My teaching philosophy is founded upon the principles of integrity, responsibility, respect, and enthusiasm. Integrity implies that all areas of academics must be kept clean and wholesome. In the pursuit of knowledge, the university and its pedagogues must provide an environment where honesty and truth prevail. Likewise, responsibility and respect are essential for understanding. Professors and students share equal responsibility in the learning process. For the professor, responsibility takes the form of preparedness, consistency, clarity, well-defined standards, and commitment to the dissemination of knowledge. Students must be responsible in their commitment to learn. For the student this means endless hours of listening, questioning, training, and persevering. Professor and student must share a mutual respect for one another and the learning process, which requires trust, encouragement, tolerance, patience, and perseverance. The final ingredient in this formula is enthusiasm. Without enthusiasm in the classroom professors may resort to dull deliveries, and students may lose the desire to learn. It is the responsibility of educators to promote excitement at every stage of learning, and for students to enter the classroom prepared to participate in this process.

The learning process requires a partnership between student and institution. As professors, we are extensions of our institution. We represent our institution, just as our graduates do. In this regard, we must take personal our commitment to each and every one of our students. We must be willing to join into a partnership with them, a partnership in learning. I take this partnership very seriously, and demand a lot from my students in return. My expectations are often high, but never unreasonable. Above all, my treatment of students is always consistent, fair, and justifiable.

Spring 2008 marked completion of my 19th year of university teaching, with the recent ten of those years at CSU, Chico. I have  had the privilege of teaching undergraduate, graduate, and honors students, in over fifteen topical areas, including Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Natural Language Processing, Cognitive Science, Expert Systems, Knowledge Discovery, Database Management, programming in Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, Unix, Operating Systems, Architecture, Assembly Language (Motorola 68K), Networks, Literacy, Applications, Software Engineering, and Theory of Computing, as well as directing numerous Senior Projects and Graduate Projects and Theses.  I believe teaching, like computer science itself, is an ever-changing field. It requires an open-mind, innovation, and lifelong training. I incorporate many different technologies in my teaching. In addition to the more conventional lecture approach, I encourage student discussion and interaction both in and outside of the classroom.  I utilize a variety of instructional techniques, including web dissemination and electronic discussion boards, computer presentations or simulations, group projects, encouragement of study groups outside of class, and hands-on laboratory instruction.  Although expectations vary between courses, on average I expect no less than a 3:1 commitment from my students in terms of external study time to classroom time (this generally computes to 9-12hrs/week).  I expect students to read the assigned texts and materials, and come in prepared to every class period.  My goal is to motivate and encourage all students to be seekers of knowledge.  By using a variety of methods and setting high expectations, I know this can be achieved.

I believe that as professors, especially in a fast-paced discipline like Computer Science, we must never become stagnant.  We must be vigilant in our quest to remain current in a field of ever-changing state-of-the-art technologies.  This means we must be committed to Professional Development so that we can ourselves possess up-to-date skills and knowledge and transfer that knowledge to our students.  We should also strive to involve students in our research and outreach efforts.  In my experiences with the Intelligent Systems Lab (ISL) I have found Service Learning to be an integral part of the student learning process.  Just as we faculty can bolster our knowledge-base through continual professional development (research, collaborations, conferences, publishing, workshops, seminars, etc.),  so too can a student bolster their understanding and confidence through active involvement with their faculty and advisers, in the dissemination of research and projects, teaching, and outreach.  Effective teaching relies on knowledge and skill, which in our discipline requires an ongoing commitment to the principle that such knowledge is dynamic and the learning process never ends.