Marshall is an awesome teacher who's really passionate about educating first-years and getting them involved. He really wants the first-years to get a real engineering experience

This is a very laid back class and a nice break from the traditional engineering classroom setting. There is a strong emphasis on group work and your grade is based off group projects. There are no tests. Professor Marshall is a really good guy who wants everyone to gain valuable hands-on design experience.

Excellent introductory engineering class. This class involves building theatrical special effects for an assigned play at the end of the semester. You will spend hours and hours in the Small Hall lab, but Ben will be around to help you out. It feels amazing to see your products work in front of the audience. Small assignments are no biggies. Strongly recommended.

Paxton Marshall is a really great professor, gives easy assignments, you will either get an A or an A-. The class involves a lot of group work on a project outside of class which is most of the time pretty fun and interactive. Ben Kidd is a great TA that can pretty much help you make your project ideas work. Great ENGR 162 section!

Hands down best class at UVA.

We made special effects for plays put on by the drama dept. You will spend lots of time with your group, especially when it gets down to the wire on the last few days before the show. Some of the weekly assignments are annoying/seemingly unnecessary. This is the best section for this class you can possibly take.

This class was intense, but looking back on it the work was very rewarding. I have also been able to reference the drama special effects project we worked on in a number of job interviews.

This was one of the best classes I have taken at U.Va. Group work is extensive, and you WILL spend nights in the lab with your group. However, the end result is very rewarding. Check out the class web page for more information.

My favorite class ever!!! Our class, composed of eight different groups with 4 or 5 students per group, focused on actually building five different special effects for an end-of-semester one-act play put on by the drama department. We actually used saws, drills, soldering irons, etc.!!!! All the work on the project was done outside of class, and class was spent basically on talking with your group members and designing prototypes of the special effect. No tests whatsoever!!!! The only way you don't get an A in this class, is by not showing up or not contributing to your group at all. Also, Ben Kidd (TA) is awesome!!!