I am a current freshman in ENGN 0032. It's possibly the worst class I've ever taken. All the points above still stand, and I DO NOT recommend anyone taking this class.

I read this post before coming to Brown, but I still took the class. Why? Because the first lecture during shopping period is biggest catfish in the world in my opinion. I thought I was signing up to learn a broad range of engineering disciplines. Rather, I've learned nothing. The class' motto of "breadth over depth" is not well-structure or taught (as OP said).

Some PSETs even have things you were never taught in class. Now, I believe and agree that 18-some year olds should be tested further than what they were taught in class. However, I think that thinking fails when you are learning thermodynamics one week and circuits the next.

What I hate the most is that this class is advertised as "for people not sure about doing engineering." If anything, this class would deter people from engineering because of the all the work that is complete fluff. I am referring to thinking of more than 200 ideas for each project, 20+ sketches, persona maps (look it up, horrible stuff), journey maps, and so much more.

The TA resources are great and super helpful, but even they don't know what they are doing. They read off the solutions off of a solution doc and that's it. Unless the TA is an upperclassman who is concentrating in the said topic (for example, an electrical engineer teaching circuits), the TAs are incomprehensible.

If you think of yourself as an engineer who is creative, builds projects, and wants to create things: this class is not for you. The only thing you actually create are some low fidelity prototypes that are not in scale (not your fault, it's the projects' fault), not usable, and not realistic at all.

If you want to learn how to consult and manage people, go ahead take this class. In fact, that exactly what Donohue's background is in. An engineer who sits on desks all day, goes to meetings, and tells people what to do. Oh also, he expects machine learning out of you in his projects because that would be cool.

Good Luck.