[2020] This year's Teaching Awards saw over thirty academics and courses from Informatics nominated across all categories, with three making the shortlist: Pavlos Andreadis, Iain Murray and Philip Wadler's course 'Types and Semantics for Programming Languages'. Every year the Students' Association hold Teaching Awards to recognise and celebrate all of the work that teachers, tutors, supervisors and support staff do to make students' learning experience the best it can be. The Awards are entirely decided by students, from initial nominations to shortlisting and deciding the winners, so recognition reflects a high level of student satisfaction. Many of our staff are nominated regularly and have won in the past, for instance Iain Murray won the Van Heyningen Award for Teaching in Science and Engineering in 2015. Staff are also often nominated in multiple categories, such as Philip Wadler who was nominated for both Teacher of the Year and Outstanding Course, or Ian Stark who was nominated for Supervisor of the Year, Outstanding Feedback, and Teacher of the Year. It is great to see our staff be appreciated for the consistent quality of excellence they maintain in their teaching. Out of the over thirty nominations from the School, three nominees were shortlisted based on these anonymous testimonies: Dr Pavlos Andreadis was a fantastic MSc Supervisor, providing unparalleled enthusiasm, knowledge, and support... Due to my fantastic MSc experience, particularly researching my self-proposed dissertation, I am now actively pursuing a PhD. This would almost certainly not be the case had I not had such positive experiences researching my MSc dissertation, largely due to Pavlos. Pavlos Andreadis, runner up in the Supervisor of the Year category Types and Semantics for Programming Languages was the single best course I took throughout my time at the University of Edinburgh. Philip Wadler clearly poured his heart into teaching it, including writing a whole textbook including exercises specifically for the course." "One of the most inspiring courses. Philip designed a course that is both very theoretical and very practical. Philip Wadler's course 'Types and Semantics for Programming Languages', runner up in the Outstanding Course category Dr Murray’s lectures were enjoyable, stimulating and fun. During them he didn’t merely teach us machine learning, but also how to approach problems, and ways of thinking that he employs. These insights were invaluable and really bought home how lucky we are to interact with cutting edge researchers... It is no exaggeration to say that Dr Murray has profoundly influenced my future, not just in terms of my career but also in my sense of self belief and my way of thinking. Iain Murray, runner up for the Van Heyningen Award for Teaching in Science and Engineering We would like to congratulate all of the academics who were nominated and shortlisted, and thank them for their dedication to providing the best learning experience for our students. The multitude of nominations from Informatics is a great achievement that reflect well on both the individual and the School. Full List of Nominees from Informatics Supervisor of the Year Shortlisted: Pavlos Andreadis DK Arvind Alan Bundy Jacques Fleuriot Matthias Hennig Paul Patras Rik Sarkar Alan Smaill Ian Stark Outstanding Feedback Stephen Gilmore Iain Murray Ian Stark Personal Tutor of the Year Aurora Constantin Sharon Goldwater Rico Sennrich Henry Thompson Outstanding Support Staff Cristina Alexandru Sally Galloway Patrick Hudson Student Tutor of the Year Paul Anderson Bjorn Franke Sam Knight Elizabeth Neilsen Chris Vasiladiotis Stephen Waddell Outstanding Course Shortlisted: Types and Semantics for Programming Languages, Philip Wadler (2 nominations) Informatics 1: Object Oriented Programming, Volker Seeker Informatics 2C: Introduction to Computer Systems, Boris Grot Informatics Large Practical, Stephen Gilmore Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition, Iain Murray Teacher of the Year Shortlisted: Iain Murray Cristina Alexandru Paul Anderson Stephen Gilmore Boris Grot Hugh Leather Ian Stark Kartic Subr Philip Wadler This article was published on 2024-03-18
