My interest in teaching was kindled by my curiosity as a student about what factors made certain instructors more appealing than the others. Over the years, I have learned that no teacher can be perfect but the more confident and prepared he/she is, the better the impact and the learning outcomes, which is the ultimate purpose of education. I started my teaching career during senior year of my undergraduate studies. My undergraduate research advisor saw my ability to articulate concepts and gave me the rare opportunity to instruct laboratory sessions and supervise 3 under-graduate research students. During this stint, I performed the following tasks:
• Instructed weekly lab sessions of ‘Heat and Mass Transfer’ and ‘Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning’courses to junior mechanical engineering students
• Evaluated lab reports and assignments
• Met with students during office hours and addressed their questions and concerns
• Jointly supervised the progress of research students with my advisor.
This experience gave me a unique opportunity early on in my career to understand the responsibilities of an engineering instructor. Building upon this experience, I joined the Academy for Future Faculty program during the second year of my MS. I attended seminars and learned about various aspects of effective teaching methods in diverse classrooms. While enrolled in the program, I worked with a senior professor who mentored and helped me improve my teaching skills and also taught in the micro-teaching sessions to get feedback on my way of teaching from professional teaching consultants and fellow graduate students. During this time, I also taught decision making guest lectures to Senior Design students. I also presented my research at four international conferences where my work was well received. These experiences teaching and presenting to various groups of audiences gave me necessary skills to adjust my teaching and presentations to ensure that the target audience understands. I develop my teaching skills by contemplating my experiences both as a student and researcher. For example, I find attending research seminars and observing how different professors and scholars deliver speech and manage time to be very helpful for improving my presentation skills.
According to me, two factors are significant in enhancing students’ learning during a course: keeping students motivated and creating an inclusive environment. There could be different levels of motivation, focus and learning capabilities among students. Addressing the needs of all the students is one of the biggest challenges for an instructor. Keeping students motivated by constantly reminding them of the bigger picture and interesting applications of theory is critical in overcoming this challenge. Further, students tend to participate more in an inclusive environment. Such an environment assures them that their background and viewpoints are welcome and valued. Clarifying and managing expectations is another important aspect in mentoring research students as well as students in regular courses. This is one of my goals for courses as well as research, to clarify what my students can expect from me and what I expect from them. I aim to give and get timely feedback from students to assess whether these expectations are being met from both sides. Learning from students is another aspect of teaching. Sometimes the students know more than the professor about a particular topic and that gives rise to a more interactive classroom. Remembering student names and giving them enough time to speak motivates them to participate more during class and also leads to a more inclusive learning environment. The absence of such an environment frustrates students, from my experience.
I want to design multidisciplinary courses and projects in future that will give rewarding experiences to students similar to what I had during my undergraduate and masters research. Such experiences give students an idea of how problem-solving in the real world works. My extensive research experience in various domains of mechanical engineering and other disciplines has played an important role in giving me additional perspectives on teaching. For example, my masters research was highly interdisciplinary involving the application of network analysis principles from ecology and mechanical engineering to electrical power grid networks. I worked with a faculty member and three graduate students from electrical engineering department on a project for my thesis. This experience taught me how to develop impactful long term relationships while effectively carrying the project forward. Continuing forward, I want to teach students how to make impactful contributions in such multi-disciplinary environments and maximize collective output. I intend to continue teaching in various forms as I transition to the next steps in my career.