Student Peer Evaluation Form Course Semester Year Group: Fill & Download for Free

I don’t think professors are opposed to the idea of being evaluated. For me, and in my experience, one of the biggest problems is how these evaluations occur. For example, there is a huge literature on the fallacy of using student evaluations of teaching as the benchmark for determining “good” classroom teaching. Among the problems are: first, students who respond to voluntary evaluations tend to fall into two camps - those with an axe to grind because they are angry about something and those who really, really liked the professor. It creates a bimodal distribution that ignores the huge middle ground who never bothered filling out the eval. Second, evidence suggests that teachers who are “entertainers” in the classroom get better evaluations so faculty who are funny or energetic do better on evals than those whose personalities are more introverted or teach highly technical material that doesn’t let them dance, sing, or tell jokes. Third, there are all kinds of biases that affect how students evaluate their instructors - recency bias, leniency bias, similar-to-me bias, and so forth. As a result, those numbers on the evaluation form may tell us more about ourselves than about the teacher. Fourth, the wording of some of the questions is silly; e.g., “What did you like best about this instructor?” Who cares? Isn’t a better question related to evaluations of what you learned, not how cool his hair was or how she never took attendance? Bottom line is that in my experience, the numeric evaluations really only yield examples of dramatic successes or failures. Mid-range faculty (where most of us reside) don’t learn too much about ourselves or our teaching pros and cons.That leads to two alternative forms of evaluation - asking the perspective of students who have been out in the job market for a minimum of three years. Did what they learned positively affect their job performance? Looking back and reflecting, did this teacher make a positive difference in their ability to do well in a professional setting? The problem, again, is that all those stupid biases still keep popping up. Also, the response rate is terrible. We may mail out 150 letters and 12 people will respond. Do we REALLY want to trust the opinions of those 12 people to judge that professor? By definition, anyone in that group is already an outlier, so wouldn’t their opinions also reflect that problem?That leaves the use of other faculty to conduct peer evaluations. To be honest, these actually tend to be pretty good. Critics argue that this is just allowing faculty to police (or not) themselves, so naturally there is nothing useful learned here. I disagree. Peer evals are usually done by senior faculty and as long as the right person is picked to do the review, they tend to be honest and thorough. The bigger issue is that they are a lot of work and so are unpopular with senior professors, especially if they are tapped to do two or three each semester. Of all types of evaluations I have seen, these are probably the most honest and realistic. Of course, the downside is the potential to make enemies of the people that you review. Being a senior professor helps a lot here because I frankly don’t care if someone gets mad at me but for others, they find ways to dodge these assignments because of the social pressure.As you can tell, evaluating professors does matter. Universities try and take it seriously, but there are a number of embedded drawbacks in the process. Making it work as cleanly as possible is always going to be a challenge.

