Ashwath Prabhakar

My interest in teaching was sparked by a lecture in basic Electronics at MIT in which the Professor had very succinctly explained the concept of Operational Amplifiers, starting from the most elementary stage which is the differential amplifier, and building upon each preceding stage systematically in the shortest possible time without comprising on brevity. Operational Amplifiers had been my most loathed subject in college and the Professor's pedagogy helped me grow over this fear of mine and develop a certain interest in the subject which I had never felt before. Since then I have felt that a good teaching style works wonders in steepening the learning curves of the students and remove any phobias or diffidence they may have for a particular subject and I decided that I will embrace such a unique teaching style which will help students gain mastery over their subjects.

I began my teaching career at Sardar Patel College of Engineering, where I was entrusted with the subject Electrical Machines to the students of third-year Electrical Engineering. Electrical Machines was a hated subject since it had to be taught in a particular way and I can state proudly that I did all I could to turn the situation around and make students appreciate and love the subject. This was very important since Electrical Machines is an integral part of the Electrical Engineering course and any Electrical Engineering career since advancements in this particular field always requires a strong understanding of the electrical concepts in Machines. Moreover, through teaching I grew to love the subject and learn aspects of the subject which I could never do in college. Teaching is a mutually beneficial and bilateral process which enhances our understanding of the subject each time we teach the students.

My teaching style is emphatic and persuasive in which I emphasis on the essential concepts, from an examination point of view and more importantly, from a career point of view. Explanation of a concept involves delving deeper into the underlying principles of that concept, which in turn may involve another delve further down and so on till the root of that concept, which, invariably, is linked to electrical and magnetic fields, and Calculus. I use the writing board as much as I can to draw and explain diagrams and derive equations and in some cases resort to power-point slides. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than writing on the board with a step-by-step illustration of the concept and the equations that follow the illustration. It is my strong opinion that the more we flex our writing muscles, the deeper it is ingrained in my mind and in the minds of my students.

With a unique teaching style and a positive outlook towards teaching, I have a firm belief that I can achieve wonders for the students by helping them gain control over their subjects and spark research abilities in the students so that they can work on their newly found passion with such fervor and dedication that will make them successful in their chosen fields.