Learning by designing, building and testing
The best engineering lessons I have learned came from building something that did not work the first time. I want my students to get those lessons too: to connect theory to hardware, to use data and AI with judgement, and to take responsibility for the safety and quality of what they make.
Teaching approach
Design–build–test. Two of my most productive student teams built real research hardware: a group of Master of Engineering students and I designed and built a full-size metal 3D printer, and a multidisciplinary capstone team added machine-learning-based monitoring and control to it. I will bring the same approach to the classroom through projects that end in a physical test.
Data and AI as engineering tools. Having been a teaching assistant for courses on data science and AI for materials engineers, I teach students to ask what a model has learned, where it will fail, and how to check it against physics and experiment.
Professional practice. As a licensed Professional Engineer with industry-facing service in SME, I link course material to codes, qualification and the realities of manufacturing.
Courses I can teach
Undergraduate
- Manufacturing processes
- Mechanics of materials / solid mechanics
- Materials science for engineers
- Engineering design, CAD and capstone design
- Data science and machine learning for engineers
Graduate
- Additive manufacturing: process physics, design and qualification
- AI for manufacturing and materials design
- In-process sensing, monitoring and control of manufacturing processes
Teaching experience
Teaching Assistant — CIV1199: Joining, Welding and Additive Manufacturing
University of Toronto (graduate course; Profs. Jeffrey Packer and Jim Galloway)
Teaching Assistant — MSE403: Data Sciences and Analytics for Materials Engineers
University of Toronto (undergraduate course; Prof. Jason Hattrick-Simpers)
Teaching Assistant — MSE1065: Application of Artificial Intelligence in Materials Design
University of Toronto (graduate course; Profs. Chandra Veer Singh and Jason Hattrick-Simpers)
Guest Lecturer — ME243: Manufacturing and CAD Modeling
Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, China
Guest Lecturer — Subatomic Physics Summer Lecture Series
McGill University
Mentoring
I have mentored more than 20 Master of Engineering and undergraduate students, mostly in team projects that built research hardware.
Capstone: autonomous DED system
Led a team of 5 undergraduate students from Electrical & Computer, Materials, and Mechanical Engineering in APS490 Multi-Disciplinary Capstone Design to develop an autonomous DED system using machine learning and computer vision. This work fed into our closed-loop DED platform, which later won 1st place in the ASM IMAT Materials Venture Challenge.
MEng project: building a metal 3D printer
Led a team of 4 Master of Engineering students from Materials and Mechanical Engineering in an MSE MEng project to design and build a full-size hybrid laser metal 3D printer from scratch. The machine became the DED platform behind much of my PhD research.