Tsividis Recognized with the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award

Yannis Tsividis of Columbia University will be recognized in 2005 with the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award "for superlative teaching that has inspired the imagination and nurtured the intellect of undergraduates in electrical engineering."
"Tsividis's contributions to undergraduate teaching and advising are legendary at Columbia. They are felt in the classroom teaching, in major curricular revisions and enhancements, in writings about effective teaching, and in authorship of well-regarded textbooks," said Tony F. Heinz, department chair at Columbia University.
Fellow Columbia faculty member Ken Shepard agrees. "Tsividis sets the 'gold standard' for what it means to be a faculty member with a truly integrated approach to research and teaching." He serves "as a role model for young faculty in the department. He is always brimming with new ideas, energy, and excitement and has the ability in every situation to ask the questions that expose the fundamental principle in whatever you are doing."
Bob Meyer, University of California, Berkeley, notes that Tsividis is "always meticulously prepared as a lecturer. He takes his audiences through difficult material in a way that makes the subject seem easy. He is a student of his field in the broadest sense of the word, always looking for new and better ways to tie the basic concepts together for his audience while providing rigorous in-depth treatment of his subject."
Heinz continues, "His student evaluations are remarkable especially when one considers that Tsividis typically offers the tough introductory courses for the major that students often find to be somewhat of a shock. Tsividis does not get these superb evaluations by lowering standards. Rather, he really makes the students learn by the remarkable clarity of his lectures, by the enthusiasm that he conveys for the subject, and-frankly-by his personal insistence that the students really understand the material. It is this combination that makes the students so devoted to him."
In 2003 Tsividis received Columbia's Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. "Given the size of the university, the competition for this award is fierce. To have a chance of winning, the case must be absolutely overwhelming and must rest on widespread support of students who are willing to write in support of the nomination," commented Heinz. Meyer recalls, "Even early in his career as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, Tsividis displayed his talent and passion for teaching when he was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 1972 and 1975." Since joining the faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department of Columbia University in 1976, he has won the Great Teacher Award (1999), the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award (1998), and the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching (2003).
Curriculum Revision
Columbia's comprehensive revision of its undergraduate curriculum was a massive endeavor that Tsivids chaired. It has succeeded in satisfying the students' desire for more flexibility and topicality, while not forsaking a curriculum grounded in strong fundamentals. Heinz recalls "the revision involved everything from philosophical questions of what is most essential in undergraduate education (general or specialized, fundamental or oriented towards current technology, etc.) to available teaching resources and the coordination of courses with those in other departments and a plan for smooth implementation." The effort completely reorganized the subject matter of several traditional courses, and incorporated separate lab classes into lecture courses. "Tsividis even induced the math department to restructure their offerings to better support engineering curricula." Heinz concluded, "The results of this effort have been met with great satisfaction by both the students and faculty."
As part of the curriculum revision, Tsividis created a lab-based Introduction to Electrical Engineering. This course serves as a sampler for prospective electrical engineering majors, as well as giving committed majors a better perspective of the discipline as a whole before they encounter the more mathematically oriented core courses. Heinz reported that "the new course was so successful at Columbia that the School of Engineering and Applied Science has urged all of its departments to develop an equivalent introductory course to assist students in making an informed choice about their major."

The Award
The IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award is a Technical Field Award of the Institute established by the Board of Directors in 1990 to honor teachers of electrical and electronics engineering and the related disciplines "for inspirational teaching of undergraduate students in the fields of interest of the IEEE." Selection criteria include contributions such as curriculum development, authorship of course materials, involvement with students and faculty in advisory capacities, as well as "attracting students to engineering and scientific professions, and preparing them for effective careers in engineering and the sciences." It is presented to an individual only. The award consists of a bronze medal, a certificate, and a cash honorarium that will be presented at the ISSCC 7 February 2005.