Elizabeth Zavitz
Faculty of Engineering
Using GenAI to get students to spend more time on real problems
Elizabeth wants her students to carry forward the mindset that every problem has many solutions.
What are you doing differently in your field that you believe is driving real change?
Using genAI to get students to spend more time on real problems, less time struggling with technical issues; focussing on navigating interdisciplinary connections across electrical engineering, statistics, physiology and medicine to design solutions to interesting problems.
How do you help students build confidence, not just knowledge?
I give them the opportunity to create something, and let them make a lot of decisions about what the final product will look like. I'm interested in their ability to defend and explain their choices, not whether they can follow specific instructions.
What do you hope your students take away from their time with you? Is there a student moment you’ll never forget, and why?
I hope they learn how to be curious about what good solutions to problems can look like and how to think critically about whether a solution is good or not. I hope they learn to communicate their evidence and reasoning in a way that's compelling to their future collaborators.
What do you hope your students remember about you 10 years from now? What mindset do you want your students to carry into their careers?
I hope they remember me as someone who believed in them. I want them to carry forward the mindset that every problem has many solutions, and they can think expansively about what those solutions can mean.
I hope my students learn how to be curious about what good solutions to problems can look like, and how to think critically about whether a solution is good or not. ”
How do you tailor your teaching approach to engage and inspire today's students?
I've only been in the classroom for a few years, so I've been starting from scratch, understanding higher education in the world of remote learning and generative AI. I do what I can to bring elements of that into the teaching I do at the scale of modern higher ed: projects with a lot of independence, as much material as possible from primary sources, planning workshops with space and time to discuss ideas in small groups.
What does being a teacher allow you to do that nothing else can? Was there a moment you realised that your work as an educator goes beyond what happens in the classroom?
I am so grateful to be in a position where I can lift others up. It costs me nothing to do things like make introductions, give advice, be kind and encouraging, but to be able to pay forward the things my mentors have done for me is a gift.