Teaching

“The instruction was excellent. The professor was extremely thorough in presenting all of the relevant and most important details to effectively convey the core concepts in an efficient and easily understood manner. Ultimately he leaves the students with an extremely solid understanding of the material, an improved sense of engineering judgment, and a framework for how to implement these two for success in professional practice.”
“This was a fascinating course that I really enjoyed taking. I appreciate Prof Zekkos dedication and enthusiasm when teaching. I think this course was very applicable to work done in the geotechnical profession, and I appreciate his wealth of knowledge on the subject and about the industry. Thank you for the semester!”</>
“Professor Zekkos does an amazing job of relating classroom learning to real life problems and solutions. I am leaving this course confident in my ability to recognize problems and apply the appropriate improvement methods.”
“Overall this was a great course and I learned a lot about a wide variety of ground improvement techniques, as well as other geotechnical aspects.”

“Professor Zekkos has been one of my favorite professor within the CEE department. I really enjoyed coming to class every day”
“Professor Zekkos does a great job of teaching the class to focus on recognizing problems and being able to use your knowledge to select the appropriate solution as opposed to just churning out numbers from equations. I really enjoyed this class.”
“The course material is very clear and straightforward, and was presented clearly. This made it very helpful in learning and applying the knowledge. The level of work was appropriate, and the homework reflected the material learned in class. Zekkos is a fantastic professor and places more value on us learning the material well and less on how quickly we can turn things in. It was very helpful to be able to take time to learn the material on my own time and he was always available to answer my questions. He also provided the class with final thoughts going into post-graduation and full-time work, and always related the material to conditions in the field. I appreciate the emphasis on preparing us for real projects.”
“Overall, this was a great course. I learned a lot about a topic that I hadn’t been exposed to and it was generally easy to follow and understand. Covered a wide variety of topics which I think will be helpful to be aware of in a professional environment.”

“Professor Zekkos was a great professor. I will miss having him as a professor. He truly cares about his class and students.”
“Professor Zekkos contributed significantly to this course. He was always extremely well prepared, clear, enthusiastic, and occasionally genuinely funny. In general this class was very well organized and fair. I really liked to balance between presentation of theoretical concepts, and practical application. I find it difficult to provide any critique.”
“Clear, concise, and to the point. Especially enjoyed examples of real world applications.”

“I like the applicability of this course. I really enjoyed the way this taught and I feel like I am leaving this course with a strong improvement on my engineering skills pertaining to a field I am pursuing.”
“Excellent course!!! I found each and every lecture absolutely fascinating! I never enjoyed a class at UM as much as I did this one. Professor Zekkos was an excellent instructor. Always well prepared for class and answered all questions. The homework was for the most part reasonable difficulty. However I wish the homeworks were more design-orientated. For instance, given these parameters, design an landfill containment system etc. That would probably be my largest “issue” with the class, which isn’t really much of an issue. Once again, this was a great class – thank you for everything professor!”

“Professor Zekkos’ enthusiasm for the subject matter was often contagious. He is a great professor who cares about making sure his students truly grasp the importance of geotechnical engineering.”
“I loved having Professor Zekkos as an instructor. I usually have trouble staying awake in early classes, but had no problem paying attention in 345. His enthusiasm made me interested in geotech and I learned a lot from his class.”
“Professor Zekkos, I really liked your emphasis on thinking beyond just getting a good grade in class, and focusing on becoming a better engineer.”
“Lectures were very good. I’m sure I’ll never meet another person that likes geotech more than Prof. Zekkos. It’s nice to learn from people who love to teach their subject.”
“Very well taught so that the book wasn’t really even needed!”
“The instruction for this course has been excellent. I am learning a great deal. Professor Zekkos has done an amazing job teaching the material to our class. He is very inspirational and he is an excellent role model.”
“I really enjoyed how most everything we learned was related back to the real world and our engineering judgement. It is nice to know that we really are being prepared for the real world and not just taking classes to pass them and get good grades. The examples done in class were very helpful, and I really liked seeing pictures and receiving emails from you about Geotech happenings recently. It helped to spark my interest outside of the classroom.”