MECH&AE 279B
Dynamics and Feedback in Biological and Ecological Systems
Grades
3.76
Average grade awarded in MECH&AE 279B. Not a student rating: this is what the grades were.
In the A range
75%
of the 36 letter grades
D, F or W
0.0%
of every letter grade awarded, plus withdrawals
Taken pass/no pass
-
the registrar has this letter grade only this term
The registrar's own records: 36 grades over 3 terms, Fall 2021 to Fall 2025. Every instructor is pooled here.
What is inside that record
No summer session is in that record.
The table below splits them, and term averages across those 3 terms ran 3.52 to 3.98.
Historical grades for all professors, across recorded terms. The course summary above includes all professors.
- A+ 10 · 27.8%
- A 15 · 41.7%
- A- 2 · 5.6%
- B+ 3 · 8.3%
- B 6 · 16.7%
Percentages are of the 36 letter grades. Grey bars are non-letter outcomes.
How the non-letter outcomes are counted
They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.
By instructor
| Instructor | Predicted GPA | Raw | n | Terms | A range | Workload | Summer Session C 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRANCO, ELISA reviews ↗ | 3.74 | 3.76 | 36 | 3 | 75% | light | not teaching it |
Why Predicted is not the Raw average
“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department, so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.
Grade records describe outcomes. For what a course is like to take, read student reviews written on dibs below or follow the separate external review link.
Workload and assignments
Work types reported in BruinWalk reviews of this course, across recorded instructors and terms. They may differ from this term's syllabus.
dibs has not read this course’s reviews, so it cannot say what kind of work it sets. That is dibs not having looked. It is not a course without papers or exams, and the reviews linked below are the answer until dibs catches up.
What comes first
The chain dibs can see is 7 courses long before MECH&AE 279B. Read from Fall 2026, because dibs has not read a class page for MECH&AE 279B in Summer Session C 2026 and a department can change what it requires. This is a floor, not a deadline: dibs has not read a class page for MATH 3B and MECH&AE M20, so the real chain can only be longer than this, never shorter.
Counted in courses rather than quarters: dibs does not know which of them a department lets you take together.
From the registrar's catalog
Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Requisite: course 171A or equivalent. Preparation: familiarity with differential equations (course 107 or Electrical and Computer Engineering 102). Covers mathematical modeling of biological and ecological systems using deterministic approaches. Derivation of kinetic models for control of gene expression, gene networks, cellular signaling, and viral infections. Nonlinear and linearized analysis of feedback mechanisms leading to oscillations and bistability. Modularity and robustness in interconnected networks in presence of parameter uncertainty and disturbances. Feedback engineering for setpoint regulation of cellular processes and bioproduction. Letter grading.
Sections in Summer Session C 2026
From the people who took it
Student reviews
What taking MECH&AE 279B was like: the work, the teaching, and what students wish they’d known.
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