Teaching Philosophy
Statement on Teaching
As an educator, I feel I have two important roles: fill young minds with knowledge of their discipline and teach them how to develop their own knowledge by helping them build critical thinking skills and self-directed learning practices so that they can continue to learn long after they leave the university.
During my time as both a sessional instructor and teaching assistant, I have begun to understand that there exists various learning styles amongst students. Through critical thinking about my own teaching perspectives, I have developed strategies for adapting the way I teach so that I can accom- modate the large number of learning styles that exist in my classes. As I continue to evolve my teaching style to the maximum benefit of the students, I try to focus on improving myself in the following six areas:
1. Knowledge - ensure that I fully understand the material being presented in the class or lab so that I can effectively prepare myself to answer any questions or provide necessary supplemental material.
2. Communication - strive to know students on a more personal level in order to develop a strong rapport with them, better understand their learning styles and capabilities, and make myself more approachable to them.
3. Self Reflection - do my best to assess myself as well as accept feedback from students, colleagues, and supervisors so that I can continue to improve my teaching habits.
4. Role Modelling - strive to be reliable, punctual, and positive, and try to be the engineer that I teach the students to become.
5. Provision of Feedback - do my best to provide students with constant feedback in addition to the formal feedback they normally receive.
6. Learning Environment - do my best to engage students in discussions around key points that will challenge them, arouse creativity and have them think “outside the box”.
Teaching Practices
In teaching, I try to ensure that each student develops a thorough understanding of the basic concepts covered in class by engaging the students in discussions and debates that help promote thoughts and questions directly related to the material. I believe that it is important for engineers to be able to question and challenge what they are learning and that it is my role, as an educator, to provide a platform for them to do so. I believe that by maintaining an environment that supports and promotes critical thinking, that I can encourage creativity and deep thought amongst the students - making engineering a fun and exciting experience for all.
I also believe it to be important to make myself available in my office as often as possible for students to clear any doubts they may have relating to the taught material - particularly for students in large classes for whom I cannot always provide sufficient time during the allocated class time.
Teaching Experience
Videos
2010 - present
2010 - present
Sessional Instructor - Winter 2013
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 369 – Signals and Systems
Continuous-time LTI systems, discrete-time LTI systems, convolution sum, discrete-time Fourier series and transforms, z-transform, sampling discrete-time filtering, modulation, multiplexing, feedback systems, stability.
Sessional Instructor - Fall 2012
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of British Columbia
MECH 368 – Engineering Measurements and Instrumentation
Industrial measurement needs including: architecture of electronic instrumentation systems; electrical representation of physical quantities; sensors and actuators; analog signal processing using linear and non-linear circuits; computer based readout including programming for user-interface and data acquisition.
Sessional Instructor - Fall 2012
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
APSC 261 - Technology and Society I
The course deals with the influence of technology on the social, political, economic, and environmental aspects of society. The specific subject matter varies from year to year. Examples of subjects considered include, resources, energy, nuclear power, technology, the effects of technology on the family, education, agriculture, international policy and others.
Sessional Instructor - Winter 2012
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
APSC 160 – Introduction to Computation in Engineering Design
Analysis and simulation, laboratory data acquisition and processing, measurement interfaces, engineering tools, computer systems organization, programming languages.
Sessional Instructor - Fall 2011
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 280 – Electrical Engineering Laboratory I
Introduction to oscilloscopes, signal generators and electrical measuring instruments. Design projects in analog and digital logic circuits.
Sessional Instructor - Fall 2011
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of British Columbia
MECH 368 – Engineering
Industrial measurement needs including: architecture of electronic instrumentation systems; electrical representation of physical quantities; sensors and actuators; analog signal processing using linear and non-linear circuits; computer based readout including programming for user-interface and data acquisition.
Sessional Instructor - Summer 2011
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 375/474 – Instrumentation and Design Laboratory
Theory and practice of electronic instrumentation for software engineers. Computer-based data acquisition and control techniques. Design project.
Sessional Instructor - Winter 2011
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 360 – Systems and Controls
Continuous time system analysis by Laplace transforms; system modeling by transfer function and state space methods; feedback, stability and sensitivity; control design; frequency domain analysis.
Sessional Instructor - Fall 2010
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 375/474 – Instrumentation and Design Laboratory
Theory and practice of electronic instrumentation for software engineers. Computer-based data acquisition and control techniques. Design project.
Sessional Instructor - Summer 2010
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
EECE 375/474 – Instrumentation and Design Laboratory
Theory and practice of electronic instrumentation for software engineers. Computer-based data acquisition and control techniques. Design project.
Teaching Assisant
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
• EECE 375/474 - Instrumentation and Design Winter 2010
• EECE 280 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory I Fall 2009
• EECE 251 - Circuit Analysis I Fall 2009
• EECE 466 - Digital Signal Processing Summer 2009
• EECE 281 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory II Winter 2009
• EECE 280 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory I Fall 2008
• EECE 251 - Circuit Analysis I Fall 2008
• EECE 450 - Economic Analysis of Engineering Proj. Summer 2008
• EECE 281 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory II Winter 2008
• EECE 280 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory I Fall 2007
• EECE 281 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory II Winter 2007
• EECE 280 - Electrical Engineering Laboratory I Fall 2006
• EECE 365 - Applied Electronics and Electromechanics Winter 2006
• EECE 263 - Basic Circuit Analysis Fall 2005
Guest Lecturer
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
• EECE 576 - Semiconductor Theory for Device App. 2009, 2010
• EECE 401 - Nanotechnology in Electronics 2009, 2010
• EECE 466 - Digital Signal Processing 2009
• EECE 251 - Circuit Analysis I 2008, 2009
EECE Instrumentation and Design Laboratory
https://www.ece.ubc.ca/news/201009/robot-firefighters
Mentorship/Student Supervision
Faculty Fellow 2010-present
UBC Student Affairs,
The University of British Columbia
Jump Start: An introduction to Canadian academic culture for incoming international undergraduate students
Teaching Assistant Training Coordinator 2009-present
Faculty of Applied Science,
The University of British Columbia
Develop the curriculum for the TA training program; provide training to the facilitators; assist with the program's budget proposal and progress report
Teaching Assistant Training Facilitator 2009-present
Faculty of Applied Science,
The University of British Columbia
Provide graduate students with the fundamental skills necessary to begin their work as Teaching Assistants
Undergraduate Project Supervisor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia
Jacob Slack, NSERC USRA Summer 2010
Project: Investigated numerical methods for compu-ting the correlated dynamics of QCA circuits and systems
Calvin Chang, EECE 496 Winter 2010
Project: Investigated the potential of QCA for quan-tum computing
Kenn Wang, EECE 496 Summer 2009
Project: Investigated the potential of a field-driven clocking scheme for molecular QCA
Hajir Hoseini, EECE 496 Summer 2009
Project: Investigated the role of the clock and tun-neling energy on the correlated dynamics of QCA circuits
Aryan Navabi, NSERC USRA Winter 2008
Project: Investigated numerical methods for compu-ting the ground state energy of correlated QCA circuits and systems
Microsystems and Nanotechnology (MiNa) Research Laboratories
Fast forward to 3:40 to see the lab I work in.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES