A “wonderful lecturer and great professor” who “really cares about his students and how they are doing.” “Very entertaining, approachable,” and “always has a positive attitude.”

These are some of the sentiments undergraduate students shared about Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream Mario Badr, winner of the Computer Science Student Union (CSSU) Teaching Award for the 2021-2022 academic year. The CSSU bestows the annual honour based on student nominations.

This year, Badr taught the introductory Foundations of Computer Science courses (CSC110Y and CSC111H) and Microprocessor Systems (CSC385H), and students praised his “patient and understanding” approach to teaching.

Wrote one first-year student: “I was nervous about entering university, especially into a CS program. But Prof. Badr made transitioning into university and the CS world so engaging and fun!”

In their nominations, students praised Badr’s adept handling of the multiple modalities of teaching and learning that have defined the past two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“He really cares about his students' success, and makes you feel seen and heard even in a lecture with 200+ people,” remarked another student.

“I am honoured to be the recipient of this semester’s CSSU Teaching Award,” said Badr. “The comments really helped me see that my students and I were successful in building an inclusive and safe space for learning computer science.”

Badr joined the Department of Computer Science in July 2020. Born in Lebanon, he first joined the University of Toronto as a computer engineering undergraduate in 2005. Since then, he has explored much of what the University has to offer, including a professional experience year at Environment Canada, graduate school, completing his PhD in computer architecture in 2019 with Dr. Enright Jerger, and a postdoctoral fellowship centered around teaching.