BME professor and DIIGI lab director named Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow
Kenny Tao, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and Vanderbilt Institute in Surgery and Engineering (VISE) affiliate, has been named a 2018-19 Junior Faculty Teaching Fellow.
The Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt University awards yearlong fellowships to faculty to enhance their teaching skills as become active members of the campus teaching community. Structured professional development activities are aimed to help Fellows refine their teaching skills and learn more efficient ways to teach.
“The opportunity to interact with students is one of the primary reasons I moved to Vanderbilt,” Tao said. “I’ve taught a couple of undergraduate classes and a graduate elective in the last two years and am getting comfortable enough in front of a classroom to start experimenting with new pedagogical approaches.”
Fellows participate in a community of other teachers that include past Junior Faculty Teaching Fellows, senior faculty mentors and center senior staff. They also receive $2,000 in research funds that may be used to enrich their teaching.
“Many of the professors in my department have been part of the program in past years and had great experiences,” said Tao, who is director of the DIIGI Lab. “I’m excited to see how I can become a better and more effective teacher through the year.”
Several other VISE affiliates have been teaching follows, including Haoxiang Luo (mechanical engineering), Bennett Landman (electrical engineering and computer science), William Grissom (biomedical engineering), Pietro Valdastri (mechanical engineering), and Brett Byram (biomedical engineering).