General
My teaching philosophy can be found below. I have been a Graduate Teaching Assistant for two Civil Engineering courses over three semesters. The details can be found below here.
The University of Texas at Austin offers a Graduate certification for Engineering Education, providing graduate students an opportunity to improve their teaching skills by learning better teaching pedagogy, innovative methods, theoretical background about teaching principles such as argumentation, and most importantly, practical experience. I have completed the certification requirements (Fall '20). You may find information about the courses completed on the coursework page. Additionally, as a part of the Argumentation course, we (Madison Andrews, Priyadarshan Patil) have produced a research manuscipt, presented and published at the 2021 ASEE annual conference.
In conjunction with the Women in Engineering Program at UT Austin, I have been a graduate mentor for two sophomore students interested in obtaining research experience. I have supervised Ms. Katherine Ross (Fall '18) and Ms. Bradley Gladdens (Spring '19) on two separate research projects. My responsibilities involved introducing them to my research, providing them background reading and teaching them the basics, allowing them to conduct specific tasks/experiments/simulations and assist in designing their end-of-semester research poster. Ms. Ross and I have two presentations accepted in refereed conferences and one accepted journal publication.
CE 311: Probability and Statistics classroom teaching
I was the Teaching Assistant for CE 311 in Spring 2019. I supervised two sections with 18 and 21 students respectively. My primary resposibilities included designing a course module on introducing R and statistical analysis using R, conducting lab sessions, exam design and grading, exam review sessions and lastly, conducting office hours. You may find the official end-of-semester student feedback for the two sections here: Section 1, Section 2. My overall TA rating is 4.2 and 4.4 for the two sections.
Quotes from end-of-semester student feedback are transcribed below. Feedback form scans available if needed:
• PD (note: PD is used as a nickname for Priyadarshan) did a great job of using lab time to clear things up or even catch me up if I happened to miss a lecture. He seems to enjoy teaching which makes asking questions very easy. The lab was always engaging because he has a good attitude about it.
• Priyadarshan was the best TA I have ever had. He was very respectful of my questions and was very patient. He never made me feel like my questions were stupid. He explained the basics very well and used multiple methods to explain the subject matter which was very helpful.
• I was kind of ambivalent about you at the very beginning, but I think that you really took to heart the feedback that we gave you in the middle of the semester (even if it was a little harsh). Generally, you were a great TA, and readily available. Thanks!
• Amazing! Keep teaching the way you do.
• Priyadarshan was great - Very Knowledgeable and helpful - Review sessions held before the midterms went above and beyond the call of duty, thanks for that!
• DAT MAN!
I was the Teaching Assistant for CE 311 in Spring 2020 as well. Due to COVID-19, the classes transitioned online and end-of-semester feedback was not collected for teaching assistants.
CE 301: Civil Engineering Systems classroom teaching
I was the Teaching Assistant for CE 301 in Fall 2018. I supervised two sections of 16 students each. My primary resposibilities included designing a course module and assignment on linear regression and basic statistics, conducting surveying lab sessions, exam design and grading, and lastly, conducting office hours. You may find the official end-of-semester student feedback for the two sections here: Section 1, Section 2. My overall TA rating is 4.5 and 4.4 for the two sections.
Quotes from end-of-semester student feedback are transcribed below. Feedback form scans available if needed:
• PD was by far the most helpful TA I have experienced during my time at UT. To say he accelerated my success in the class would be an understatement.
• PD helped all students at their request and was even willing to take some of his own time out to help, which was extremely beneficial to our group.
• Great instructor! Very attentive and extremely knowledgable in the subject. Would definately love to have him as a professor one day
• Excellent TA, helpfully made us be productive, gave good feedback and went out of his way to do things for us. 👍
• Priyadarshan was extremely helpful and made himself available for his students often
• I liked Patil's way of communicating and giving back feedback.
Contact Me
Feel free to drop me a mail for any questions, or just to say hi ☺