Each year, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University recognizes outstanding educators through its Distinguished and Excellent Teaching Awards, honoring faculty members’ efforts and contributions in classroom instruction, curriculum design, and student engagement. Professor Ping-Chun Hsieh from the College of Computer Science received both the University-Level Distinguished Teaching Award and the English-Medium Instruction (EMI) Teaching Award for the 2023–2024 academic year. He also won the Excellent Teaching Award in 2021. Meanwhile, Professor Chi-Yu Li has been honored with the College EMI Teaching Award for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023). Below, we present a summary of both professors’ teaching philosophies and practical approaches, highlighting how their innovative strategies inspire students' motivation for learning and research.

Awakening the Research Spirit in Students: Professor Ping-Chun Hsieh’s Teaching Practice

Professor Ping-Chun Hsieh, currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, is known for his passion and innovation in teaching. His core teaching goal is to "awaken the research spirit in students." By encouraging students to reframe their self-identities, he helps them naturally integrate into the academic community and develop a self-driven attitude toward learning.

Drawing inspiration from the book Atomic Habits, Professor Hsieh designed a three-pronged teaching strategy—Inspiration, Participation, and Foundation—and applies it across three key courses: Probability, Principles of Reinforcement Learning, and Optimization Algorithms.

In the Inspiration phase, Professor Hsieh leads students to explore cutting-edge theories using his own course materials. He also incorporates stories from the research community—for example, how reinforcement learning contributes to ChatGPT or the academic roots of linear programming as seen in the movie Good Will Hunting—to strengthen students' sense of connection to the scholarly world.

During the Participation phase, students engage in semester-end projects such as the RL Reproducibility Challenge, where they reproduce algorithms from top-tier papers and open-source their results, becoming contributors to the research community. He also organizes mini-conferences, giving students opportunities to practice peer reviewing and feedback writing, further immersing them in the research ecosystem.

The Foundation component involves linking fundamental concepts with frontier research. For instance, he connects everyday examples like divination (using moon blocks) to theoretical ideas such as concentration inequalities, then guides students to see their application in reinforcement learning models used in ChatGPT. He also designs engaging and practical assignments that enhance both reasoning and implementation skills.

In addition to course content, Professor Hsieh teaches EMI courses and, since 2024, has joined NVIDIA’s course initiative to offer advanced deep learning classes. He has also obtained instructor certification through this program.

In EMI teaching, continuing his identity-based strategy, Professor Hsieh starts each class with a five-minute "English science chat" or discussion on trending shows to improve students’ language intuition and foster interest in expression. For English writing, he provides detailed handouts that guide students to re-learn content from a teaching perspective while developing their writing skills.

 

Enhancing Classroom Interaction and English Learning: Professor Chi-Yu Li’s Teaching Philosophy

Professor Chi-Yu Li, who leads the Network and Mobile Systems Laboratory (NEMS) in the Department of Computer Science, has received the EMI Teaching Award for two consecutive years. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses entirely in English, including Queueing Theory, Computer Security Integration and Practice, and Mobile Network Security.

Professor Li’s teaching philosophy centers around four key principles:

1. Clarifying Key Points and Guiding Thinking: Emphasizing structured summaries and real-time interaction during lectures.
2. Connecting to Real-World Applications: Using practical case studies to illustrate how theories apply in real-world contexts.
3. Integrating Research Projects: Aligning coursework with research to enhance hands-on and applied skills.
4. Providing Timely Feedback and Support: Actively responding to questions and offering after-class assistance.

To support students in EMI settings, Professor Li adopts various strategies:

• Detailed Lecture Notes: To compensate for potential gaps in listening comprehension and enhance review effectiveness.
• Repetition of Key Concepts: Explaining crucial ideas in multiple ways to deepen understanding and help overcome language barriers.
• Class Recordings for Review: The noticeable increase in video views shows how helpful this resource is for students.

Through the teaching practices of Professors Ping-Chun Hsieh and Chi-Yu Li, we witness how passionate and innovative educators can foster interactive and meaningful learning environments. Their approaches not only strengthen students’ academic foundations but also ignite enthusiasm for research and interdisciplinary exploration, fulfilling both educational and scholarly missions.