Teaching

Formal Teaching Assistantships

Teaching Assistant, Spring 2022

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Department of Psychology, New York University

Role: As a TA for NYU’s graduate-level Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) course, I assisted a teaching staff that included a lead instructor, MRI physicist, and scanner technician. Together, we helped students develop fMRI procedures and collect data in hands-on scanning sessions. I also held flexible office hours to help students grasp core concepts, including complex topics in physics and biomagnetism, and provided extra help on assignments that implemented fMRI data analysis from scratch in MATLAB.

Teaching Assistant, Summer 2021

Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences

Department of Psychology, New York University

Role: As the sole TA for an intensive summer semester of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, I helped implement an innovative course curriculum, centered upon providing students multiple opportunities to complete every exam and assignment. This necessitated a heavier-than-usual TA workload, consisting of regularly grading students’ repeat attempts on each assessment over a 5-week period, and placed great priority on feedback to help students improve.

Teaching Assistant & Lab Section Leader, Spring 2020

Computational Cognitive Modelling, Spring 2020

Department of Psychology & Center for Data Science, New York University

Role: This course included Masters and Doctorate-level students from Psychology, Data Science, and Neural Science. I led bi-weekly computational modelling labs for 25-30 students at a time. These involved hands-on tutorials in Python for the building and testing of advanced computational methods, including recurrent and convolutional neural network models, reinforcement learning agents, model fitting, and connectionist approaches to semantic knowledge. I also held regular office hours and graded and provided feedback on all computational assignments. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, we implemented accommodations for students who were unable to complete their coursework and switched to an online format.

Organizing & Guest Lectures

Coding Club Organizer, Fall 2023 – Present

Olsen Memory Lab, Baycrest Hospital

Details: Together with another postdoctoral fellow (Dr. Mrinmayi Kulkarni), I co-developed a weekly meeting for graduate students and research staff in the Olsen Memory Lab at Baycrest, focused on the development of programming skills in R and Python. Each week we lead a demonstration of a coding challenge and solution, and help attendees write and troubleshoot code written for their own research projects.

Guest Lecturer, 2016-2018

Research Methods in Psychology

Department of Psychology, New York University Abu Dhabi

Details: As a Lab Manager at NYU Abu Dhabi between 2015 and 2018, I was invited to give guest lectures and MEG Lab tours for Dr. Olivia Cheung’s undergraduate course Research Methods in Psychology. I led students through the theoretical basics of MEG research and each component of the MEG facility, culminating in a demonstration of data collection with a volunteer participant.

Non-Academic Teaching

Instructor (2009-2011) and Head Tennis Professional (2011-2013)

St. George’s Tennis Club, Nova Scotia

Details: I began regularly teaching youth and adult tennis lessons when I was 16 years old. Since that time, I have taught tennis at multiple clubs in Canada and Australia. Beginning in 2011, I was the seasonal Head Tennis Professional (i.e., Head Coach) at St. George’s Tennis Club in Nova Scotia, which I balanced with my full-time undergraduate studies and research at Dalhousie University. In this role, I developed the teaching curriculum for adult and junior tennis lessons at a club of more than 300 members, promoted tennis programs in local elementary schools by teaching gym classes, and provided more than 25 hours of on-court instruction myself, every week between May and August. I also (re-)founded the Dalhousie University Tennis Club in the 2013-2014 academic year. The provincial organizing body for the sport, Tennis Nova Scotia, honoured me with its Coach of the Year award in 2013.