Teaching, as a way to reorganize one's thoughts and adapt them to the expectations and backgrounds of different individuals, is a very rewarding process for me. I see teaching as an act of guidance to help others traverse the path of discovering knowledge, as opposed to passively receiving it.

I subscribe to the active learning pedagogical approach, where students have a direct and active role in the learning process. Moreover I believe that specific forms of active learning, such as inquiry-based learning, are of great value in many situations to help motivate students.

I believe that teaching should foster curiosity and self-motivation, igniting the mechanisms that will ensure continued learning. Admittedly, it is very difficult to achieve this on each and every student, but nevertheless it is a goal worth aiming for.

Recently, I have been experimenting with a more open approach to teaching, where the content of my lectures, assignments and such, are all publicly available online. Below you can find more information on the courses I have taught in the past and, in some of those, links to all the content that is publicly available.

12-740

Data Acquisition and Instrumentation for Civil and Environmental Engineering

This course is an introduction to a variety of subjects that are required to make proper use of modern sensors. These topics include physical principles of sensors, data acquisition, signal processing and engineering measurements. The course covers both theory and practice, as a considerable portion of the grade is based on a final project in which the student should implement a simple instrumentation system and visualize the measurements on a graphical interface.

12-752

Data-Driven Building Energy Management

This course will introduce students to a variety of data acquisition and analysis techniques required to solve the challenges faced by facility managers when trying to optimize the performance of our existing building stock. The course assumes students are familiar with concepts in instrumentation, linear algebra, probability, statistics and programming, though this is not a strict requirement if the student has previously discussed with the instructor and has received approval. Some of the specific topics that will be discussed include: non-intrusive load monitoring, direct load control for demand response and automatic localization of sensors in buildings.

12-271

Introduction to Computer Applications for Civil and Environmental Engineering

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the important concepts of computing related to civil and environmental engineering. The course will briefly describe the form and operation of modern computational devices and will be an introduction to the application of computer-based tools, such as symbolic and numeric mathematical applications to problems in Civil and Environmental Engineering. It aims at improving students’ skills on problem formulation in civil engineering and with better understanding of the role of computer-based methods in civil engineering practice.

39-611

Energy Demand and Utilization

This course examines how human demands for energy have evolved over time and how they differ across nations. The first lectures provide an overview of the topic with a historical perspective, an evaluation of the present demand and a synthesis of the future projections. The course then focuses on the technologies used in the different sectors: housing, commerce, food, industry and transportation. A variety of tools to support energy analysis and measurement are later introduced. These include some fundamentals of economic analysis, measures of energy efficiency, and an introduction to the smart electrical grid. We also analyze strategies for inducing the adoption of new more efficient technologies and behaviors, specifically in the context of buildings.