Teaching and Mentoring Experience
Below is a list of courses I have taught and projects I have mentored undergraduates on. This list is indexed based on institution; see my CV for more information.
Caltech
Undergraduate mentoring
- Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURFs), 2017-2018
- Using machine learning to improve LIGO data quality
- Modeling of kilonova light curves to improve parameter estimation
- Next-generation LIGO designs and identifying statistical and systematic uncertainties from detector calibration that affect cosmography measurements
- Constraining binary black hole merger scenarios that predict optical, X-ray, or γ-ray counterparts
- Independent Study, 2016-2017
- Topics included radiation of gravitational waves; tidal deformation; equation of state models for white dwarfs and neutron stars; the compact object mass–radius relationship; the Chandrasekhar mass limit for white dwarfs; mass and spin constraints from electromagnetic counterparts of black hole–neutron star mergers
- Materials hosted on GitHub
Courses
- Caltech LIGO SURF training, 2017-2018
- Series of lectures designed to introduce 20 undergraduate researchers to gravitational wave astronomy
- Topics included an overview of the LIGO detectors; an introduction to signal processing, including Fourier analysis and power spectral densities; and multimessenger astronomy using GW150914
- Guest lecturer: Vibrations and Waves, 2017
- Topics included dispersion, dispersion relations, musical instruments, sympathetic resonance, Fourier series, and Chladni waves
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Undergraduate mentoring
- Student researcher, 2015-2016
- Design and test software to cross-reference known γ-ray sources against LIGO data
Courses
- Physics I: Mechanics (lab component), 2010-2014
- Lab component to a standard first-semester intro course for physics majors
- Gave input to syllabus design
- Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism (lab component), 2011-2015
- Lab component to a standard second-semester intro course for physics majors
- Physics for Everyday Life (lab component), 2015
- Intro level lab-based approach for non majors that relies on students’ daily experience
- Guest lecturer: Gravitation, 2012
- Advanced graduate-level course on general relativity
- Topics included black hole dynamics and interiors, the focal point of my research at the time