This fall, two new teaching faculty will join the Department of Computer Science: David Hovemeyer as an associate teaching professor and Ali Madooei as a lecturer.
Hovemeyer earned his doctorate in computer science from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining Hopkins, he taught at Vassar College and York College of Pennsylvania. His research interests include static analysis, systems software, and computer science education. He will be teaching Computer Systems Fundamentals and Intermediate Programming.
When he’s not teaching, Hovemeyer enjoys tinkering with vintage digital hardware from the ’70s.
“These are the CPUs and memory devices, the low-level components of computer hardware that in a past life would have been known as state-of-the-art. I like building new hardware out of these obsolete devices,” says Hovemeyer.
A recent transplant from Vancouver, Canada, Madooei sought out the chance to change his career focus from research to teaching—and Johns Hopkins granted him this opportunity. Madooei is now focused on course development and research in education and is passionate about teaching and exploiting pedagogical techniques to promote active learning, with a specific interest in how technology enables blended learning. He will be teaching the department’s Data Structure course.
In the near future, Madooei wants to develop the platform a peer-to-peer application that assists students with evaluating one another’s code.
“There is anecdotal evidence to believe code review helps novice programmers write ‘better’ code,” says Madooei. “Engaging in a review process allows higher-order thinking. It also gives the student a taste of what a software developer job involves, which they may not have any exposure to otherwise.”
Madooei earned his doctorate in Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. As a graduate student, his research spanned the areas within computer vision, especially in applications to medical image analysis. Prior to joining Hopkins, Madooei taught in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia.