Teaching

Download my teaching statement here.

I take pride in teaching. There is no satisfaction greater than seeing the face of a student light up after grasping a difficult concept for the first time. Inspired by my teachers, both good and bad, I have learned that teaching is not merely about regurgitating the material at hand, but about engaging students in critical thinking consistent with the Socratic method. I believe that a successful teacher should be able to find effective means of teaching students the course material, and teach students to question and explore instead of taking everything at face value. Therefore, I view my role not only as someone who explains to students concepts and ideas, but also as someone who guides them to ask the right questions and helps them to understand the answers.

On a more personal note, I am proud to have co-developed a class project for an artificial intelligence course that has been recently adopted at the University of Nevada at Reno and the University of Central Florida. The project is available here: A Project on Fast Trajectory Replanning for Computer Games for 'Introduction to Artificial Intelligence' Classes.

Courses TA-ed

  • CSCI 561a: Foundations of Artificial Intelligence (Spring 2008)
  • CSCI 460: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (Fall 2007)
  • CSCI 402: Operating Systems (Summer 2005, Fall 2005)
  • CSCI 101: Fundamentals of Computer Programming (Fall 2004, Spring 2005)
  • CSCI 480: Computer Graphics (Fall 2004)

Teaching Awards

  • Teaching Assistant Fellow, Center for Excellence in Teaching (2009)
  • Award for Excellence in Teaching, Center for Excellence in Teaching (2008)
  • University Outstanding Teaching Award Nomination (2008)
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Computer Science (2007)
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Computer Science (2004)