Teaching, Advising, and Outreach
I am actively involved in many forms of teaching: courses and curriculum design, advising undergraduate clubs, public workshops and outreach, and educational robotics technology transfer. You can read about some of the activities on this page, and you can watch videos from lots of our educational efforts on our Youtube Channel playlist.
Teaching and Advising at Princeton:
I have just moved to Princeton. I will be updating this section with more information soon.
Prior Teaching and Advising at Harvard
At Harvard I developed and taught several courses, including a (1) A graduate class (CS289) on biologically-inspired multi-agent systems where we covered topics like swarm intelligence and evolutionary computing, through discussion of classic and current research papers and through independent research projects (2) An undergraduate class (CS189) that is a hands-on introduction to AI Robotics where every problem set involved programming real robots and demonstrating results in class: Robocup (2011), Epucks (2013-15), and Turtlebots ("Robots Roam the Halls", 2016-2020)). I've taught several other classes in the past, both at Harvard and at MIT; see below for a list.
I was also a co-lead on the Embedded EthiCS Initiative, a joint program between the Computer Science and Philosophy departments to design ethics modules for every course in the CS curriculum, embedding the discussion of values and ethical reasoning in our technical education. Many of our course modules are open-source and available on the website. In 2019, we were awarded the Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge Grant! (gazette article)
I was the founding faculty advisor for the Harvard WICs Club (Harvard Women in CS, 2014-2020), and did a large number of events with this amazing group. For example, we developed and host the annual WECode, a Grace Hopper like affordable event hosted at Harvard that brings over 700 female CS students from all over the US to Harvard. I have also advised and helped found other clubs in the past, including Harvard Gender Inclusivity in Math (GIIM), Harvard-MIT RoboCup Club (RFC), and the Harvard College Engineering Society (HCES). Mentoring at all levels (undergrad, grad, junior faculty) is an important part of my work, and I am honored to have received the McDonald Mentoring Award (2015).
Together with my amazing lab, I also actively participate in K-12 and public outreach STEM events, (as many as I can!), especially those that promote increased diversity in STEM fields. We do talks, demonstrations, and workshops at Cambridge Science Festival, BethelSTEM Program, ScienceInThe News, etc. We have also created many Educational Robots (Kilobot, Aerobot, and Root) to make robotics accessible to all.
I am actively involved in many forms of teaching: courses and curriculum design, advising undergraduate clubs, public workshops and outreach, and educational robotics technology transfer. You can read about some of the activities on this page, and you can watch videos from lots of our educational efforts on our Youtube Channel playlist.
Teaching and Advising at Princeton:
I have just moved to Princeton. I will be updating this section with more information soon.
Prior Teaching and Advising at Harvard
At Harvard I developed and taught several courses, including a (1) A graduate class (CS289) on biologically-inspired multi-agent systems where we covered topics like swarm intelligence and evolutionary computing, through discussion of classic and current research papers and through independent research projects (2) An undergraduate class (CS189) that is a hands-on introduction to AI Robotics where every problem set involved programming real robots and demonstrating results in class: Robocup (2011), Epucks (2013-15), and Turtlebots ("Robots Roam the Halls", 2016-2020)). I've taught several other classes in the past, both at Harvard and at MIT; see below for a list.
I was also a co-lead on the Embedded EthiCS Initiative, a joint program between the Computer Science and Philosophy departments to design ethics modules for every course in the CS curriculum, embedding the discussion of values and ethical reasoning in our technical education. Many of our course modules are open-source and available on the website. In 2019, we were awarded the Mozilla Responsible Computer Science Challenge Grant! (gazette article)
I was the founding faculty advisor for the Harvard WICs Club (Harvard Women in CS, 2014-2020), and did a large number of events with this amazing group. For example, we developed and host the annual WECode, a Grace Hopper like affordable event hosted at Harvard that brings over 700 female CS students from all over the US to Harvard. I have also advised and helped found other clubs in the past, including Harvard Gender Inclusivity in Math (GIIM), Harvard-MIT RoboCup Club (RFC), and the Harvard College Engineering Society (HCES). Mentoring at all levels (undergrad, grad, junior faculty) is an important part of my work, and I am honored to have received the McDonald Mentoring Award (2015).
Together with my amazing lab, I also actively participate in K-12 and public outreach STEM events, (as many as I can!), especially those that promote increased diversity in STEM fields. We do talks, demonstrations, and workshops at Cambridge Science Festival, BethelSTEM Program, ScienceInThe News, etc. We have also created many Educational Robots (Kilobot, Aerobot, and Root) to make robotics accessible to all.
Past Courses at Harvard:
CS189: Autonomous Robots Systems [example syllabus Spring 2018; CS189 Video Highlights] (taught 2011-2020)
CS 289: Bio-inspired Multi-agent Systems [example syllabus: Fall 2017] (taught 2004-2021)
CS182: Intelligent Machines: Reasoning, Actions, and Plans (aka Intro to AI I) (taught 2009-2011)
CS51: Introduction to Computer Science II (taught 2005-2008)
SB 301: Special Topics in Systems Biology (Fall 2005)
Past Courses at MIT:
MIT 6.042: Mathematics for Computer Scientists: Fall01-02, Flipped Classroom with Prof. Albert Meyer (on MIT OpenCourseWare)
MIT 6.978: Biologically Motivated Programming Technology for Robust Systems: Fall 2002.
MIT 6.033: Computer Systems Engineering: Spring 2003, Recitation Instructor.
MIT 2004 IAP Course on Synthetic Biology, with Drew Endy, Tom Knight, and Pam Silver.
Past Club Advising:
Robotic Football Club (RFC) Cambridge [2005-2012] (fun video from 2007)
iGEM Intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine Competition [2005-2006]
CS189: Autonomous Robots Systems [example syllabus Spring 2018; CS189 Video Highlights] (taught 2011-2020)
CS 289: Bio-inspired Multi-agent Systems [example syllabus: Fall 2017] (taught 2004-2021)
CS182: Intelligent Machines: Reasoning, Actions, and Plans (aka Intro to AI I) (taught 2009-2011)
CS51: Introduction to Computer Science II (taught 2005-2008)
SB 301: Special Topics in Systems Biology (Fall 2005)
Past Courses at MIT:
MIT 6.042: Mathematics for Computer Scientists: Fall01-02, Flipped Classroom with Prof. Albert Meyer (on MIT OpenCourseWare)
MIT 6.978: Biologically Motivated Programming Technology for Robust Systems: Fall 2002.
MIT 6.033: Computer Systems Engineering: Spring 2003, Recitation Instructor.
MIT 2004 IAP Course on Synthetic Biology, with Drew Endy, Tom Knight, and Pam Silver.
Past Club Advising:
Robotic Football Club (RFC) Cambridge [2005-2012] (fun video from 2007)
iGEM Intercollegiate Genetically Engineered Machine Competition [2005-2006]