Summary of Teaching Responsibilities
Teaching as an Assistant Professor of Engineering
This section includes detailed explanations of my teaching experience as an assistant professor at MontgomeryCollege, Rockville, MD.
ES100 – Introduction to Engineering Design
This is a two-hour lecture, two-hour lab per week course in which students are given an overview and application of the basic tools and techniques of engineering design and graphic communications, including CAD, engineering reports, cost analysis, and the use of software tools. Students are also required to work in teams to design and produce a working device that provides a solution to a real problem, and present it to their classmates and the department’s representative at the end of the semester. This course is a requirement for all freshman-level engineering students and a non-laboratory science elective for non engineering majors at the college. The course is also offered to high school students through a program known as the ‘College Institute”, which involves offering college courses to qualified, college-ready high school seniors.
I’m usually responsible for one regular and one College Institute section of the course. My obligations for the course include facilitating student learning, creating a syllabus and a lesson plan based on the course objectives and basic requirements, designing interactive (group and individual) classroom activities, selecting visual teaching aids (such as videos), creating exams and home/class-work problems, and grading. The fundamental objective of the course is to introduce students to the basic concepts in engineering design by giving them a practical introduction to basic 3D modeling, programming, and the innovative design, development and implementation of a simple, working system.
The first semester I taught the course, I followed the traditional curriculum used by the department – I began the course with a simple introduction to the art/science of engineering. By the second week of the course, students began learning parametric 3D modeling using the Pro-Engineering software. At the end of the 5th week, students were tested on their knowledge on the basic concepts of parametric 3D modeling, as well as their ability to model a simple and a more complicated 3D object using Pro-engineering. By the 6th week, students are introduced to Microsoft Excel (most of them are familiar with it, but we begin with an assumption that all students are first-time users). Studentswere taught the basics of using Excel, as well as how to enter and format data, enter equations and develop formula spreadsheets, generate charts and graphs and perform data analysis. A test on excel was given at the beginning of the 8th week of classes. At certain points during the first 8 weeks, students had to form teams and begin thinking about how they would go about developing their design project, with was assigned on the third week of classes. The director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Macklin Business was invited to speak to the students about pitching their business idea, in order to prepare them for their project proposal presentations. Each team gave a proposal presentation during the 10th week of classes, and they spend the rest of the semester designing, testing, modifying and retesting their systems. Students worked on a solar cooker, a uniform project assigned by most ES 100 instructors my first semester. At the end of the semester, teams from all sections competed against one another in terms of the design, cost effectiveness and performance of the solar cookers.
I modified the course quite a bit the second time I taught it. First, I included the fact that students had to ‘engineer their future to become successful engineers in future’ to the objectives of the course. I added a detailed lesson on engineering as a career, and had the students work on an ‘engineering your future’ project for which they had to study and interview at least three practicing engineers, and develop a profile for each of their interviewees. Based on their observations and interview, the students were to develop an academic map (showing what schools they would attend and the requirements to get into those school, what they would major in, key courses for their major, research or design projects they would need to participate in, student internship opportunities that may enhance their academic experience, and a timeline showing all their activities from the end of the ES 100 course to when they graduate from college, or complete graduate school) and a career plan for themselves. Students presented their career profiles and those of their interviewees to the entire class, enabling each of them to get an even broader perspective of the steps to a successful career in engineering. I also changed the project to a robotics-based project, for which students built and programmed a simple generic autonomous robot, and were required to design an innovative modification to the robot to enable perform a specific task. They were required to propose their innovation to the class, and deliver a working system by the end of the semester. Also at the end of the semester, each team’s robot would participate in a competition where it had to complete course which involved the use of photo-sensors and obstacle detectors. Finally, I included a design project as part of the pro-e experience. Student had to model a car in Pro-E, they were given certain requirements to be met, but were allowed to be as creative as they desired. Student voted on the best three cars, which got printed out using our state-of-the-art 3D printer.
