The most important part of teaching is inspiration. Convey that, and the rest will follow.

A web-app automating teaching

It started off as a hobby project during corona, but it quickly grew out of hand. I set up the web-app Step-Wise that automates large parts of teaching. It's focused on mathematics, physics and engineering mechanics.

Students learn best through practice, so Step-Wise is built around practice exercises. Students can enter their solutions (often expressions/equations and physical quantities with units) in an intuitive way, and directly get specific automated feedback on their work. Their progress is tracked using a self-designed machine learning algorithm (a dynamic Bayesian network) and the resulting predictions are then used to recommend new practice exercises, coaching students along the way. It is being applied in practice at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences with very promising results.

Teaching a course through comics

When teaching a Thermodynamics course, I got complaints from students that they thought the subject matter was very dry. It was hard getting through the book. I figured I'd make it more tangible by turning the course into a comic.

One nice Christmas holiday later, with lots of hours spent drawing, the work is done. You can now study Thermodynamics through comics! The students were very excited. You can check it out, but beware: it is in Dutch.

I may translate it at one point, but there are no definite plans for that yet.

A new way of conveying information

Some time ago I gave a TEDx talk on my ideas of how education can be improved. The great thing is: I've actually implemented these ideas and applied them to a course!

In short, I've made animation videos that are adaptible. That is, the user can ask the video to become shorter (more summarized) or longer (more elaborate). In this way, we can give everyone education at the right level, saving lots of students tons of time.

You can find some example videos on the dedicated website. The experiment has finished now, so they may be taken offline in the future.

Teaching at the TU Delft

Teaching is fun! Which is why I do it a lot. I used to teach at the TU Delft. Some of the courses I have taught are:

  • Basic Systems & Control Theory (bachelor level)
  • Nonlinear Control Theory
  • Knowledge Based Control Theory
  • Control Systems Lab
  • Differential Equations
  • Engineering Mechanics

At the moment I teach at the Utrecht University of Applied Sciences. I teach Mechanical Engineering, varying which courses I give every year.

Ultimate Frisbee trainer/coach

I'm a trainer for the sport of Ultimate Frisbee. Over the years, I've taught a ton of new players the sport, including various kids at several schools in Zambia, which definitely was a memorable experience.

I've also been coach of the Dutch national under 23 team, which has been an amazing experience. I've managed to teach these guys a couple of tricks, but they've also taught me so many things concerning group work, team dynamics, keeping people motivated, and more.