will find this to be an interesting class.