OUT OF THE WORLD..!!!It is hands down, one of the best departments in NIT Trichy. If you’re considering opting for this dept, please read through this answer fully and you’re love for it will increase .I’ll be highlighting some amazing stuff you’ll experience in your four years of B.Tech if you opt for ICE!Student friendly faculties who schedule classes and exams haphazardly. Get used to classes at 6/7pm and exams on random dates non synced to other departments.Professors( male and female) promoting rape culture by victim blaming girls in cases of harassment by security guards. (Yes, it happened )Hypocritical faculties ( 2 to be precise ) who slut shame girls and how culture is ruined in general for roaming/talking/spending time with boys whereas they themselves indulge in workplace fraternization.Course projects on entirely opposite spectrum of difficulties allocated to students , judged and graded together. You have teams with budget <400 ( Automatic hand washer ) and budget > 25k ( Sleeping pod, Solar powered chiller ) graded together. (Subject-PDD , Batch -2018)Amazing right! And you don’t get to choose your projects. The prof is more obsessed with the word ‘solar’ than his life. If the idea you pitch is not involving solar, enjoy implementing his ideas!Waaaiiit..!!! Thats not the best. One team is making a ‘ Mobile Cremator’ as a part of this course now! OK let that sink in for a moment .So dont be surprised if you’re told to implement a ‘ Solar powered cloth dryer’ in this course!Ah I can see you getting more and more excited about ICE..5. Poltitics. Faculties with extremely *cough* sound *cough* technical and core knowledge enjoy professor status whereas faculties with just IEEE publications, technically sound research papers are assistant profs.6. An amazing way of evaluation of your group projects called ‘peer review’..! Duh.. Some faculties thought having the faculty grade everyone based on individual contribution and project understanding is too mainstream. So why not let the team members fight each other awkwardly and rank themselves even if all of them had equal contribution.7. You will have productive faculty student meetings once/ twice a semester. Here all faculties come together, have a mature discussion which involves them shouting at one another/ forming groups usually ending with one group leaving out angrily.8. Some faculties teach you relevant and important technical stuff to the extent that some interviewers see the course plan and question what even did we learn in ICE.9. Subject: You will be exposed to a good set of core subjects and a few additional circuital and non circuital subjects . Might be a pain in the ass initially but trust me it helps a lot during placements.I have more to say but I guess i’ll stop here now. Oh and in case you dint notice , only the 9th point was not sarcastic.TL;DR : Don’t . Please.

Now that is a question asking for a lot of details! While the courses part is something that I have not gone in too much depth (I talked about physics courses in the core years here: Anshuman Acharya's answer to Does the first two years ciricullum of physics in IISER cover almost entire physics of class 11 and 12? ), I assumed that I have talked enough about my projects. However, I realised that in answers like this: Anshuman Acharya's answer to As a BS-MS student from IISER, what are some of your internship experiences? , I have focussed more on the “experience” of the project, rather than the project itself.So I shall try to do that in this (very long!) answer, and I hope it is helpful. Do note that I have yet not completed my 5th year (it is yet to formally begin, although I have begun working on my Master’s thesis). So I shall have to edit this answer later, for adding in the details of 2 electives that we take in our 5th year, here at IISER Mohali. For details about the courses mentioned in this answer, do go through the Courses of Study at IISER Mohali available online[1] .*****************************COURSES OF STUDY******************************CORE YEARS:1st Semester:BIO101 - Cellular Basis of Life : This was a basic introduction to cellular biology, and was aimed at ensuring that regardless of whether you have studied biology in 11th and 12th or not, you can exit from this course at an equal footing.BIO111 - Biology Lab 1: This was basically the practical aspects of what was done in the theory class. So it was definitely more interesting, although staring down the microscopes to look at the cells was often headache inducing for me!CHM101 - Chemistry of Elements and Chemical Transformations: Basically a crash course for chemistry, with some new concepts thrown in to do away with some of the random rules and base it on more logical reasoning. It has both organic and inorganic chemistry.CHM111 - Chemistry Lab 1: Quite simply, this is the practical side of the theory course. So put on your lab coats, and start creating colourful liquids/puffs of smoke!HSS101 - Language Skills A or B: The class is divided into 2 parts, based on some evaluation, as well as your personal choice. While A covers basic English skills and grammar, B is more advanced, and given the instructor, is actually a crash course into critical thinking, analysis and even a dash of philosophy. And yes, we know that calling A as Basic and B as Advanced was a huge missed opportunity.IDC101 - Introduction to Computers: Should rename the course to introduction to Python, because that’s what it is all about.MTH101 - Symmetry: In mathematics, if they call it something short and sweet like “symmetry”, know that something fishy is going on. This course is an introduction to group theory, and abstract mathematics in general. It is an equal opportunity for everyone to realise how less they know in mathematics, regardless of their subject combination in 11th and 12th. ;)PHY101 - Mechanics : Covers everything from Newtonian, to some aspects of Special Relativity. Consider it a crash course, but with a good teacher, it can help you relearn physics in a more intuitive way.PHY111 - Physics Lab 1 : Not just a practical side of the course. This course will be your introduction to the importance of, and the measurement of errors in any experiment. Be prepared for a crazy first lab (not sure if that can be done for the Monsoon semester of 2020), where you shall repeat a very simple measurement several times. Also, be prepared for the results of this seemingly weird task.2nd Semester:BIO102 - Gene Expression and Development : Introduction to developmental biology. PCM background people may find it a bit annoying.BIO112 - Biology Lab 2 : Probably you have been hearing a lot about PCR testing for CoVID? You would learn that in this course, apart from other techniques.CHM102 - Atoms, Molecules and Symmetry : AKA Introduction to Quantum chemistry. Definitely mind blowing if taught well. Can become overwhelming if it is taught more rigorously though.CHM112 - Chemistry Lab 2 : Titrations and crystallisations of various types.HSS102 - History of Science: Evident from the name. It is a history of how science evolved over the centuries, from the early civilisations in Greece, India, and Egypt, to the 20th century.IDC102 - Hands on Electronics : Has theory as well as lab classes. Basically learn a good variety of circuits (amplifiers, integrators, differentiators, etc.) which is fun when it works and frustrating when it doesn’t.MTH102 - Analysis in One Variable : You think you know limits, differentiation, etc.? No you don’t. This course reminds us that we have often just accepted some rules without understanding the justification behind them. Transforms mathematics from a tool to an exploration.PHY102 - Electromagnetism: Fairly evident from the name.PHY112 - Physics Lab 2: Goes hand in hand with the theory course.3rd Semester:BIO201 - Genetics and Evolution : Introduction to the subject. Has a good amount of probability, statistics, and even computation (you will use software to run simulations for fast-tracked evolution, for example!).BIO211 - Biology Lab 3: Goes hand in hand with the theory course, and has the same instructor.CHM201 - Spectroscopic and other Physical Methods : Will learn the theory behind various spectroscopy techniques, and how to read the results. Rigorous but fun.CHM211 - Chemistry Lab 3: Practical course to go along with the theory. Shall basically perform the spectroscopy techniques discussed.IDC211 - Workshop Training : You will learn how to build stuff with your hands! Wood, metal and even electronics.IDC elective - I chose IDC205 Differential Equations for Scientists from the set of options offered. Fairly evident what it is about.MTH201 - Curves and Surfaces : 3 dimensional geometry, in other words. Is very fascinating, once you are able to visualise what is being taught.PHY201 - Waves and Optics : Again self-evident by the name.PHY211 - Physics Lab 3 : Lab course to go with the theory one.4th Semester:BIO202 - Behaviour and Ecology : Quite an interesting course, topics covered is evident by the name.BIO212 - Biology Lab 4 : AKA Bird Watching across campus! Apart from other activities, a major part of this lab is roaming around campus to discover the various species of birds here. As during this time, the campus is also visited by migratory birds, this can become really fascinating. Feel free to guess the number of species my group discovered (and we didn’t find them all!) in the comments. :)CHM202 - Energetics and Dynamics of Chemical Reactions : AKA Thermodynamics.CHM212 - Chemistry Lab 4 : Goes hand in hand with the course.HSS202 - Philosophy of Science : Explores the philosophical contexts of what science is about, and introductory discussions based on that.IDC elective - I chose IDC201 Introduction to Astronomy from the electives offered. Fairly self-evident.MTH202 - Probability and Statistics : Self-evident by the name.PHY202 - Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics : An