Teaching Statement

My teaching statement is presented in the following sections. Most of it applies specifically to the teaching of computer graphics (CG) courses, given my 20 year career in the entertainment industry (specializing in visual effects and computer animation) and 8 years of experience, teaching part-time in the CS department at USC.

Objectives

When it comes to teaching graphics courses, here are my key objectives:

• make sure that students get a deep understanding of the underlying theory/algorithms/equations/math that result in eye-catching imagery, and not just specific techniques that provide a quick route to image creation. This is because in my own life, I have always strived to understand things I encounter. To me, understanding something well is a reward in itself. This is something that I communicate to my students at the start of the course, and keep reminding them of it as we go through the course. CG is a constantly evolving field, with newer languages, APIs, hardware and third-party software replacing older ones; being grounded in underlying principles helps my students be prepared for inevitable changes just mentioned.
• where appropriate, educate students on CG "history" - this being such a young field (about 50 years old), most of the practitioners are still alive (and active in the field), though companies and products might come and go. Knowing the history of a particular graphics card, API, technique or even an equation provides the students a connection with the past, which in turn makes them feel part of the CG community. I mention researchers' names (along with anecdotes in some cases, experienced first-hand by me or told to me), trace the lineage of contemporary software such as Maya, trace the evolution of GPUs, and so on. It is my belief that such a sense of belonging helps stimulate further interest in the field.
• share with my students, contemporary best practices in the industry - this is to help students who contemplate a career in the visual effects, animation or game industries
• where applicable, point out to students the 'bleeding edge', for students who might be considering doing CG research
• whether in research or industry, there are trends that can be discerned, if one is armed with some knowledge of history and knows how to look; to that point, I try to educate my students on spotting trends

Applied together, these objectives help me present a fuller picture in every course, where the students do not walk away with just subject matter knowledge.

Approach/techniques

CG by definition is visual in nature. Further, almost all of CG to date (with some exceptions such as non-photoreal rendering) has doggedly pursued replicating realism (in models and motion) and photorealism (in rendering). Given this, make liberal use of 'the real world' when I teach CG. Why just talk about a directional light when I can gesture at the projector in the classroom? Why discuss texture mapping in the abstract when I can hold up my Coke bottle and point to its label? Likewise, I tug on my shirt when I discuss cloth equations, pour liquids into a cup while presenting fluid simulation, use my iPhone camera (turned on) to demonstrate camera moves, and so on. I even use the corners of furniture and the classroom to discuss coordinate system (axis) transforms, gesture at my eyes and tilt my head when talking about camera space, etc. In addition, I energetically cover the two or three blackboards in the classroom, with diagrams and equations. All this helps me make sure that everyone can see the connection between CG and the real world.

Given my intimate familiarity with researchers' work (going back to the early days of graphics), knowledge of research groups around the world, familiarity with third-party software and its makers, commercial CG-based enterprises (game studios, vfx houses, animation studios) etc., I am always relating these to what the textbook says, to make the topics 'come alive' for the students.

The Internet and the browser provide excellent opportunities to make the subject even more interesting. Eg. a Google search for 'Phong shading' or 'volume rendering' brings up thousands of images, a cornucopia to choose from for presenting in class. Oftentimes I do such live searches, to show many more examples than what my own lecture material contains. Again, this helps students see the value and scope of what they are learning; in some cases, it gives them new directions to pursue, new things to try with their own code, etc. Likewise, I also use interactive apps where relevant (eg. while presenting Bezier math, Voronoi polygons, etc.). Interaction makes diagrams come alive, and motivate students to learn by tweaking and exploring.

Results

The feedback that I get from students (end-of-term evaluations including the hand-written notes section, via email, in person, via RateMyProfessor.com, Facebook) is gratifying. More importantly, it validates my approaches to teaching, and lets me gauge the extent of success with my objectives. Students can be brutally honest, and let me know problem areas as well. When I see areas for improvement, I jump on those and try to address them. As for the positive feedback, here are some:

• extremely knowledgeable about CG
• very enthusiastic/passionate
• explained even difficult concepts very clearly
• incredibly helpful, and cares about his students
• made me get interested in CS again
• USC needs to clone Prof. Saty
• stimulates interest in the field
• best course I have taken in my 4 years at USC
• great sense of humor
• what does he eat for breakfast?!
• the only Professor for whom I would skip dinner!
• made me feel at ease in class

Future directions

In addition to continuing to teach the current set of CG courses, I would also like to:

• help put together and also teach more CG courses, eg. on computational geometry, shape modeling, scientific visualization, etc. I would partner with the graphics group faculty on this (Prof. Barbic, Prof. Neumann, Prof. Li). I routinely hear from students that the CS department needs to offer a larger set of graphics courses than what is offered now
• teach courses on programming fundamentals and CS Core
• explore the use of unique technologies and devices such as the VEX Robot, gaming consoles, input devices such as Kinect and LeapMotion, 3D printers, GPUs, visually-oriented programming languages such as Scratch and Blockly, to teach exciting and innovative software development courses to non-CS majors. I would partner with Sheila Tejada on this
• help out with the CS department's and the university's initiatives related to STEM, via a computing/simulation perspective applicable to math and science

Summary

Teaching high quality computer graphics courses is the one thing I would like to do with my life, more than anything else! To be successful at this, I have the relevant industry experience, deep knowledge of the field, passion/enthusiasm to stimulate and motivate learning, an interdisciplinary education, and equally importantly, a deep-seated need to connect and engage with my audience/students. Additionally I am also interested in teaching lower-division programming courses and core CS topics, in service of the CS department's and USC's goal of shaping up to be a world-class research institution via a renewed focus on the quality of undergraduate education.