SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2019-20
Four faculty members were honored in the School of Engineering (SENG) Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award 2019-20. The award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate continuous excellence in undergraduate teaching, foster students’ interest in the subject, promote students’ learning, develop innovative and effective teaching methodologies, and more.
Prof. David ROSSITER, Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Teaching Award. He taught about 2,000 students in four undergraduate courses in the past three years, with an average instructor overall score of 90. In one of the courses, COMP 1021 Introduction to Computer Science, he made significant contributions by creating a new tool for students’ interactive learning and enhancing another tool for program memory visualization. To facilitate the transition to online teaching, he changed the mode of lab teaching from face-to-face to self-study, and ensured real-time Q&A support during lectures.
A dedicated and inspiring teacher, Prof. Rossiter has earned an astonishing number of teaching awards over the past years. The new accolade marks his seventh SENG Teaching Excellence Appreciation Award and the third Distinguished Teaching Award, both of which set a record among engineering faculty members so far. His list of awards also include the Michael G. Gale Medal for Distinguished Teaching in 2017, which is the University’s top teaching award for one outstanding educator across all Schools annually, the Best Instructor for the Master’s Degree in Information Technology on five occasions, and the Best Ten Lecturers awards, to name a few.
Prof. Ben CHAN, Civil & Environmental Engineering and Director of Center for Engineering Education Innovation, Prof. Henry LAM, Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Prof. Raymond WONG, Computer Science and Engineering, received Teaching Awards.
Prof. Ben Chan incorporates a wide spectrum of attributes in his courses, for example, innovativeness in ENGG 1100 First Year Cornerstone Engineering Design Project Course, creativity in ENGG 1200 Engineering Team Design Experience: Airship, professionalism in ENGG 1010 Academic Orientation, leadership in ENGG 1900 Service Learning Program, and global vision in ENGG 1110 Engineering Solutions to Grand Challenges of the 21st Century. Dedicated to promoting engineering education in Hong Kong and Asia, he serves as a founding member of The Asian Society for Engineering Education and reviewer of a few top engineering education journals. He received HK$8.038 million under the University Grants Committee’s Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals (2016-19 Triennium) on fostering innovation and entrepreneurial mindsets in MakerSpace environment via flipped cornerstone design framework.
Prof. Henry Lam is the architect who designed the curriculum of the new undergraduate program in Bioengineering. He made substantial contributions in converting the CENG 2210 Chemical and Biological Engineering Thermodynamics course and BIEN/CENG 2310 Modeling for Chemical and Biological Engineering course into blended learning courses and obtained a Departmental Teaching Development Grant from the University’s Center for Education Innovation. In particular, BIEN/CENG 2310, a new course in mathematical modeling developed by him, received excellent evaluations from students. In addition, he championed several co-curricular initiatives in the department, including revamping the advising system, establishing an undergraduate teaching assistantship program, and designing a well-utilized undergraduate lounge for students.
Prof. Raymond Wong taught the COMP 1942 Exploring and Visualizing Data course three times over the past three years, with an average enrolment of 181 students and instructor overall score of 93. Pioneering new teaching methods to engage students, he devises a special “coupon” in class to motivate students to answer questions (that students who answer a selected question in class correctly will receive a coupon, which can be used to waive a question in an assignment), designs role-play activities in class to illustrate complicated concepts, and gives highly interactive demonstrations. He also made great contributions in re-designing the COMP 4332 Big Data Mining and Management course and received excellent evaluations from students.
Related link:
