Teaching

One of the courses I teach at the University of Maryland is one that I’ve developed, on techniques used to characterize materials which have been structured at the nanometer scale, ENMA698T. This reviews important topics such as quantum confinement and tunneling as well as intermolecular forces, and also covers scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, electrostatic and magnetic force microscopies, near-field scanning optical microscopy, scattering techniques and transport.  I teach it in part from the recent literature, and ask the students review a recent paper in class.  The final project involves each student writing a research proposal based upon one of the techniques we discuss.   In one lecture I talk about my own research, and I also invite other Faculty to discuss their work characterizing nanometer scale structures in other lectures.  At the end of these research lectures we visit labs, letting the students see and ask questions about working experiments.

A second course I’ve been teaching is Diffusion, Kinetics and Phase Transformations.  Topics include diffusion in substitutional solid solutions, interstitial diffusion, nucleation and growth theories, solidification, diffusional transformations and growth of crystalline solids.  I supplement traditional lectures with results from the literature, stressing the application of course material to problems of interest in current research being carried out with a battery of techniques, new and old, including LEEM, FIM, STM, TEM and Scattering.

I’ve also taught the Senior Capstone Design Course,  Introduction to the Materials, an Introductory Course in Nanotechnology for Freshman, and Introduction to Engineering Design.  In all case I stress active learning, and awareness of how the course material relates to problems of interest in research today.