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Keynote or Plenary

Ultrashort Lasers to Increase Efficiency in Solar Energy Harvesting via Intermediate States, at 2014 High Power Laser Ablation and Beamed Energy Propulsion Conference (Santa Fe, NM), Wednesday, April 23, 2014:
talk_2309.pdf
Shining intense, ultrashort laser pulses on the surface of a crystalline silicon wafer drastically changes the optical, material and electronic properties of the wafer. The process has two effects: it structures the surface and incorporate dopants into the sample to a concentration highly exceeding the equilibrium solubility limit. This femtosecond laser "hyperdoping technique" enables the fabrication of defect- and bandgap engineered semiconductors, and laser texturing further enhances the optical density through excellent light trapping. Hyperdoped silicon opens the door for novel... Read more about Ultrashort Lasers to Increase Efficiency in Solar Energy Harvesting via Intermediate States
Black silicon, at 2014 International High Power Laser Ablation Conference (Santa Fe, NM), Monday, April 21, 2014:
talk_2141.pdf
Shining intense, ultrashort laser pulses on the surface of a crystalline silicon wafer drastically changes the optical, material and electronic properties of the wafer. The resulting textured surface is highly absorbing and looks black to the eye. The properties of this 'black silicon' make it useful for a wide range of commercial devices. In particular, we have been able to fabricate highly-sensitive PIN photodetectors using this material. The sensitivity extends to wavelengths of 1600 nm making them particularly useful for applications in communications and remote sensing.
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at 6th annual Teaching & Learning Colloquium, Stony Brook University (Stony Brook, NY), Friday, April 4, 2014:
talk_2289.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Turning lectures into learning, at Turning Technologies User Conference, Palms Casino Resort (Las Vegas, NV), Monday, March 31, 2014:
talk_2265.pdf
The world is abuzz with talk about "clickers" or classroom response systems. Clicker are not just simple polling tools, but can be used to achieve significant learning gains. In this presentation we explore using clickers with Peer Instruction, a pedagogy that encourages students to interact and solve problems during class.
Peer instruction and interactive learning in the future classroom, at Future Schools, Australian Technology Park (Sydney, Australia), Friday, March 14, 2014:
talk_2280.pdf
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing... Read more about Peer instruction and interactive learning in the future classroom
Flat space, deep learning, at Team-Based Learning Collaborative Annual Conference (St. Petersburg, FL), Thursday, March 6, 2014
The teaching of physics to engineering students has remained stagnant for close to a century. In this novel team-based, project-based approach, we break the mold by giving students ownership of their learning. This new course has no standard lectures or exams, yet students’ conceptual gains are significantly greater than those obtained in traditional courses. The course blends six best practices to deliver a learning experience that helps students develop important skills, including communication, estimation, problem solving, and team skills, in addition to a solid conceptual understanding... Read more about Flat space, deep learning
Assessment for (not of) learning, at Pearson National Sales Meeting (San Diego, CA), Thursday, January 9, 2014:
talk_2139.pdf
Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to... Read more about Assessment for (not of) learning
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at eLearning Strategies Symposium (Costa Mesa, CA), Friday, December 6, 2013:
talk_2225.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Assessment: The Silent Killer of Educational Innovation, at 1ère journée de l’innovation pédagogique, Université de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland), Thursday, November 28, 2013:
talk_2138.pdf
Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our approach to... Read more about Assessment: The Silent Killer of Educational Innovation
Turning lectures into learning, at University of Massachusetts Lowell (Lowerll, MA), Wednesday, November 20, 2013:
talk_2199.pdf
The world is abuzz with talk about "clickers" or classroom response systems. Clicker are not just simple polling tools, but can be used to achieve significant learning gains. In this presentation we explore using clickers with Peer Instruction, a pedagogy that encourages students to interact and solve problems during class.

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