Jacobs School faculty receive Distinguished Teaching Awards

Three Jacobs School of Engineering educators were honored with Distinguished Teaching Awards from the UC San Diego Academic Senate in recognition of their creativity, innovative teaching methods, ability to motivate students to actively seek out knowledge, and an extraordinary level of teaching commitment.

Bruce Wheeler, an adjunct professor in the Department of Bioengineering, was awarded the Barbara and Paul Saltman Distinguished Teaching Award; Maziar Ghazinejad, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Leo Porter, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, received the Distinguished Teaching Award for Academic Senate members. Learn more about all three Jacobs School of Engineering recipients below.

Bruce Wheeler, adjunct professor in the Department of Bioengineering 

What do you teach?  I’ve been teaching for 51 years – high school math (I’m certified in New York); at an experimental elementary school in Blacksburg Virginia; 6 years as a TA at Cornell; university professor ever since.

For 6 years I was the chief advisor to 1600 electrical engineering students at Illinois– one of my students is now a UC San Diego Bioengineering faculty member; I founded the Bioengineering Department at Illinois and created its bachelors, masters, and PhD programs –two of my first faculty hires are now my colleagues in the UC San Diego Bioengineering Department; I also created the bachelor’s degree program in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida while I was Department Chair.  For the last six years I have taught every graduating senior in the Bioengineering senior design course.

What do you enjoy about teaching? Seven years ago I came to UC San Diego for two reasons – to help with the start of the Biosystems major – apparently someone thought I knew something about starting bioengineering degree programs -- and because, as my beard and hair grew increasingly gray, I thought that I would have greater impact not from another R01 grant but rather by communicating my experiences to and working with undergraduate students.

This award says that I made the right choice. My dream has been fulfilled.

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? It has been a most wonderful experience, being surrounded by incredibly bright, driven, personable, innovative people – with very diverse interests and backgrounds. They will shape the future of our state and our nation. I’m proud of all of them.

I’ve had the opportunity to encourage many to see a future beyond what they imagined when they entered UC San Diego. My students have kept me young – perhaps the greatest gift that anyone could ever get. They have given me far more than I have given them. I am most grateful. Thanks so very much to my loving and supportive family: my wife Gayle and daughters Jean and Julie – all biomedical engineers or biomedical practitioners; to the Bioengineering Department, to the Jacobs School, and to UC San Diego. Thanks to Adam Engler who nominated me and to students who supported me with letters.

I thank the Barbara and Paul D. Saltman Endowment Fund. It is a great honor to be thought of in the same breath as Dr. Saltman who had a truly outstanding teaching and research career at UC San Diego.

Maziar Ghazinejad, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

What do you teach? I teach engineering mechanics, design, and materials science. I also try to teach about learning processes.

What do you enjoy about teaching? Sense of wonder in students. When my students see concepts with fresh eyes and ask questions that only unaccustomed minds would ask, I feel their refreshing takes pass on to their classmates and me and enhance our imagination. I also enjoy conveying the beauty of (seemingly dry!) STEM topics and equations by connecting them to intuition and real-life scenarios. The moments my students apply science and engineering concepts to create new things or analyze different phenomena are very rewarding. Finally, I appreciate my students’ sense of humor!

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? Learning is a multilayered and circular process, and it has different levels. Each time I teach a topic with new examples, I see new angles and deeper details. It feels like re-discovering a familiar place. Also, because of constant exposure to curricular activities, teaching has directly helped my research and creative process. Bringing the methodology of one field to another (and synthesizing) often results in refreshing outcomes!

Leo Porter, associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering

What do you teach? I teach a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in the CSE department including undergraduate introductory programming, data structures, computer organization, and computer architecture courses as well as graduate computer architecture and computing education courses.  I also teach and direct a summer program at UC San Diego called COSMOS that seeks to excite a diverse and talented group of high school students about STEM.

In addition to teaching computer science,
Porter also competes in Ironman races!

What do you enjoy about teaching? I enjoy the opportunity to interact with students, whether it be in conversations with the class as a whole or talking with them directly in office hours.  It is fun to learn how students think about the ideas of the course and then adapt my course for future quarters to help improve their understanding.  Of course, I enjoy helping students achieve that "aha" moment when they come to understand a tricky concept.

Why is teaching an important, integral part of your job? One of the reasons I became a professor was to mentor hard-working students who are motivated to improve themselves and society.  Our lessons will be the foundation for this next generation of software engineers and leaders, whose work will impact the quality and value of tomorrow's technologies.