Three faculty members and four graduate students from the Department of Computer Science were selected to receive this year’s Joel Dean Excellence in Teaching Awards. The winners were presented with their awards at the Whiting School’s Excellence in Teaching, Advising, and Mentorship Awards Celebration on Tuesday, March 31.
Initiated by Joel and Monia Dean with the objective of promoting excellence in undergraduate education, the Joel Dean Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes faculty and graduate students who have exhibited extraordinary performance in teaching undergraduates. This year, Joel Dean, Jr. attended the celebration to commend the recipients of the annual award established by his parents.
“This award recognizes our peers, teachers, and mentors who combine a passion for knowledge, a personal commitment to the teaching process, and an ability to distill complex concepts to meet the learner where they are,” Bill and Lisa Stromberg Department Head Randal Burns said at the event. “All of our awardees embody these attributes and honor the legacy of Professor Joel Dean, a scholar who transformed the manner in which we understand microeconomics.”
Eric Nalisnick and Joel Dean, Jr.
Eric Nalisnick, an assistant professor of computer science, received the first of three faculty awards in recognition of his excellence in teaching various machine learning courses and explaining complex topics in a digestible and understandable way.
A member of the Data Science and AI Institute (DSAI), Nalisnick aims to build safe and robust intelligent systems, developing statistical machine learning methods that allow such systems to quantify their uncertainty and to interact with human experts. His research also applies these methodological innovations to problems in health care, computer vision, and sign language processing.
From left to right: Joanne Selinski, Joshua J. Reiter, Ziang Xiao, Joel Dean, Jr., and Randal Burns.
Also an assistant professor of computer science and member of the DSAI, Ziang Xiao received the second faculty award for his exceptional collaborative teaching innovation in redesigning the department’s Introduction to Human Computer Interaction course, going far beyond expectations by benchmarking courses nationally, sitting in on a colleague’s classes, and leading course improvements over multiple semesters.
“His ability to make complex concepts accessible, his positive attitude, and his leadership in managing a ten-person teaching team showcase outstanding dedication to student learning and faculty partnership,” added Burns.
The goal of Xiao’s work is to enhance human-AI interaction to expand our knowledge of ourselves. Through this research, he aims to create a more connected research community and democratize novel technologies to operationalize intuitions and curiosities about how we think and behave.
Michael Rushanan, center, and his students.
The last faculty award was given to alumnus Michael Rushanan, Engr ’15 (MSE), ’15 (MSSI), ’16 (PhD), now a lecturer for the department and the chief scientist at Harbor Labs. He was recognized for his key contributions to security courses for the Master of Science in Security Informatics program and for engaging with populations critical to the university’s larger role as an intellectual leader and active participant in the community.
Two awards were bestowed to PhD students Jan Emily Mangulabnan and Brandon Stride for their prowess as teaching assistants.
Mangulabnan was recognized for transforming Mathias Unberath’s Deep Learning course by designing and implementing a groundbreaking homework assignment in which students build their own “mini” large language model; this initiative modernized the curriculum by making cutting-edge transformer technology accessible to students.
Described as “one of the strongest TAs in 37 years at Hopkins,” Stride was acknowledged for significantly improving Scott Smith’s Functional Programming in Software Engineering course through better assignments, attentive project support, and effective course management. His contributions are credited as a main reason for the course’s current popularity.
From left to right: Sara Miner More, Subhasri Vijay, Joanne Selinski, and Randal Burns.
Finally, master’s students Maria Romo Nichols and Subhasri Vijay took home awards for their excellence as course assistants.
Nichols has served as a CA with Gagan Garg for six semesters while maintaining a 3.90 GPA in the combined bachelor’s/master’s program and competing as a varsity athlete, helping lead the JHU women’s soccer team to their first NCAA National Championship and earning the title of Conference Tournament MVP.
Vijay was recognized for providing outstanding support for Data Structures across multiple semesters, including three as Head CA for this core course taught by Patricio Simari.
Associate Teaching Professor Gagan Garg was also presented with his Whiting School of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award by Associate Head for Education Joanne Selinski, who described him as “a positive teaching force in the department since arriving at JHU in 2022.”
An engaging teacher who takes the time to clearly explain difficult concepts, understands his students’ individual goals and challenges, and fosters a culture of inclusion in each one of his courses, Garg was additionally lauded for his passion, responsiveness, clarity, growth, collaboration, and great sense of humor.
His dedication to education shows also in his students, who are often graduate with both departmental awards and recognition for their own excellence in teaching. Many of these former course and teaching assistants traveled to the Homewood campus to be part of Garg’s celebration.
“It’s clear why Gagan is so well loved and highly respected by his colleagues, staff, and students,” said Selinski.
Gagan Garg, center, and various colleagues and students from over the years.