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About Rob

Teaching

I am Associate Professor of Information Technology Practice in the Information Technology Program in the Viterbi School of Engineering and have previously held a joint appointment in Iovine / Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.

Connected Devices

in 2018 I established the Connected Devices and Making minor to teach non-engineering students to create internet-enabled, hardware devices. At the time, I struggled to find existing resources for the gateway course, ITP 348 – Making Smart Devices, that was challenging enough for university students but appropriate for non-engineering students without math and physics backgrounds.  I developed the curriculum and released all the content (lectures, assignments, videos, exercises) as an open education resource on Github.

Python and Other Courses

I am co-lead faculty for the introductory Python programming course, which typically has 600+ students in 13 sections taught by 3-5 instructors. I also created an Android development course for the Mobile App Development minor in ITP and have previously taught Web Design, Introduction to Information Technology, Java Programming, C++ programming, and Photoshop.

Equity and Accessibility

I am committed to inclusion and equity in education and in technology. I have served in multiple roles in the CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, including serving as General Chair in 2021. I am also actively involved in faculty governance, having served as co-chair of both the Academic Senate Faculty Committee on Equity and Inclusion and the Community Advisory Board.

Other Interests

Outside of academia, I has a lifelong love of technology from the technical to the creative, having worked in software development, information technology, web design, audio engineering, digital media, and film / TV post-production (IMDb).