One very important lesson I learned from this course was the amount of technological diversity that exist among students at MC. Since MC is a diverse, open-admissions college some of our students where born into home with a computer in each room, while others, at the other end of the spectrum, never used a computer before attending the College. Between these two classes are students who are first-generation computer users, and learned basic computer skills in school, but never got any support at home.With all these students thrown together in one classroom, I had to be pay special attention to maintaining a well balanced learning environment in our classroom. It was important to ensure that the less computer literate student was brought to the required technological level for the course without feeling overwhelmed, while keeping the more technologically advanced student challenged in the course without having the rest of the class fall behind. I was able to address this by assigning variable assignment, encouraging/requiring group work and peer teaching, providing support materials for students, such as reference manuals, solutions to assignments, best work by fellow students, lesson slides, etc. (I made all these available on the course website).
ES 240 – Scientific and Engineering Computation (with MATLAB)
This is a sophomore-level requirement for aerospace, electrical, and mechanical engineering (and other related fields) students. It includes an introduction to fundamental methods of numerical analysis including roots of equations, linear systems, interpolation, curve fitting, integration, and ordinary differential equations, and their applications to sample engineering problems using Matlab.
My responsibilities in this course includes facilitating student learning, developing a syllabus, lesson materials, in-class assignments, tests, and projects for students, as well as grading. The class is highly programming-oriented, and thus is held in a computer laboratory. I usually develop lesson outlines using PowerPoint, and make them available to my students through a website I developed for the course. The class usually begins with an interactive lecture on the topic being covered. During this lecture, examples are performed in Matlab, and students are given group in-class assignments to ensure that they understand the concept that have been taught. At the end of the lecture, students work individually on a lab assignment which is due at the end of the lab period. In this course, every new topic builds upon all previous topics; therefore, no final examination is required. Five non-cumulative tests are given during the semester.
Students are also assigned 5 major group projects during the semester. I usually require them to write a formal report for three of these projects as a way of getting them to think analytically and also improve their writing skills. I return fully commented and graded reports to them at the end of each project.
Since students taking this course are a bit advanced, I usually introduce a bit of speech (signal) processing research to the students through their projects. The first project would be a senior/graduate-level speech processing assignment which requires a lot of critical thinking, advanced knowledge of Matlab, and some theoretical knowledge beyond the level expected of them. This gets them to ask lots of questions, apply the basic knowledge of Matlab they have to a real world problem and overcome their fears before carrying on with the course. I provide ample help to them as they work on the project, and have gotten some unbelievably great projects back from the students. The second project consists of a theoretical part, and an application part which is advancement of the first project. The third and fourth projects are based solely on the materials they’ve learned, and do not require reports. The fifth project is an advanced speech processing research project that involves a combination of the materials learned in class and from previous projects, and even more advanced information about signal processing. Again, this motivates them to think analytically and critically, and to carry out research beyond what they have learned in the classroom.
I normally have all lesson outlines, test/project solutions, examples of best reports, and examples of software available for students online.
The most important lesson I have learned so far is the importance of ungraded in-class assignment to ensure that students grasp the material as it is being taught. Working in groups for such assignments exemplifies peer teaching, and enhances students’ learning experience.
ES 244 – Digital Logic Design
This is a sophomore-level electrical engineering requirement designed to introduce and explain the basic concepts, principles, and design techniques governing the behavior of the digital systems. Topics taught in this course include: binary number systems; Boolean algebra; arithmetic and logical operations, Karnaugh map; combinational and sequential logic systems, registers and counters; memory architecture, array logic implementations. Upon satisfactory completion of this course, each student should be able to analyze and design basic logic systems techniques such as: Boolean algebra, Karnaugh maps, array matrixes, state diagrams, and state tables.
My responsibilities in this course include facilitating student learning, developing a syllabus, lesson materials, in-class group assignments, a mid-term and a final for students, as well as grading. I usually develop lesson outlines using PowerPoint, and make them available to my students through a website I developed for the course. The class is mainly based on logical thinking, and thus requires a lot of participation from students. The class is taught for an hour and half each day for two days a week. The first day consists of an interactive lecture on the topic being covered. During this lecture, I also solve several examples, with much participation from students, and answer whatever questions students may have. The second day is normally group problem solving day, when students work in groups of three or four, and solve several problems assigned to them. I usually walk around the classroom, offering hints and cues as they work. At the end of a given time, I either have group members volunteer to solve the problem on the board (if they got it right) or solve the problems myself – allowing students see where they may have gone wrong.
