Teaching College Computer Science

Starting last summer I began exploring ways to get back into teaching. Other than corporate training it has been over 15 years since I last taught a formal class (a low-level computer science class at Wright State University) and I miss it. At a TechStart fundraiser I had a conversation with Dick Knight, current interim Dean of Engineering at Portland State and fellow TechStart board member, about becoming an adjunct instructor and he made all the right introductions into their CS and OMSE programs. Given the choice I would teach something very professionally oriented - software engineering and process, senior capstone projects, etc. However, I suspect I'm not alone in the adjunct space where choice wasn't really an option - you take what you can get, and what you get is probably what the full-time faculty is either not interested in or not available to teach. For me this means teaching a discrete structures class for engineers (non-CS majors), which I gladly agreed to for many reasons. It is a stretch for me to reconnect and reinforce some concepts I hadn't fully explored in 20 years, and it is extremely relevant to some curriculum work I'm doing for Oregon and TechStart.

Anyway, feel free to entertain yourself with some of my lecture notes or homework problems. Fortunately Dr. Jim Hein left a great wealth of material for me to use for this class.