Teaching

My teaching is built around a simple goal: helping students become confident civil engineers who can solve real problems with clarity, evidence, and professional judgement. I want students to leave my courses with strong problem-solving skills, a solid grasp of foundational concepts, and the ability to connect classroom theory with the needs of communities and infrastructure systems. Because many learners, especially early-stage undergraduates, struggle with abstraction and self-direction, I design my courses so they repeatedly practise inquiry, reflection, and hands-on application.

I keep students engaged by anchoring each course in real-life projects. In my wastewater treatment class, for example, students begin the semester by choosing their own locality and taking the role of a design engineer responsible for preparing a sewage management plan. Every topic, such as flow estimation, unit processes, treatment selection, and reactor sizing, feeds into a design that grows week by week. By the end of the course, they produce a complete and defensible system layout for their chosen area. This project-based approach sparks curiosity, provides a clear purpose for each lecture, and helps students overcome design-related anxiety.

To help students grasp difficult concepts, I organise content around conceptual frameworks that we revisit throughout the semester. This cultivates the kind of structured understanding that supports long-term learning. My teaching methods combine visual demonstrations, guided problem-solving, collaborative worksheets, short reflections, and simple simulations—for instance, modelling contaminant dispersion or aeration requirements using openly available tools. I also incorporate appropriate modern teaching aids when they enhance learning, such as digital notebooks and structured LLM-assisted exercises that help students test ideas, organise calculations, or explore alternative design approaches. These tools are used carefully and transparently so that they support, rather than replace, engineering reasoning.

Classroom challenges are inevitable, particularly when students enter with varied levels of preparation and confidence. I address this by scaffolding tasks, clarifying expectations, and structuring group work so that each student has a defined role and a fair opportunity to contribute. Feedback from my courses consistently highlights clarity of instruction, patience, and the usefulness of real-world examples in increasing confidence. These comments remind me that maintaining a supportive and structured environment is as important as technical content.

My Research in wastewater valorisation and bioenergy directly enriches my teaching. Topics such as sludge-to-hydrogen conversion, energy-efficient treatment pathways, and resource recovery appear in case studies, mini design challenges, and discussions on sustainability. This helps students see how innovation emerges from systematic inquiry and how environmental engineering increasingly connects treatment, energy, and circular resource use.