junior faculty spotlight: uttam ghosh
each month, the cft newsletter highlights the work of our junior faculty teaching fellows. this month, uttam ghosh, electrical engineering & computer science, talks about his teaching philosophy and interests.
i am an assistant professor of the practice in eecs department at 瑞士vs喀麦隆走地 since 2018. i obtained my phd and master of science (by research) both from department of e&ece, indian institute of technology kharagpur, india in 2013 and 2009 respectively. i have postdoctoral experiences at adsc (a unit of university of illinois urbana-champaign), singapore, fordham university and tennessee state university. my research mainly focused on cybersecurity and advanced networking. i am teaching computer organization, operating system and computer networks.
research and teaching are not two separate entities for me rather one complements another. in research, i believe on system building and teaching is nothing but nurturing the skills and qualities to be a good builder of systems. in my view, a teacher is successful if he/she can successfully prepare students for careers in engineering or systems research, entails fostering some basic aptitudes; strong implementation/troubleshooting skills, independent, creative, analytic thinking, effective communication. i aim to cultivate these basic skills in my students in classroom and most effectively in one-on-one mentoring. for me, teacher is embodiment of god and therefore i wish to set an example of morality as well as career perspectives to all these young and bright minds and make them ready for stepping into the real-world. it is a joy of giving the true values of life at the initial stages of their journey. moreover, i want to consider myself as a student as all interaction and day to day experience provide me a platform for improving my own skills both in terms of expressing myself as well as be a great source of research ideas.
computer science is a combination of theory, mathematics and practical field. based on my own experience and from the feedback provided by students and attendees of different courses, i trust that students are keener on a hands-on experience in building small systems or working through problems rather than just a theoretical treatment of the subject. the impact of a hands-on experience and joy of making products stay for a much longer time. i would also like to keep in things in mind while i design a new course flexible. i would like to evaluate my students progressively over the semester through assignments, projects, and quizzes rather than just through tests, also, sometimes, conventional test can be replaced with writing a research paper or a major project. in an advance course, students are more dependent on web rather than class, a teacher should play the role of pied-piper by indoctrinating the joy of learning the various concepts and techniques. to facilitate this, i will keep my classes interactive. i will also introduce discussion sessions on open-ended topics. i would also like to invite guest lecturers or do a field trip for my courses whenever possible. i believe a student can more relate with his/her mentor than a conventional teacher. lastly, i will ensure that my grading system does not penalize students for doing more exploratory work rather than a results-oriented work.
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