Teaching
Teaching philosophy
I believe learning has the following 4 elements
on teaching theory
Step A1. heard about some theory
Step A2. code up the theory (... so you know all the details ...)
Step A3. apply the theory to real data (... so you know its limitations ...)
Step A4. turn Step 1-3 into INTUITION (... so you can really use it creatively ...)
on teaching data
Step B1. Maybe by Luck. you observed an anomaly in data
Step B2. Verification. verify the anomaly is true (... so you are not fooled ...)
Step B3. Explain (using theory or method) the anomaly. In this step, usually, some 'method' is used. If so, the method used must be validated blindly.
Step B4. Unobserved predictions must be made (... so other people can check ...)
Currently, I am teaching the following courses at University of Houston
Graduate Courses
Seismic Imaging Fundamentals (every Spring)
The content in this course includes
Professional Development (every Fall; with Will Sager)
Topics include
Successful advisor/student relationships
Plagiarism: What is it and how to avoid it/Great Powerpoint presentations
Getting a job in industry and how to be a consultant
Making a dynamic poster
Writing a Scientific Paper
Research: What is it and how to do it
Research ethics
Giving a great short talk
Research Funding: How do I fund my research?
Writing a Successful Research Proposal
So you want to be a professor?
So you want to work in industry?
Scientific Logic - Constructing a Convincing Argument
What makes a good scientist?
Undergraduate Courses
Geophysical Signals and Analysis, Fall 2015
Global Seismology (Spring, 2016)
Week Dates Contents Homework
1 Jan 19, 21 What is seismology, theoretical foundation -
2 Jan 26, 28 Stress and strain HW1
3 Feb 2, 4 Analyzing seismic wiggles and Fourier transform HW2
Feb 3 (Last day to drop a course or withdraw w/o a grade)
4 Feb 9, 11 Vibration of planets and stars: normal modes -
Earth, Sun, Mars
5 Feb 16 Review 1 -
Feb 18 Exam 1 -
6 Feb 23, 25 Excitation of seismic waves HW3
Earthquakes, nuclear weapons, asteroid impacts
7 Mar 1, 3 Seismic ray tracing and Snell’s law, HW4
Reflection and transmission
8 Mar 8, 10 Major boundaries in the Earth & HW5
How to interpret seismograms
9 - SPRING BREAK -
10 Mar 22, 24 Rayleigh and Love waves HW6
seismic noise, hurricanes, storms
11 Mar 29 Review2 -
Mar 30 (Last day to drop a course or withdraw with a ‘W’) -
Mar 31 Exam 2 -
12 Apr 5, 7 Earthquakes, seismicity, and their mechanisms HW7
13 Apr 12, 14 Seismic tomography and Earth’s structures HW8
14 Apr 19, 21 Finding oil and gas, and other resources -
15 Apr 26 Review 3 -
Apr 28 Exam 3 -
16 May 2 Last day of class -
Youtube videos for teaching
I created a Youtube channel "Uh_seismology" for teaching seismology, signals, and waves.
Click to see all movies on aliasing
Propagation of a localized wave: reflection and transmission
Propagation of a localized wave in a gradient medium
Click to see all wave propagation movies
Meaning of the Fourier spectrum
To see many other videos, subscribe 'Uh_seismology'. It's being constantly updated!