Teaching

I love teaching. Part of this love stems from my deep appreciation of some of the best and most dedicated teachers that I have had the good fortune of being taught by.

Driven by my desire to emulate some of those great teachers, I recently participated in the New York Academy of Sciences’ (NYAS) Scientist-in-Residence program. As part of this program, I partnered with a middleschool teacher in Brooklyn, NY, to help 7th graders get a basic grasp of how AI and neural networks relate to the nervous system of mammals. Together with the teacher, we helped students bring together their understanding of human anatomy and the nervous system to design a ‘robotic’ arm made with cardboard tubes and plastic straws. We followed this tutorial.

Prior to this, I taught two undergraduate classes in the 2021–2022 academic year for the UT-Austin iSchool’s recently launched major in Informatics.

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Here’s a list of courses that I have taught and served as a teaching assistant for.

Section Instructor of Record

• I 303: Ethical Foundations for Informatics. (Spring 2022)

  • Student testimonial:

    “Mr. Verma was very understanding of students’ situations and was able to engage the class with discussion about the material. Overall, I enjoyed the course due to the interactions we had as a class with Mr. Verma going above and beyond as the instructor.”

• I 301: Introduction to Informatics. (Fall 2021)

  • Student testimonials:

    “This instructor is very patient and takes the time to listen to each student individually and makes each student feel heard.”

    “The instructor showed great dedication to the class and the students. He shared incredibly memorable and enriching insight that I feel I will take with me and really benefit from. The course felt important for both my college career in Informatics and my future as a whole.”

Teaching Assistant

• INF 388L: Professional Experience and Project. (Summer 2018)

• INF 385L: Access and Reference in Libraries and Archives. (Summer 2018)