Courses at ISU
Current Courses, Spring 2012:
CS 151 Introduction to Programming:
spring 2012 sections 001 and 003,
fall 2011 sections 001 and 002,
spring 2011 section 003, fall 2010 section 003- CS 151 is the first programming course taken by CS majors, IT majors, and is also required of a few other majors as "the programming course".
- CS 475/575 Artificial Intelligence:
fall 2011- An elective focusing on (a) problems that seem easier to solve by the human mind than by computers and (b) problems that are hard to solve in the worst-case but may be solvable in practice by heuristics.
- CS 620 Advanced Theory of Computation:
spring 2011, fall 2010- CS 620 is a required course in the CS master's degree. It is a "proofs" course, where we look at some of the most important results/perspectives in theory of computing that "every computer scientist aught to know".
- CS 658 Advanced Algorithms:
spring 2012- CS 658 is a required course in the CS master's degree. It is a both a "proofs" and programming course. We analyze the correctness and resource usage of algorithms (proofs), and also implement some of the algorithms (programming).
- CS 695 Computer Science Research:
spring 2011- CS 695 in the past has been an independent study projects course. For the Spring, we will be running the course as a seminar, with a different student or small group of students choosing a recent research paper to present each time we meet.
Importance of Teaching
Among the greatest passions of my life are teaching and learning. I greatly enjoy both. More importantly, teaching and learning are at the foundation of modern society. Could there be doctors or astronauts without teachers? Would we have computers, the Internet, modern medicine, industry, etc. without teaching and learning? Indeed, just about any profession - whether it be a so-called "high tech" profession, a trade, or an art - relies on teaching and learning.
It is only logical that excellent teachers are necessary to produce excellence in our workforce. I am committed to being an excellent teacher of computer science and mathematics. I primarily work to achieve this with the teaching I perform in the classroom. I also am interested in outreach opportunities to inspire a wider audience with the fascinating lessons of computer science and mathematics.
Courses at UW-Madison
- Summer 2007: CS/Math 240 at University of Wisconsin-Madison. CS/Math 240 is a sophomore-level course required for computer science majors and is taken by others as well. The link is to a section of the course that I taught as the sole instructor.
- Spring 2007: CS 810 at University of Wisconsin-Madison. CS810 (now re-numbered 710) is the graduate complexity theory course. The link is to a section of the course for which I was the teaching assistant.
- Fall 2003-Spring 2004: CS 310 at University of Wisconsin-Madison. CS 310 is a service course offered by the Computer Sciences Department for the engineering college that is taken by engineering students. The course serves as an introduction to computer programming and the software packages Maple and Matlab. The course also focuses on problem solving skills in using programming and these software packages to solve engineering problems. I was a teaching assistant for this course for two years. The link is to a web-page maintained by the course coordinator with various information about the course.
Links
When I have a link to a teaching resource, organization, etc. that I want to remember, I usually dump it here...
National Organizations: Computing Research Association (CRA), Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) , National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGSCE) , CACM: Education, MAA: Teaching and Learning
National Events: Computer Science Education Week, Mathematics Awareness Month, National Lab Day, Math Circles
UW Organizations/Events: Scientific Teaching, Delta Program, Teaching Academy, Teaching & Learning Symposium
Other Resources: Computer Science Unplugged, Teaching Complexity Theory (Goldreich), Khan Academy, Codepad