Associate Professor Alec Jacobson is a 2022-2023 recipient of the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Outstanding Teaching Award. (Photo: Orbelina Cortez-Barbosa)
Taking on the role of an “archaeologist” in a seminar on geometry and animation might not sound quite right to the untrained ear. But Associate Professor Alec Jacobson’s innovative approach to teaching gets students engaging with course materials in some unexpected ways.
As they take on this role, graduate students in the seminar place papers in the context of past research and future research which encourages them to assess a paper’s relative novelty and contribution to the literature. They are also encouraged to engage directly with primary sources — the paper’s authors — providing opportunities to build connections with the wider research community.
It is one of the many ways Jacobson has gone beyond traditional pedagogy to keep students engaged while preparing them for their future careers.
In recognition of his exemplary contributions, the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Arts & Science has named Jacobson as a recipient of its Outstanding Teaching Award.
The annual honour recognizes teaching excellence in undergraduate and graduate education with a focus on classroom instruction, course design and curriculum development.
From early on in their computer science studies, Jacobson’s undergraduate students are given the opportunity to take what they are learning in his lectures and apply it through hands-on programming assignments.
This experiential method requires them not only to understand the mathematics behind a particular approach, but also how to implement it efficiently. For example, students taking geometry processing learn how mathematicians seek to understand smooth 3D surfaces, then they implement these ideas using algorithms.
His assignments challenge students intellectually and prepare them for future career opportunities. On several occasions, students have shown their solutions to his assignments in job interviews or in their online portfolios.
Jacobson joined U of T in 2016. He is a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science and member of the Dynamic Graphics Project (dgp) lab. He is also a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute. His computer graphics research is focused on geometry processing, computer animation, computational fabrication and user interfaces.
With an eye on deepening their learning, many undergraduate students in Jacobson’s courses have been inspired to pursue research in related fields. Jacobson regularly publishes top-tier peer-reviewed articles with undergraduate students appearing as primary authors — a rare occurrence in computer science — and helps his student researchers build strong portfolios that can propel them to future career success.
In his graduate teaching, Jacobson’s role-playing seminar format grew from the realization that individual students’ presentations curtail class participation. Instead, he invites students to take on a particular role when reading assigned research papers. In doing so, students examine the human aspects of research: how do people conduct research? What shapes their careers? How is peer review carried out? What are the social impacts of this technical research?
This teaching method has been adopted by other instructors both within and beyond the department, including at Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, the University of Washington, UT Austin, New York University, IIT Bombay and other universities around the globe.
Jacobson has been instrumental in the renewal of the department’s computer graphics courses. He redesigned the 400-level Computer Graphics course to focus on modern fundamentals of the field and adapted the learning outcomes to current student needs by designing it around hands-on programming assignments. The redesigned course required fewer pre-requisites, opening a pathway for undergraduates to take more graphics-related courses.
Through his teaching, Jacobson has championed equity, diversity and inclusion.
Becoming particularly aware of the issues facing transgender students, Jacobson has gained the trust of members of this marginalized community by advocating on their behalf and making efforts to create an especially inclusive teaching environment.
As computer science continues to shape and transform our world, it is important to ensure the field is reflective of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
As another example of his dedication to engaging students from a range of backgrounds, Jacobson has served as an advisor for the Toronto Geometry Colloquium web series, which features research presentations from members of groups that are traditionally under-represented in the discipline.
Eyal de Lara, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, praised Jacobson for his impact on computer science education at U of T.
“Alec has made impressive contributions to undergraduate and graduate teaching that have been felt both within our department and far beyond. He deeply engages students with a teaching philosophy that embraces open-source science and community outreach,” said de Lara. “We are excited to see how Alec will continue to drive positive change for our students, the department and the computer science community at large.”