Chris Backhouse

Dr. Christopher James Backhouse, Professor, P.Eng. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada Email: chris.backhouse@uwaterloo.ca Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 31467 Office: QNC 3622

Overview of Teaching at Various Levels

At the undergraduate level, with one instructor to many students, we seek to instill a keen awareness and understanding of the standard tools, theories and methods. As a metric, our students will often be asked to solve several standard problems in an hour or so. In the capstone courses and those other courses that involve substantial engineering design, we seek to develop critical thinking skills and judgement, typically in smaller groups and in project that last weeks or months. At the graduate level we work on a one-on-one basis with a primary emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving. As a metric, our students are asked to solve something never before solved, on a time scale of years.

Courses Taught

At the U. of Alberta, my primary courses were presently EE 455 (nanobiotechnology) and the Engineering Physics design capstone courses EE494, 495, 496 and 497. In addition to various graduate-level courses, I taught EE 316 and 470 (electromagnetism), EE 401 (capstone design), and EE 459 (introduction to nanotechnologies).

At the U. of Waterloo, I have taught NE471 (nanoelectronics) and NE479T03 (nanobiotechnologies, each Winter term) and have an upcoming graduate course on quantum nanobiotechnology.