NE 217Advanced Calculus and Numerical Methods 2

Units: 0.50
Faculty: Engineering
Subject: Nanotechnology Engineering

When it runs

Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: not on the schedule. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

Gradient, divergence and curl: applications. Line and surface integrals. Green's, Gauss', and Stokes' Theorems: Applications to electromagnetism and fluid mechanics. Numerical solution of partial differential equations.

Prerequisites

Complete all of the following
- Students must be in level 2B or higher
- Enrolled in H-Nanotechnology Engineering

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

Reviewed on UW Flow

50% liked it50% easy75% useful

From 26 ratings and 4 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

I hate calculus. This course is easier than year 1's one but still going to kill you

May 2026 · didn’t like itOn UW Flow Remove this
Assignments are long and tedious, however, the final was tough.

May 2023 · didn’t like itOn UW Flow Remove this
I found this course to be easier than NE 216, although many others disagree. The types of problems that are given in this course are limited and, with a reasonable amount time commitment, it is not difficult to understand all and even memorize the vast majority of the problems. The "big-ticket" items of the course are: solving first-order PDEs via the method of characteristics, using Fourier series and Fourier transforms to find particular and general solutions to different classes of PDEs, and verifying Green's, Stokes' and Gauss' theorems (all three of these will be on the final exam and/or midterm). With some simple deductive-reasoning, one could predict a significant majority of…

Aug 2017 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this
Practicing example questions from lectures, tutorials and homework will be of great impetus to your success, particularly because the studied PDE's and vector calculus can only be presented in limited variations

Feb 2013 · liked itOn UW Flow Remove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

2 posts and comments in 2 threads mention NE 217, December 2018 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Fall 2020

Nov 5, 2020 Good prof appreciation thread 61 points, 89 comments

“This term sucks a lot and a lot of people are having some shitty experiences, especially with certain profs/TAs/instructors. But there’s a lot of profs who are not that shitty. …”

u/lurkingInTheShadows9: “Douglas Harder. Makes good qualiy videos and NE 112 is what async classes should be like.”

u/GankedByGoose: “… In NE 216 and 217 (advanced calc) you'll have "labs" where you solve differential equations using numerical methods in MATLAB and he does the instructional videos for those (think of a lab manual, but in lecture form). So he has practice putting up clean af online content. …”

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Fall 2018

Dec 7, 2018 ECE204 thread 23 points, 16 comments

“Idk if crying or praising but someone's inevitably gonna make the thread so it might as well be me”

u/mywaterlooaccount: “You know it's a bad time when you're counting marks to make sure you passed. This is unironically the worst course yet in my opinion.”

u/mywaterlooaccount: “… There also was a good, well established textbook instead of sketchy lab notes from NE217, which was less subjective. The weighting for this was 33% midterm and 66% final for 204, instead of 50% final + 50% assignments + 5% midterm, like it was for 108. …”