in-depth look into the subject, with special focus on topics like entropy.PHY212 - Physics Lab 4 : Lab course to go with the theory one.MAJOR YEARS:5th Semester:PHY301 - Classical mechanics : AKA Lagrnangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics. Changes your perspective entirely. Say goodbye to any confusion that may have lingered from first semester.PHY302 - Quantum mechanics : An introductory course, but fairly rigorous.PHY303 - Electrodynamics : Jackson is your frenemy. Naturally rigorous.PHY310 - Mathematical Methods for Physicists 1 : An interesting course going into topics like complex algebra, conformal mapping, contour integrals, differential equations, etc.PHY311 - Advanced Optics Lab : Self-evident. Quite rigorous, but enjoyable if you like working with your hands.IDC351 - Seminar (Attending) : Teaches you how to take notes in seminars, and make concise reports on the same.6th Semester:PHY304 - Statistical Mechanics : Will make PHY202 look extremely basic. Also an introduction to dealing with bosonic and fermionic systems.PHY306 - Advanced Quantum Mechanics : Arms you with the techniques with which you can approach a lot of things. Want to prove existence of antimatter? It shall be done. Explain properties of the atom/any particle in a concise way? Done.PHY312 - Advanced Electronics Lab : Remember IDC102? This is the lab that uses the entire course in the first 1–2 labs, and then builds upon that. In the end, you shall work on a unique research project to showcase your understanding built through this lab.PHY elective - I chose PHY422 Computational Methods in Physics 1, which was an introductory course in numerical analysis, interpolation, and solving of ordinary and partial differential equations.Open elective - I chose a Humanities course, HSS622 Cities: Urban Theory and Laboratory, as we need to do 2 humanities courses in our major years. The best part of the course was that we could roam around Chandigarh and choose a topic as a project based on what we observe in the city, and correlate it with the theory taught.IDC352 - Seminar (Attending) : Continuation of IDC351, in order to include more variety of seminars.7th Semester (Heaviest, as has one extra course)PHY401 - Nuclear and Particle Physics: A bit theory heavy, but still fascinating.PHY402 - Solid State Physics : Your introduction to condensed matter physics. Quite rigorous, but covers a lot of fascinating theories.PHY403 - Atomic and Molecular Physics : A continuation of the Advanced Quantum Mechanics course, to wrap up quantum mechanics. For further exploration, electives can be taken.PHY411 - Nuclear Physics Lab : Ever thought of dealing with radioactive substances and studying their properties? You can do that here!Open elective - I chose PHY638 Physics of Fluids, which is pretty self-evident.Open elective - I chose CHM619 Numerical Methods in Chemistry, which starts from the basics covered in Computational Methods in Physics 1, and develops them further. Application is not limited to chemistry.IDC451 - Seminar (Delivering) : This course required us to actually deliver a seminar with time limits, followed by questions from peers and professors. Delivered a seminar on my third year summer project.8th Semester (Cut short due to the pandemic)PHY elective - I chose PHY635 Gravitation and Cosmology, which is basically a rigorous introduction to General Relativity, and builds upon that to concepts in cosomology.PHY elective - I chose PHY637 Astrophysics, which is a more in-depth study of topics in observational astrophysics, building upon concepts in IDC201 and PHY638.Open elective - I chose my second humanities course, HSS602 Social Theory. Explores the ideas of various philosophers and thinkers, based on which our society is shaped. We wrote articles on news reports which showed the theory in action. My best moment was when I predicted that US shall try to escalate a war with Iran, but Iran shall not let it happen, through one of my articles. :)Open elective - I chose PHY425 Computational Methods in Physics 2, which builds upon the concepts taught in PHY422, going more in-depth in dealing with ODEs and PDEs, integration techniques like Runge-Kutta, Fourier transforms, etc.IDC452 - Seminar (Delivering) : We were supposed to select a paper and deliver a timed seminar based on it. However, this was changed to just a slideshow along with a brief summary of what we would have said for each slide, due to the pandemic.9th Semester (Online)Open elective - I chose IDC402 Nonlinear dynamics, chaos and complex systems, which was a fascinating course. We basically worked with discrete and continuous dynamical equations, that can be used to model physical phenomena. Thus, the course involved theoretical analyses and building of small simulations, which made for a fun combination that could be effectively carried out despite the semester being fully online. We also had to do a term paper, on a topic of our interest, and I worked on