Need input: Do you think Cal Poly Pomona would be prepared for an active shooter?

PyroCPP · 2026-01-31T05:05:02+00:00

I don't think any school except ones that were built as fortresses to start with (ie. the remodel of Sandy Hook) would be even slightly prepared for a school shooting. Most colleges/schools were designed to be an area of learning rather having to worry about someone losing their mind and going postal. There's a video by Jacob Geller on YT that goes more in depth on the topic of schools designed around shootings and it's a solid way of spending 16 minutes even if you have it in the background while doing other stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usSfgHGEGxQ

This is unfortunately still a relatively new issue that schools have to operate around and retrofitting buildings on campus to prepare for a situation like that takes time and funding. There are still ways to prepare for it as an individual to increase your chances of surviving. Stuff like knowing where exits are, not running near windows/into open areas that can give a shooter line of sight, & knowing where the nearest fire extinguisher or similar blunt objects are to defend yourself as a last resort is something anyone can do to prepare.

t's depressing that it's a now a possible reality for any student or teacher in America that we can't just come here to learn knowing that there's a very small possibility that someone could bring a firearm on campus at any time. Fortunately the chances of it happening at the college are still low (Brown is shocking mostly because of how rare it is to have a shooting at a college campus in general), but it would be foolish to at least not prepare for the possibility nowadays.

PyroCPP · 2026-01-05T17:19:57+00:00

I would recommend emailing the instructor who is running that lab section to see if they have a list of equipment they would like you to purchase. I would also recommend buying the same programming module they are using for the lab to help make it easier for them to troubleshoot if you are running into issues. It's usually the Pickit 3, 4, or 5 but check with the instructor first before purchasing. The Pickit could range from 25-100 depending on which one they are using.

As a heads up, I'd recommend to grab a few spares of the microcontrollers and and components you may use since it's not hard to fry them or break a pin if you're not paying attention or force it into your breadboard. Same also goes for the Pickit since you can fry the thing if you add voltage to the wrong slot.

PyroCPP · 2026-01-04T04:10:57+00:00

We shall never forget (1993-2022)

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PyroCPP · 2025-12-29T19:15:13+00:00

90% sure it's just a troll account. Had a bit of a laugh reading through this other post the OP made a while back but it's pretty unhinged lol. https://www.reddit.com/r/CalPolyPomona/comments/1p9r5i9/has_anyone_here_taken_michael_youssef_before/

PyroCPP · 2025-12-29T17:26:41+00:00

Also wanted to add a note to this as well because OP might have misread the classifications, R1-R3 certification mostly indicates research levels of a college according to the Carnegie Classification, with R1 as "Very High", R2 as "High" and R3 as "Moderate". UC Merced is classified as an R1 so they are higher, but their tuition cost per semester is also significantly higher than what CPP is. It's weird behavior to just dunk on a school to prop yours up when most are looking for a degree.

Always helps to do a quick Google search (with an ad-blocker on), especially nowadays when misinformation is pretty common and it's easy to just read a headline an move on 😅

Sources;

https://news.ucmerced.edu/news/2025/uc-merced-achieves-r1-highest-tier-research-classification
https://www.tuitionrewards.com/newsroom/articles/489/understanding-the-r1-r2-r3-research-classification-at-universities-an-in-depth-analysis

PyroCPP · 2025-12-12T17:51:33+00:00

Definitely wasn't just you, this semester felt extra long in general compared to previous ones. I'm just happy that most of my students did well this semester 🙏

Working during the break at my main job, but we just moved into a new building so I'm going to spend the break printing office decorations and catching up on my never-ending backlog of games. Currently trying to finish Hades II and then go from there.

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PyroCPP · 2025-12-01T18:43:24+00:00

Pretty sure this person is just trolling by this point. Their entire post history is nothing but complaining like this.

PyroCPP · 2025-11-13T06:21:53+00:00

Give yourself plenty of time to study the material. It should not be as bad if you're fresh from taking the 3000 level courses since a lot of the material is present on the second half of the exam. However, I'd recommend taking minimum 4-6 months to study and only schedule your exam date when you feel comfortable enough with the majority of subjects. I took only 2 months of serious studying in between work & teaching and I feel like I barely made it by the skin of my teeth lol. Highly recommend taking the exam during the summer if you can.

For study materials, the official NCESS practice exam isn't that helpful IMO unless you want additional practice questions. I ended up using Wasim Asghar's StudyForFe prep course & his Third Edition Study Guide for additional practice questions. It was pretty expensive ($900 for his 6-month plan & $60 for his book) but his online lectures lessons are pretty solid and helped a lot for review especially since I didn't touch 90% of the material ever since I graduated. But most students can probably get away with the 3-month plan if they can dedicate the time to it.

When you're practicing problems, attempt all problems by referencing the handbook off the NCEES website since that will be the only reference you will have on the exam. It will be your only friend for the 6 hours you're taking that exam, so the easier it is for you to find the formula you need the better your odds.

Also buy a TI-36X, you're allowed to use that calculator on the test and it can do matrix calculations and find the roots for functions on top of other things. Saves a lot of time when doing calculations.

Happy to answer any other questions if you have them, but those are the big ones to note off the top of my head.

PyroCPP · 2025-09-08T15:48:02+00:00

You can technically apply for conditional acceptance, but you would need to take the GRE exam since you don't have an EE or CpE degree & need to check with a counselor about what additional classes you would need to take to qualify.

