Teaching

Teaching philosophy

I believe the best way to teach is to engage, guide, and expand.

  • A well-respected teacher should treat every student in the class indifferently and try to engage as often as possible. I believe effective teaching should be a two-way conversation, and students should be encouraged to participate.
  • As educators, teaching students problem-solving techniques is oftentimes more important than merely passing on knowledge. Besides equipping students with knowledge and skills beyond books, I try to train students with critical thinking minds.
  • Teaching should occur beyond the class setting. I enjoy interacting with students in lab settings and trying my best to help them to develop practical problem-solving skills.

Courses taught before USU

MatE 342: Structure/Property Relations in Nonferrous Metals 

Semester: Spring

Offered: 2023 and 2025


(3-0) Cr. 3. S.

Prereq: MAT E 215 or MAT E 273 or MAT E 392
Processing of metals and alloys to obtain desired mechanical properties by manipulation of their microstructure and composition of constituent phase(s). Relevance of defects to mechanical properties, plastic flow. Strengthening mechanisms in metals and alloys. Microstructure, heat treatment and mechanical properties of engineering alloys. Metal-matrix composites.

Histogram from student evaluation: overal rating >4.5/5.

Histogram from student evaluation: overal rating >4.5/5.

Student Feedback for S2023-MAT E-342-1 [Gaoyuan Ouyang (gaoyuan)] (Lecture)

  • I appreciated the step by step overview of each element. I also appreciated the low stress environment and I believe it helped a lot for my understanding of the content.
  • Reviews and very detailed notes
  • The discussion questions during class were helpful to apply lecture content in a different way, also using exams as learning tools helped a lot to allow for lower stress and focusing on learning and understanding the content and being able to use it in the ways expected.
  • The examples in class, especially the demonstrations and examples that were passed around.
  • The instructor focused on the practical applications of the concepts learnt in theory and made the course as relatable as possible.
  • The more relaxed grading allowed me to come to class to simply learn rather than get the grade.
  • The teaching style of the lectures wasn't too slow or too fast, and kept a decent pace with my writing speed to ensure I was able to both document most of the information I felt was important and listen to all lecture material
  • Very thorough teaching style. He also performed various in-class demonstrations.

Mentoring activity

  • Mentored undergraduate students for national research competitions, NCUR 2019 and CASMART 2021 (students won 1st place in the contest).
  • Supervised senior design, MatE 414 Senior Design, MSE, ISU, Ames, IA, 09/2020