The Professor

Teaching Experience

Teaching Philosophy

My teaching goals are to foster critical thinking, enhance problem-solving skills, build content knowledge, and prepare the students for the real-world in academia, industry, or startup. My teaching style consists of power-point lectures to teach the theory, hands-on classwork to solve problems, and elicitation of discussion with students about current world news related to the discussed topic. My style of teaching ensures the students gain theoretical knowledge, obtain hands-on experience, and understand how their acquired knowledge can be applied outside the classroom.

Teaching Experience and Methods

I have taught several undergraduate and graduate courses. The students registered in the courses have ranged between 40-90 students depending on the course and the semester. Furthermore, I have managed up to four teaching assistants at the same time for one coursework a semester. Besides traditional coursework, I have also supervised undergraduate students in independent research, internship coursework, supervised research, and undergraduate honors thesis.

I have successfully taught the following courses:

Computer Architecture and Lab (undergraduate)

I was the first faculty to teach Architecture Lab in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at University of South Florida. The lab sessions were introduced after an ABET visit. I also taught/managed this Architecture lab in remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Computer Organization (undergraduate)

This course is one of the two courses that determine if the students will be admitted into the Computer Science major. This is a pre-requisite to Computer Architecture, and I was able to prepare the students to succeed in the following course.

Brain-Computer Interfaces (undergraduate and graduate)

I have developed and introduced this new course to the department.
The blueprint of the coursework has also been adapted at the University of Alabama.
Less than 10 Computer Science departments in the U.S. offer this course.
I have taught this course at the University of South Florida and University of Florida.

University of South Florida
- CAP 4160/6109 - Brain-Computer Interfaces [FA'17, FA'18, FA'19, FA'20, FA'21, FA'22, FA'23]
- CDA 4205 - Computer Architecture [SP'18, SP'19, SP'20, SP'21, SP'22, SP'23, SU'23, FA'24, SP'25]
- CDA 3103 - Computer Organization [SU'22]

University of Florida
- CIS 4930 - Brain-Computer Interfaces [FA'16]

Teaching Achievements

During my career as an assistant professor, I have achieved several accolades. I have developed a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) course that is only offered in several Computer Science departments in the nation. Graduate students from departments such as Psychology, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering have taken this course. In my course, I initiated a new pedagogical approach to increase participation and critical thinking. For example, a strategy I use is to share an article of what is happening in the world related to the topics discussed in class, and I elicit a discussion on their thoughts of the article and how they can associate what they have learned in class with what it is happening in the world. My course has also been adopted by other faculty at another university. They are utilizing the same lectures and format that I developed with adaptation of their own preference and context. Another approach that I have adopted is the weight range selection. This consists of students choosing their weight percentage per grading criteria if they perform well in the course. This method helps students control their own destiny and reduce stress, which can increase positive mental health. Therefore, if a student does not perform well in the first exam (but passes) and performs better in exam 2, the student can lower the weight of exam 1 and increase the weight of exam 2 (with given restrictions). This approach has been agreeable by all the students and have motivated many students to perform better to qualify for the weight range selections.

Mentoring

My teaching record is also recognized outside the classroom. I have focused on mentoring graduate students to achieve career success. I have currently graduated two PhD students who both have acquired industry positions, and I have graduated two MS thesis students. I am currently supervising two PhD students and three MS thesis students. Lastly, I have also mentored more than 40 undergraduate students in research (16 female and 12 underrepresented minorities). One of the students obtained the Goldwater Scholarship (prestigious award for undergraduate), which led to obtaining the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and is pursuing a PhD at MIT. Two more of my mentees are pursuing a MS degree and a PhD at various institutions (University of Florida, University of Waterloo, and University of Notre Dame).

Teaching Plan and Initiatives

My goal moving forward is to keep improving and introducing new pedagogical techniques in the classroom. I plan to integrate active learning with in-class activities as it has been proven to increase student learning and encourage students to innovate.

Other planned initiatives include:

Initiate an NSF-REU program on Neurotech-AI. This type of summer program would be one of the few to offer such a program.
Enhance the course through a collaboration with industry based on needed skills. This can enhance student internships and full-time placements (especially for BCI needed skills in well-established companies and startups.

Teaching Summary

I am an assistant professor who is always looking ways to improve the learning experiences of students to better prepare them for their career success. I seek these improvements based on students’ feedback and by reading state-of-the-art pedagogies of computer science education research. I also reinforce that faculty-student interaction is essential to ensure students feel supported and understand the taught topic. Furthermore, 1-1 interaction reinforces the potential of mentoring students beyond the classroom.