An Entertaining Roadtrip

I believe teaching has a lot in common with stand-up comedy – if I am not keeping my students awake and being more entertaining than the textbook, I am not doing my job. I can live with students saying I am "overenthusiastic" and complaining about my "dorky sense of humor" as it is evidence that they paid attention. I enjoy outlandish examples, extended analogies, and peppering lectures with war stories from my time in industry that relate the material to real-world applications.

Further, I think of each course as a roadtrip – one with a destination (a set of learning goals) and a path through a series of stops (various course instruments). I motivate each lecture and assignment by sharing how it is bringing us closer to our learning goals with students. I find this approach valuable especially in theory-heavy courses, where some students struggle to see how the mater ial relates to learning how to code.

I am honored to receive the Alan J. Perlis Graduate Student Teaching Award for teaching 15-122 last summer. I would like to thank my teaching assistants for responding to messages at all hours of the night, and my students for putting up with my endless sloth analog ies. I am also indebted to Iliano Cervesato for training me to run a large course without constantly being in panic-mode, and to Tom Cortina for teaching me the art of being tough and fair, but still approachable. I am incredibly grateful to my advisor Frank Pfenning, for always supporting my desire to teach and for showing me how amazing a well-crafted course with a compelling storyline can be.