The offices of Cheryl Regehr, Vice-President & Provost and Susan McCahan, Vice-Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education are delighted to announce the recipients of the 2017-18 University of Toronto Early Career Teaching Award and the 2018 University of Toronto Teaching Fellowship.

The Early Career Teaching Award recognizes faculty members who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to student learning, pedagogical engagement and teaching innovation. Up to four awards of $3,000 are offered annually. Four U of T teaching stream professors are recognized in the Early Career Teaching Award category including David Liu, an assistant professor, teaching stream in the Department of Computer Science.

Professor David Liu has taught at the University of Toronto since 2013, and was appointed to his current position at the Department of Computer Science in the Faculty of Arts & Science in 2015. His subject expertise and passion for innovative teaching methods has led to the design and implementation of significant curricular and pedagogical developments in the seven courses he has taught in computer science. The committee was particularly impressed by Professor Liu’s ongoing contributions to the development of various pedagogical software tools used to support the learning of thousands of computer science students each year. This software haS also given a valuable experiential learning opportunity to over seventy undergraduates, who have developed the software through summer internships, senior capstone courses, work-study positions, and the Research Opportunity Program. Despite his junior status, Professor Liu has taken an active leadership role in the Computer Science undergraduate program, and is actively engaged in current efforts to broaden and innovate computer science education across the University.

Sohee Kang, an assistant professor, teaching stream in the Department of Computer and Mathematical sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, was also recognized with an Early Career Teaching Award.