Illinois was my chosen institution as a faculty member due, in large part, to its strong reputation for excellent teaching and for the exciting opportunity in developing a new Bioengineering department. My educational design and delivery efforts are guided by three enabling principles for students: the "why" must be understood, "how" must be learnt and "I can do" must be demonstrated. I believe that the greatest challenge facing emerging engineers will be to design and evaluate ever-faster appearing scientific developments. Hence, their education must be based on sound principles, their toolkit of techniques must be rich and they should demonstrate the ability to translate "real world" issues into a framework for problem-solving. Additionally, I believe that setting a high standard and demanding excellence from students in a respectful and collegial atmosphere has been effective in imparting a deep-seated ability and love for the subject. Since joining Illinois, I have developed several new courses and other educational venues while participating actively in the development of the departmental curriculum.

Courses typically consist of lectures on principles and joint efforts with students in and after class to tackle the heavy workload. Progress is measured by personal interactions during class, demonstration of mastering the topics via examinations and homework. Students are finally asked to solve an open-ended problem (often undertaken in groups) that allows them to experience a sense of achievement and realize the importance of course topics. My primary goals were to make courses innovative, challenging and intellectually stimulating at an appropriate level for our students while integrating the topics seamlessly with the departmental curriculum that we were developing at the same time.

- Rohit Bhargava

News

2011 NanoBiophotonics Summer School announced! Please see here for details and to apply.

Prof. Bhargava appointed Fellow of the Teaching Academy in Engineering. There is only one fellow position in the college of engineering.

Prof. Bhargava receives the Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence. The award, which annually recognizes one engineering faculty member for outstanding undergraduate teaching, is one of the most coveted awards available to the faculty and serves to emphasize the importance attached to good teaching in the college.