simulating the behaviour of the “van der Pol oscillator”.PRJ501 - Master’s thesis project : This was just the graded part of the Master’s thesis project that we are doing in our final year.10th Semester (Online)Open elective - I chose PHY654 Astrophysics II: Galaxies and Cosmology, which was a continuation of the PHY637 and PHY635. It starts off with an understanding of the Milky Way galaxy, then moving out gradually to larger scales. Thus, the course finally ended at cosmological scales and study of large scale structures. We also had to work on a term paper/review project, and I worked on “Supermassive Black Holes: From Active Galactic Nuclei to SgrA*”, write a short report on it, and finally give a presentation on the same to the Astronomy group in the Physics department at IISER Mohali.PRJ501 - Master’s thesis project : This was just the graded part of the Master’s thesis project that we are doing in our final year.***********************************PROJECTS**********************************I have detailed the reading projects mentioned below (1, 2 and 4) in this answer: Anshuman Acharya's answer to What is reading project in IISER?Did a reading project with a professor at IISER Mohali on Interactions of Light with Matter in the first half of the winter break after first semester.Did a reading project with a professor at NISER on the Standard Model of Particle Physics in the second half of the winter break after first semester. I was back at home (then at Bhubaneswar, currently parents live in New Delhi), and needed the work!Did my first summer internship at TIFR Mumbai, in the field of experimental soft condensed matter physics. I had to build an apparatus which could be subject to multiple forces, in order to study the transition between sliding and rolling friction in glass granules kept inside, and the effects generated by the same. I also developed a program to track the motions of individual glass granules.Did a reading project on Direct Large Scale N-Body Simulations of Planetesimal Dynamics, with a professor at the University of Maryland, the USA.Took part in the Touch the Jovian Moon Competition organised by LPSC, ISRO. Our team became a national level finalist, however, we couldn’t go for the finals as our summer internship dates clashed with the date of the final. We had to choose a moon of Jupiter, and develop a well-researched scientific proposal to launch a rover on the moon, taking into consideration all aspects of travel, science to be done, goals, timeframe, etc.Did my second summer internship at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the USA, on the Effect of various UV backgrounds (generated by quasars) on the Circumgalactic Medium. The Circumgalactic Medium refers to the diffused gas clouds around galaxies, which can come in between us and a quasar. When that happens, the quasar’s UV radiation excites atoms in the cloud, which can be observed as absorption spectra. This gives us an idea about not just the galaxy, but also the quasar behind it. However, we know many quasars and many galaxies. Can we develop a code that can predict their properties, solely based on the observed spectra, when everything else is unknown? That was the goal of my project. Currently working on a paper for the same.Was a part of the core team of the SWAN Pulsar Imaging Challenge by RRI. I was mainly in-charge of testing the data collection and parsing code.Did my third summer internship as a DAAD WISE fellow, at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, on the Properties of Loss Cone Stars in a Cosmological Galaxy Merger Scenario, where I was in-charge of analysing data generated by an N-body simulation of a galaxy merger, where each galaxy has a Super Massive Black Hole. These 2 SMBHs form a binary, and eventually merge, due to interactions with stars, dark matter, etc. present in the galaxies. I had to study these interactions and analyse how they evolved. We are in the process of submitting a paper on our work for the same.Was supposed to do my fourth summer internship and Master’s thesis at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, with full funding from a research grant by Chandra. However, due to the pandemic, I am currently pursuing it remotely. Primarily, I am studying an exoplanet system consisting of a Sun-like star and a hot Jupiter, to understand if and how interactions between them could be affecting the stellar X-ray activity of the star. In particular, I am focussing on coronal X-ray activity, using data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite.That wraps up this very long answer covering almost all aspects of academics that I have experienced in IISER. There is certainly more to IISER than just academics, but perhaps that would be better put in another answer.For those who find the answer too long, I apologise. Do note that the questioner did ask for a detailed answer though! ;)Footnotes[1] https://www.iisermohali.ac.in/course-structure