Teaching Principles
I am a “see one, do one, teach one” kind of teacher, and I believe my primary purpose is to help students find their own way in the world. I have been the beneficiary of excellent teachers at many points in my education (and my career), and I pattern my own practices on what I learned from them.
Fundamentally, I believe that learning by doing, with physical/tactile experience wherever possible, is the best and most effective way to learn. This is especially so for creatives who have an aptitude for design and an interest in learning how to make new things in the world. I likely follow Seymor Papert’s research in this, but I also have a wide range of practical experiences in visual arts and architecture education to draw from. Drawing teachers, life drawing in particular, have been influential to me at multiple points in my career; Rix Jennings, Anthony Candido, Sue Gussow, and Basilios Paulos, to name a few.
I love hands-on learning in studio environments where students are given a provocative problem and asked to find their own solution. I provide context and discussion around prior work in the problem space and facilitate discussion and critique. But ultimately, the work is the student’s work is their voice. These learning environments work best when students take up residence in them, learning as much as they do from me.
I think the process of reflection-in-action is a critical one in any creative discipline, and I work to help students understand how to get themselves into that state, and how to prolong their ‘flow.’ This is not something that can be taught directly, but rather must be engaged through practice. I’m a follower of Donald Schön’s “Reflective Practitioner” on this subject, and have learned much from Gerhard Fischer and the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design at University of Colorado on the subject of “Meta-design.”
Mainly, though, I like to make myself available as much as possible to students in the hallways, between classes, and over a cup of coffee to discuss anything with them. I know that my personal and professional experience is something valuable I can share, and I like mentoring students in any topic they are curious to explore. I’m following a pattern set by my (likely) most influential teacher, George Chaikin (author of “Chaikin’s Algorithm”) who taught a simple design studio with computers at Cooper Union where I was a student in the early ‘90s. George was a pretty low-key guy, but I am still quoting him thirty years later. He taught that, “…cutting corners always works.”
Digital Sketching: A class that helps designers learning to use digital techniques to be better designers. In this class, students design through the practice of sketching; through drawing, model-making, simulation, and computation. Students learn practical sketching skills, but also the historical and philosophical content in which they operate. Loosely follows material from my book, “Digital Sketching: Computer-aided Conceptual Design”
Product Management Studio: As a career Product Manager in software, I have found there are a dearth of formal classes that prepare students professionally to do this work. In this class, students learn some basic software product management skills and engage in a practical, real-world experience using those skills to successfully plan, build and launch a real software product in 16 weeks. Students who launch and gain at least one real user who is neither their mother nor their roommate earn an ‘A.’
First Year Design Studio: A semester-long design studio focused on the fundamentals of architectural design, taught through the Environmental Design program. Students were offered a design provocation in the form of a still life. Through a series of exercises they interpreted that composition in drawings, physical models, and through writing. From that work, students were directed to interpret their work in a spatial (architectonic) context, then to create a design for a house.
In the four years I have taught my Product Management Studio, I have had two students win funding from the New Venture Challenge. A dozen students from that course have started businesses of some kind, carrying with them some of the lessons we studied together.
Additionally, I have been responsible for placing several of my students in their first professional job, post graduation.
Scouts BSA: While Scouting has had a checkered past, I have found the contemporary program to be peerless in developing youth into functional, productive, competent adults. It is also highly attractive to kids on the neurodiversity spectrum, with up to a third of Scouts in the Troop I led identifying on some spectrum or another. As a Scoutmaster to one of the largest Scouting troops in Boulder County, I coached team dynamics, the essentials of ‘servant leadership,’ and helped each scout to find the confidence to thrive in the backcountry. I taught young Scouts how to work in a group, and watched as they grew to be in positions of leadership for the next generation of young ones. I’m also proud to have been a part of welcoming young women into our troop for the first time in history.
Project Spectrum and the Temple Grandin School: Through a long project with SketchUp and the Autism community (“Project Spectrum”), I have had an opportunity to teach and mentor a number of students in and around the Temple Grandin School. While I have only taught there formally a few times, the experience has been an especially rewarding one. I have lectured on drawing, model-making (physically and with SketchUp), and design. I have also had long mentoring relationships with several students who were hired into the SketchUp team. One of them continued to an architecture degree from SciArc, an internship with Frank Gehry, and is now working as a professional architect. Another now manages Project Spectrum at Trimble.
