ECE-574
WAVES IN MATTER
Not in Fall 2026
Term
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that the readings, films, or examples carry real weight. Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything. The sample is still thin, so treat this as directional rather than definitive.
DepartmentELEC&CMP
Terms offeredFall
Typical enrollment12–12
Semesters of data1
10
Responses
12
Enrollment
83%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.6
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.4
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.8
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.4
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysislow
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 32 comments across 1 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that the readings, films, or examples carry real weight. Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything. The sample is still thin, so treat this as directional rather than definitive.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Moderate homework load
Homework load looks moderate. The recurring signal is steady weekly work, but not a course that turns every assignment into a grind.
Lecture Load
Regular lecture load
Lectures matter here, but the evidence points to a fairly standard lecture burden rather than a course dominated by long or exceptionally dense lectures.
Strengths
• Readings, films, or outside materials come up repeatedly as a real strength rather than filler.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who will engage with the materials instead of skimming everything.
Watch out for
• Most of the signal comes from a limited sample, so be careful about over-generalizing.
• A large share of the evidence comes from one instructor's version of the course, so this may not generalize cleanly.
Student Responses
I know how GPS works and why it is built that way. I know how submarines work and why they communicate differently than surface vessels, and land and air vehicles. I know the different ways waves and matter interact.
Fall 2023 · Cummer, Steven
Dispersion relations in many different situations; I was introduced to elastic waves in solids in this course (pressure/shear waves); using boundary conditions to solve for reflection and transmission coefficients; EM waves in more situations compared to what was covered in ECE270; useful applications of waves (e.g., LINACS); waves in more than 1 dimensions; surface waves.
Fall 2023 · Cummer, Steven
The fundamentals of the wave equation and solutions. Electric conductors. Complex dispersion relations and meaning.
Fall 2023 · Cummer, Steven
I learned about how to solve general wave problems, how different types of waves behave in many different material systems, and I learned advanced E&M.
Fall 2023 · Cummer, Steven
I developed methods of intuitively understanding equations that described physical phenomena. I learned about electromagnetic wave behavior in various mediums and how said behavior can be controlled by adjusting the medium properties. I learned how various electromagnetic fields & waves formulas can be derived from Maxwell's equations.
Fall 2023 · Cummer, Steven
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 | Cummer, Steven 4.6Rate My ProfessorsQuality4.6Difficulty3.2Would retake100%Based on 20 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.6 | 3.4 | — | 12 |
Instructor
Cummer, StevenELEC&CMP
Also teaches
ECE-110L FUND OF ELEC AND COMP ENGRECE-270DL FIELDS AND WAVES4.6ECE-590 ADVANCED TOPICS IN ECE