Teaching Statement

Biomedical Engineering (BME) is still an emerging field and covers an incredibly wide array of topics from neural implants, to biomechanical prosthetics, to immunological vaccine development, to developing new noninvasive imaging techniques. Since BME covers such a large range of topics, students can come to the class from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines to the class, which requires instructor flexibility to maximize learning for all students.

Within BME, I focus on medical imaging, specifically ultrasound, and how it interacts with tissue and macro-scale biomechanics. Working in elasticity imaging, the intersection of imaging and biomechanics, allows me to see multiple perspectives and approach problems from both sides. For example, some students learn circuitry first, coming from electrical engineering as their background, so when learning higher order concepts, it is easier for them to use voltage, current and resistors as building blocks to create more complex systems. Other students start from a physics or biomechanics background, and so it is easier to use forces, springs, and dashpots as building blocks.

My teaching philosophy is to provide multiple ways to approach a problem or topic whenever possible. Sometimes that involves multimodal presentation of similar information. For example, in Fall 2018 I was the graduate teaching assistant for a graduate student level class on ultrasonic elasticity imaging, and in my role, was developed and taught learning modules on the finite element software LS-DYNA. I developed two approaches, one which used the graphical user interface (GUI) to work through the first example problem, shown here, and another which jumped straight into the more conventional approach of scripting the inputs using python, as seen in video tutorials here. Both the graphical and python script approach reach the same result for the first example problem, but by providing both approaches together, this allows students multiple avenues to comprehend the same material.

Spring 2021- Demonstration of in vivo ultrasound for undergraduate students in BME 303: Introduction to Medical Imaging using retired clinical ultrasound scanners.

In addition to my TAing, I have given multiple guest lectures, including a lecture on viscoelastic material modeling (while a TA for Ultrasound Elasticity), and one on the basics of ultrasound imaging (as a guest lecture for Duke's Introduction to Medical Imaging class), seen here. But I also believe in combining lectures with hands-on approaches: while working with the professor for Introduction to Medical Imaging and Duke’s undergraduate lab curriculum coordinator, I suggested a new hands-on approach to understanding ultrasound. As seen in the photos below, by using retired clinical ultrasound machines that were otherwise being sent to Duke’s surplus, I developed a curriculum to give students a hands-on opportunity to try ultrasound imaging themselves.

By pouring cornstarch mixed with water into 3D printed cups with designs printed on the bottom of the cup (called phantoms), students can learn truly have hands on experience using an ultrasound transducer to identifying which design is at the bottom of the cup. While the actual assessment is a simple matching exercise, students learn a lot about the benefits and limitations of ultrasound imaging.


While I first piloted this curriculum with high school students in a Duke summer program in the summer of 2017, I have continued to receive feedback and tune the activity for the undergraduate students every spring since. My ultrasound lab component was eventually adopted by all instructors of the course and will be part of the curriculum even after I graduate. Additionally, students now create some of their own phantoms at the beginning of the semester to be included in the matching assessment with the instructor provided phantoms, which increases their investment and engagement with the material.


I also continue to work on my development as an instructor by enrolling in programs such as Duke’s Certificate for College Teaching. As part of this program, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Spring 2021, I enrolled in GS 762: Online Teaching and digital pedagogy, and adapted the curriculum I had helped teach in person in Fall 2018 for an online format, as seen here. I hope in the future to continue to improve my teaching by participating in teaching feedback groups and other assessments.

Courses To Teach

Based on my background and research interests I would be able to teach the following courses at the undergraduate level:

  • Introduction to Signals and Systems (Fourier Transforms, Laplace Transforms)

  • Introduction to Medical Devices (principles of biomedical electronics focusing on circuitry and instrumentation using micro-controllers for data acquisition and processing)

  • Introduction to Medical Imaging (Basics of Ultrasound, X-ray, CT, Nuclear Medicine, MRI, Photoacoustics, PET)

  • Introduction to Biomechanics (Mechanics applicable to orthopedics and human movement and physiology, basic viscoelastic modeling)


And the following courses at the graduate or advanced undergraduate level:

  • Introduction to Ultrasound (fundamentals of ultrasound imaging and acoustics, optics, attenuation and imaging quality parameters)

  • Introduction to Tissue Biomechanics (mechanical behaviors of biological tissues, cells and molecules of the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems)

  • Elasticity Imaging (implementation of elasticity imaging techniques specifically acoustic radiation force based methods, focusing on wave propagation in soft tissues, algorithms for quantifying wave speed; and material models employed in elasticity reconstruction methods.)