My philosophy towards teaching, advising, and mentoring can be summarized as encouraging students to ask “what?” rather than only “how?” Beginning with my time as a student, I witnessed how the juxtaposition of hands-on work and theory did better at sparking interest than theory-dominant courses. In my undergraduate microelectronics course, I initially had trouble grasping the theory because regardless of the purpose of the circuit, we were churning through a series of equations (i.e. “how” the method is implemented). However, having to build an amplifier circuit that we could plug into our own computer speakers–and understand why our amplifier attenuated or clipped by simultaneously learning the theory behind each stage of the circuit–made the problem personal and grabbed my attention (i.e. the “what”, a real-world motivation for why we are studying a topic in the first place). This experience helped me appreciate the importance of understanding the fundamentals behind what I am engineering.
Evaluations by mentees: [link1], [to be added]
Graduate
Charlie Hsiao, UCSD M.S. (2019-present)
Zhixian Ye, UCSD M.S. (2019)
Michael Ishida, UCSD M.S. (2016-2018), PhD at UC San Diego Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab
Tom Kalisky, UCSD M.S. (2015-2017), KidPrint at UC San Diego Design Lab
Bocheng Kang, UCSD M.S. (2016-2017), Jaten Robot & Automation > Apple
Undergraduate
Ricky Martin, UCSD B.S. (2019-present)
Sebastian Lee, UCSD B.S. (2016-2017, 2018-2019), General Atomics > SpaceX > PhD at UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering
Zhaoyuan Huo, UCSD B.S. (2016-2019), Apple > MS at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute
Billy Yang, summer student from Swarthmore (summer 2018), PhD at Yale University Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Aaron Ong, UCSD B.S. (2014-2018), MS at UC Berkeley Mechanical Engineering > Blue Origin
Jason Mayeda, UCSD B.S. (2017-2018), Cymer
Kyle Gillespie, UCSD B.S. (2016-2018), PhD at UCLA Mechanical Engineering
Ricky Yueqi Wang, UCSD B.S. (2016-2018), MS at Stanford Mechanical Engineering
Nick Garrett, UCSD B.S. (2016-2017), Brain Corp > MS at UC San Diego Mechanical Engineering > Planck Aero
Nathan Adera, STARS student from San Diego Miramar College (summer 2016), BS at San Francisco State University
Maris Doherty, UCSD B.S. (2015-2016), Solar Turbines
Kristen Matsuno, UCSD B.S. (2015-2016), PhD at Stanford Mechanical Engineering + NSF Fellow
Kazu Otani, UCSD B.S. (2014-2016), MS at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute > Inria > Shield AI
Nicolas Besuchet, EPFL B.S. (2015)
Basile Audergon, EPFL B.S. (2014-2015)
UC San Diego, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
MAE207 Soft Robotics Teaching Assistant, Jan 2018 - Mar 2018
Give lectures, teach tutorials, and lead lab sessions.
Designed homeworks, wrote solutions, held office hours, and graded assignments. Topics include literature review, problem definition, soft pneumatic actuator design and fabrication, microcontroller programming,control theory, electronic bench skills, and waypoint following.
Work with team of course staff to negotiate and obtain support from the California Strawberry Commission(CSC). Coordinate tours at local strawberry farm with members of the CSC and the ranch manager.
Course by: Prof. Michael T. Tolley.
UC San Diego, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
MAE150 Computer-Aided Design Lead Teaching Assistant, March 2017 - June 2017
Designed homeworks, wrote solutions, held office hours, and graded assignments. Topics include theory for mechanical design, finite element analysis, MATLAB, and SolidWorks.
Gave two 1 hour classroom lectures on MATLAB and error analysis.
Designed a final project(/homework/competition) along with course staff, that consisted of giving students three uneven pillars and a location for a mass, and having them design and 3D print a structure of their choice to support the mass (using topology optimization in SolidWorks to minimize the mass of the structure).
Of the 27 out of 67 students who completed the course evaluation, 96% recommended the class.
Course by: Prof. Michael T. Tolley.
Carnegie Mellon University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
18-202 Mathematical Foundations of Electrical Engineering Teaching Assistant, August 2013 - December 2013
Held weekly office hours to review math topics spanning linear algebra, calculus, and differential equations.
Course by: Prof. Tom Sullivan.
Carnegie Mellon University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
18-320 Microelectronic Circuits Teaching Assistant, August 2012 - December 2012
Guided ~30 students through amplifier design (analog) and transistor layouts in Cadence (digital). Lead two 3 hour/week lab sections.
Course by: Prof. Jeyanandh Paramesh.
Carnegie Mellon University, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
18-290 Signals and Systems Teaching Assistant, August 2011 - December 2011
Guided ~30 students through various MATLAB activities related to introductory signal processing, including audio/speech processing and specgram analysis. Managed one 3 hour/week lab section.
Course by: Prof. Bruce Krogh