harvard design engineering
over three years, i helped teach 7 classes (3 brand new), worked across 4 schools, and managed 2 years of summer programs, understanding the world’s biggest problems as well as actively prototyping ways to potentially solve them.
tl'dr
why new classes at harvard?
- the harvard engineering school piloted new cross disciplinary classes as their 5 year mission was to create collaborative environments for students with different background understand global problems and build prototypes
- my main reason for teaching was wanting to be in these classes, even though it didn't make sense for me to take them for credit. so i found a way to help teach them.
in my role as instructor and teaching fellow
- i coached and gave feedback for 100+ projects
- i helped work with professors for conceptual curriculum development and collected feedback for data driven iterations
- i led 50+ sections, workshops, and discussions
featured projects
overview of classes
es100
stu 1231-32
es26
espp77
summer
post mortem
what I would keep doing
- establish collaborative cultures: between sections and conversations, prioritized engagement and relationship building. won distinguished teaching fellow for esp77
- cross disciplinary and mixed ages: being able to teach design and engineering across undergraduate, masters, and professional education levels enabled an understanding across different areas of depths. and teaching across different schools opened up language transfer (understanding, hmmm)
- figure it out mindset: one of the main reasons I got each role was I established a strong reputation for figuring things out. with more than half of the courses being brand new, most other candidates didn’t want to jump into something new.
what I would do differently
- write along the way: i prioritized consistently building and did not make time for reflection. I wish I caught more reflections, insights, and favorite moments along the way for clarity of thought as well as snapshots in time. Cannot think and do at the same time, and I prioritized the latter while ironically helping create environments for the former.
- spend more time individually exploring: for each discussion, each project, and each time, I wish I spent time outside of the constructs of the class for exploring how to connect ideas to the real world, be it extra research labs, founders, or essays relevant. this is a habit I picked up as a tks director and seeing how important it is for increasing individual interest as well as making projects more inteteresting
resources to explore more
health systems mde studio book
22 featured projects from the core collaborative studio in the harvard master in design engineering curriculum, with a focus on innovation in health systems. check out the book →
systems thinking for social change: a practical guide
a road map for how to understand complex challenges from a systems lens, including unintended consequences, stakeholder analysis, and how to evaluate how well solutions work. check out the book →
earthly politics: local and global in environmental governance
drawing from the field of science and technology studies, this book explores local v global governance, relationship of knowledge and power, as well as different institutional case studies. check out the book →