By Prof. Desmond Tsoi

In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, preparing engineering graduates for success is crucial. As educators, our goal is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and mindset necessary to navigate the challenges of the future. This requires a comprehensive approach that models positive behaviors and qualities, fosters a passion for learning, and integrates technology into the learning experience.

The belief that examples are more effective than precepts is at the heart of my teaching philosophy. As an engineering educator, I aim to model the behaviors and qualities I want my students to embody, such as a passion for learning, a strong work ethic, positivity, and proficiency in utilizing technology to solve problems. By doing so, I hope to inspire and guide my students toward success and fulfilment.

To cultivate a passion for learning in my students, I go beyond the syllabus and share additional details about the concepts we cover. I also engage in discussions with students after class to encourage them to explore beyond the curriculum and become lifelong learners. We can prepare our students to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing world by fostering a love of learning.

I also strive to model a strong work ethic by setting an example for my students. This includes promptly responding to emails, conducting additional classes to reinforce knowledge and clear up doubts, and demonstrating positivity in my interactions with students and colleagues. By doing so, I aim to inspire my students to work hard and develop positive attitudes toward their studies, work, and life.

“The belief that examples are more effective than precepts is at the heart of my teaching philosophy.”

Motivating and inspiring others is another key aspect of my teaching philosophy. By demonstrating enthusiasm, careful planning, and sensitivity to individual strengths and weaknesses, I aim to show my students how to bring out the best in others and work toward a common goal. This helps students develop leadership skills and fosters a sense of community and collaboration in the classroom.

Furthermore, recognizing the demands of today’s technological era and its impact on the engineering field, I strongly emphasize integrating technology into the learning experience. By providing students with hands-on projects and real-world scenarios, I enable them to develop practical skills and adapt to the ever-changing technological landscape. One notable project is ZINC – an online assignment submission and automatic grading system developed in collaboration with my project students and research team. This system has significantly reduced students’ time demonstrating their work to Teaching Assistants (TAs) and enabled TAs to handle more students during lab time. Since its inception in 2020, ZINC has served approximately 4,800 users and graded over 383K programming labs/assignments. The triumphant story of ZINC will inspire students to solve problems using technologies that align with today’s problem-solving trends.

By adhering to the principles mentioned earlier, we can equip engineering graduates with the necessary knowledge, skills, and mindset to navigate future challenges and achieve success.