At the end of each chapter, a group quiz is given. A midterm and a cumulative final exam are also given to students in this course. I usually create a practice midterm and final, which students have to complete and bring to the class just before the exam, when I would go over the problems and answer any questions students might have.
A valuable lesson I have learned while teaching this course is the fact that understanding ‘simple logic’ sometimes requires lots of practice, and so it is wrong to expect students to just ‘get it’. I have also learned to pay close attention to students’ expressions, as there lie the cues to whether or not they are following. Finally I have learned that solving lots of example problems goes a long way in helping students grasp the material.
PHY 263 – Physics III for Engineers
This is a calculus-based sophomore-level physics course required of all engineers. It also satisfies the college-wide science-with-lab requirement. It’s the third of a sequence of three courses in general physics course that may also be interesting to Mathematics majors. This course is mathematically very rigorous and involves extensive use of Calculus. It involves 3 hours of lecture, 3 hours of lab, and 1 hour of small group discussion each week. Topics covered in this course include Waves, Optics & Modern Physics. Students are taught Unifying concepts of all types of wave behavior including mechanical waves, sound and light; resonances; reflection and refraction; interference and diffraction phenomena; phasor algebra; fundamental quantum concepts; nuclear reactions; energy resources.
I taught the course once, and was responsible for the lecture, laboratory and discussion sessions. I had to develop a syllabus, lesson materials, lab assignments and exams for the course, and grade. I also updated the standard laboratory instructions for the course, developed group assignments for the discussion sessions. I created lesson outlines for each topic, which I made available online to my students.
The lecture classes were held three days a week for an hour each day. The first two days consisted of an interactive lecture session, while the third day involved students solving homework problems on the board with my guidance if required. The discussion sessions were held once a week for an hour, and the involved student working on a conceptual group assignment related to the topic for the week.
Since students taking this course were most likely in their last semester as a sophomore, I included a research project component, where students were required to research state-of –the-art applications of the concepts learned in class and present to the entire physics and engineering department. This activity helped students learn the importance of modern physics to today’s technology.
I learned quite a lot from my students in this course – from their highly insightful project presentations, to their intelligent and critical questions asked during the course.
Teaching as a Graduate Student
This section includes detailed explanations of my teaching experience as a graduate teaching associate at TempleUniversity.
EE C054 – Technology and You
In this course, students are taught the process of technological development and its emergence from basic human intuition. The objective of this course is to give non-engineering students an insight to the engineering design. Some topics covered include the design and development of paper clips, the history of the telegraph, the use of visualization in Engineering design, amongst several others. This course fulfills a second level science requirement for non-engineering majors. Students are usually upperclassmen (sophomores, juniors and seniors) of several different majors such as elementary education, physical education, dance, hospitality management and communications and theatre.
I had full responsibility for the class, which comprised of 31 students. My duties included creating a syllabus, designing interactive (group and individual) classroom activities, selecting visual teaching aids (such as videos), creating exams and home/class-work problems. The students were expected to come up with an original invention idea, which they presented at the end of the class; demonstrating their thought process, background research and how they expected the inventions to be implemented. It was my responsibility to guide them throughout the invention process to ensure they were in the right direction in terms of research and practicability. There was a little bit of calculation, during the course, which the students were very unfamiliar with. I had to devise a means of helping them put the equations into perspective by making them see that it was no more than their everyday use of mathematics. I also had to constantly communicate with students through the blackboard system.
This was my very first non-technical teaching experience and a turning point in my teaching career. I learnt that, in order to keep non-science-oriented students interested in engineering education, one has to make them active in lass 100% of the time – this means that, the teacher has to also be active 100% of the time, in and outside the class. I have been given an opportunity to teach this course again, and this time, I will make the student invention process span the entire semester so that as students learn more engineering concepts, they get a chance to actually implement them on their own designs.