Teaching Awards

  • Excellence in Tutoring Award, Department of Computing and Information Systems – 2014
  • Melbourne School of Engineering Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning – 2013

Teaching Profile

In addition to providing tuition to a number of engineering students, I have taught subjects in the areas of programming (C, MATLAB and Python), algorithms and complexity, formal languages and automata theory, internet technology and software architecture for both the University of Newcastle (from 2011-2012), and more recently the University of Melbourne (2013 onward). These subjects have included students from all engineering disciplines, as well as the programs of Computer Science and Information Technology.

The University of Melbourne

Since commencing my Ph.D at the University of Melbourne in 2013, I have taught the following subjects:

  • COMP90038 (Algorithms and Complexity) – tutor, semester 2, 2014
  • COMP10001 (Foundations of Computing) – head tutor, semester 1, 2014
  • COMP90038 (Algorithms and Complexity) – tutor, semester 1, 2014
  • COMP20003 (Algorithms and Data Structures) – head tutor, semester 2, 2013
  • ELEN30010 (Digital System Design) – workshop demonstrator, semester 1, 2013

The University of Newcastle

During the final two years of my undergraduate degrees at the University of Newcastle, I taught the following subjects:

  • COMP1050 (Internet Communications) – lecturer, semester 2, 2012
  • SENG3130 (Software Architecture and Quality Management) – lab demonstrator, semester 1, 2012
  • COMP2270 (Formal Languages and Automata Theory) – tutor/guest lecturer, semester 1, 2012
  • GENG1003 (Introduction to Procedural Programming) – lab demonstrator/guest lecturer, semester 2, 2011

I have also presented at conferences (most recently the 2012 NUS Education Conference) on the issues of university education, with emphasis placed on how young and casual academics can motivate, engage and earn the respect of their students. Furthermore, in 2012 I was nominated by a number of my students for the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment Teaching Innovation Award (at the University of Newcastle), for which I was unfortunately deemed ineligible due to my casual employment status.

Below are some examples of feedback regarding my teaching, left anonymously by students as part of the University of Newcastle’s Student Feedback on Courses program:

  • Anonymous COMP2270 student: “… David was always very approachable- as people saw him as just another student, they were never afraid to email him to arrange a time to get help, or go to his lab and ask him for help, which David would always provide at an exceptionally high level. His relationship with us as students made the tutorials incredibly fun, and comp2270 tutorials became a class I looked forward to and loved attending every week! As he didn’t seem superior to us, people didn’t find him intimidating and if they didn’t understand something, they were not afraid to say so as they knew David would not hesitate to go out of his way to help them and lend his valuable experience …”
  • Anonymous SENG3130 student: “… As a member of the NUBots team, he was given the opportunity to provide the students in SENG3130 with insight into how the system worked. A combination of the subject matter (robotics), and David’s own knowledge, made this course a lot of fun. The result was increased satisfaction with the courses completed this semester, which has ultimately led to better marks …”
  • Anonymous GENG1003 student: “… At the start of each 3 hour lab session, David would give a “mini-lecture”, thoroughly explaining content that was necessary for the lab itself, and helping struggling students with any content they find they didn’t understand, in a manner that was clearer and easier to understand than the lecture content itself … This initiative helped many struggling students wrap their heads around the course content in a way that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Without David, the course would have definitely seen a higher failure rate …”