Maker Faire: I have engaged deeply with the Maker community, especially through the Maker Faire events sponsored by Maker Media. SketchUp was always a good fit for that community, and I’m proud that it was used by a wide range of folks who built an amazing range of projects; from the Cupcake Cars to Bre Pettis’ original MakerBot, I ran into SketchUp everywhere. In collaboration with Maker Media, my team sponsored multiple design competitions and special events, and we regularly exhibited at events in San Mateo and New York City. I participated in several international Maker Faire events as well, including Paris and Tokyo.
Tinkermill: I taught some classes at Tinkermill, the Longmont Maker Space. I was a member there for a short time, but in that period I helped them to integrate a large CNC machine (ShopBot) that I donated to their wood shop.
The Cooper Union Saturday Program: It has been almost thirty years since I taught in the Saturday Program, but the experience was a formative one for me. Cooper’s “SatPro” was founded fifty years ago to supplement the dearth of Arts education in NYC’s public High Schools. Offered at no cost to students who won admission into the program, Saturday Program is a studio-style arts education that meets every saturday for the duration of the academic term. I taught the Architecture program, with a class of about two dozen students each semester.
Product Management Studio: A hands-on studio learning environment that challenges students to conceptualize, build, and launch a software product in one semester. Students who successfully win at least one user (demonstrably not their roommate or their mom) by the end of the semester earn an ‘A.’ _offered at CU/ATLAS in Spring semesters of 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018_
Digital Sketching: A survey of sketching techniques, starting with hand drawing, and progressing through physical modeling, modeling in CAD systems, scripting, and parametric techniques. Students are required to maintain a sketchbook, and to complete weekly exercises in it that are reviewed by the class in group critiques. _offered at CU/ATLAS in Spring semester of 2022_
Design Studio: I can run a formal design studio, and have done so in the past in CU’s ENVD program. I can provide a design problem supported by group and individual critiques towards a final presentation and review of student projects.
Sentient Building Studio: Using the ATLAS Building as a canvas, this studio would explore the intersection of sensing and automation with the architectural spaces and places in and around the ATLAS Building.
SketchUp, Core Concepts in 3D Modeling and Computer-aided Design: As a former member of the SketchUp development team, I am expert in all aspects of the SketchUp application. I can teach a basic skills course in 3D modeling in general, and SketchUp in particular.
Shop Techniques: I am a competent physical fabricator in a wide variety of media. I can teach woodworking, plastic fabrication, basic metalwork, and mold-making.
Innovation & Entrepreneurship: I have been a part of several startups- some successful, some not. I have also been on the acquisition side of several more startups. I can teach a seminar-style course on this subject.
Design Studios, various topics: I know how to run a design studio, and can likely do so for almost any design topic. An interdisciplinary ATLAS design studio might be an exciting alternative for some students to traditional classroom instruction.
Drawing: I have found that the most impactful classes in all my degree work have been basic drawing classes, especially classes where we drew from life. Drawing is a meditation, a kinaesthetic learning opportunity, and an exercise in detailed tactical observation. But more importantly, it is a way of learning tangibly about abstraction and the practice of “… exaggerating the essential and leaving the obvious unclear.” An ATLAS-flavored drawing class might be interesting for students, and I’d be pleased to be able to teach it.
Computer-aided Image Making: I have a recent and growing fascination with text-to-image algorithms like DALL-E and style-transfer algorithms that automate the creation of stylized images. I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’d like to learn more. A seminar class on this might be interesting. Some work on computational systems like John Maeda’s ‘DBN,’ contemporary parametric modeling tools like Houdini (and SketchUp’s ‘Live Components’) and Wolfram-style cellular automata could provide useful counterpoint.
Film Series: In partnership with the Film Studies School and the International Film Series, The ATLAS Institute might offer a weekly film screening for students with material relevant to their interdisciplinary studies in arts and sciences.
Board Mentorship Program: Linking students with Board members willing to mentor them through transitional career moments, I could act as sponsor and facilitator representing the needs of students in the undergraduate program.
Corporate Sponsorships: Leveraging my personal connections and experience in the corporate world, I could work to develop a pipeline of sponsorship dollars for needy students, projects, or programs in the ATLAS Institute.