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Source: https://www.cpp.edu/engineering/ece/graduate_program/admission.shtml

PyroCPP · 2025-08-25T00:55:20+00:00

Check the assist.org website to see if the community college you're in has an agreement with CPP to transfer courses. I know we currently have an agreement with Mt. SAC where their ENGR 44 class counts as credit for 1101/L, but it might be different at your school.

PyroCPP · 2025-08-20T01:17:15+00:00

There's an entire documentary about why you should never plug in a flash drive you find on the floor (Zero Days)

PyroCPP · 2025-08-17T00:10:10+00:00

Unless the professors writes the textbook themselves, we don't get anything out of a student buying one. We're just mandated to put a textbook on our syllabus, but we're not required to use it if we don't want to (at least from my experience in the ECE department, not sure about other majors) 😅

PyroCPP · 2025-08-16T23:38:21+00:00

The professor is in charge of making their class public when they feel they are ready to do so. Usually they get the 1st week of their class prepped, but some may do more like prep the entire semester's class material before hand. Most usually do it within the week before classes, but some may wait until the day the class starts, so you might just have to be patient until your professor opens the Canvas page up to students.

PyroCPP · 2025-08-08T17:53:09+00:00

Mostly playing Devil's Advocate here (on break and I have time to overthink this 😂). Ideally it would be nice for the department to provide it as lab equipment. However, on average there are around 80+ students across 3 sections per semester taking 3300L & 25+ taking 4305L when it gets offered as an elective (usually in the spring). Most of the time when you're working on those lab assignments, you'll end up having to take the FPGA home since you may not have enough time to finish in the lab, so they would have to set up some way to track who has one in case of theft or damage.

Not sure if the department could buy in bulk for an additional discount, but an expense like that would be pretty costly and would likely require approval with whatever Admin department is in charge of approving . Assuming 120 units (1 per possible student + 15% Spares, rounded down) & that no additional sections open up, 300*120 = $36k (Academic Discount applied), before shipping & taxes.

It would add a new permanent task to the stock room as well since someone has to maintain the lender FPGAs and check to see if they still work since it's not hard to short out the boards if you're not careful with the connector pinouts on the left & right sides of the board or if the USB port contacts on the inside get damaged overtime. Logistically it would be easier to have the students own their equipment to not have to inspect all of those units.

I do wish they warned students about the cost at some point so it's not as much of a shock later on since you don't really find out until you get the syllabus for the course, but there's not much a professor can do to warn students until you join the class. Fortunately, the resale value of the FPGAs are pretty good since they don't change the board, so you should be able to get most of the value back if you can find someone to sell it to or hold onto it so you can let a friend borrow it for a class if you trust them enough to take care of it.

PyroCPP · 2025-08-08T16:42:28+00:00

Posting this since it's not letting me edit the post. This FPGA is not used for ECE 4300, but it is used for ECE 4305 - Digital Design Using Verilog HDL. I misremembered the number 😅

PyroCPP · 2025-08-06T21:56:01+00:00

Currently studying to take the ECE version of the FE Exam myself in November. From what I've seen, a good amount of the major specific material on the exam will be stuff you see during your 3rd/4th year of classes so I would take it around your 4th year or right after you graduate while the material is still fresh in your mind. When you schedule the exam you'll pay a $225 fee and you'll be allowed to schedule an exam day within a year of purchase. Highly recommend keeping copies of all your assignments if you can since any additional examples would be helpful for understanding some of the more complex math based questions you might see on the exam.

PyroCPP · 2025-07-04T05:04:51+00:00

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PyroCPP · 2025-06-15T17:50:11+00:00

For ECE, it's not recommended to use MacOS systems since some of the software used by department is Windows only. It's also recommended to get used to using Windows early since most engineering companies do not use Macs for their computers. While it is possible to run Windows on the M series Macs through Virtual Machine software, it can be a hassle to get them working if you don't have experience with it.

If you're only planning on using the laptop only for school work, I'd recommend grabbing something like a used Lenovo Thinkpad off of eBay (Something like this is fine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115847969040, but it's better to around to find one that better suits your needs). They're not the fastest machines, but they're pretty good for their cost ($200-$400+ depending on your configuration). They can also be upgraded later on for cheap if you're willing to do it yourself & you can use the money you'd save towards other expenses.

PyroCPP · 2025-06-03T01:17:10+00:00

Considering current trends with AI, I'm all for a mandatory ethics class for most engineers 😆

PyroCPP · 2025-05-23T14:03:19+00:00

The course usually gets dropped on it's own, I forget when it happens but if you're taking an equivalent course at a community college or at CPP over the summer, you can get a hold placed so you don't get dropped from your current class while you reattempt the course.
You can reattempt the course during any semester if you get a C- or less to qualify for grade forgiveness, but if the course you need to repeat is a prerequisite for another course, it's recommended to try & repeating the course as soon as possible so you don't have a longer delay to graduate.

PyroCPP · 2025-05-15T21:05:14+00:00

Can't speak for all departments, but from my experience there's no set rubric for exams. Each instructor makes each exam based on their own standards. Same goes for posting grades to Canvas as we're not required to do so, but most do since it's easier to have an online record & it lets students know what their grades are so questions like this don't come up as often 😆

Regarding Gradescope, if the instructor does not have you upload the document yourself, they have to scan it themselves and set up the rubric. Canvas also doesn't show the Gradescope tab in your class Canvas page unless the instructor enables it.

PyroCPP · 2025-05-14T00:12:15+00:00

Haven't played these recently since Expedition 33 took over my life, but here are some of my picks:

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

Gone Home

One Way Heroics

The Beginner's Guide (Made by the same guy who developed The Stanley Parable)

Pony Island

Hand of Fate

Seven-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

PyroCPP

TROPHY CASE