DeMarco receives Chancellor's Award for outstanding teaching

Christopher L. DeMarco (18K JPG)

Professor Christopher DeMarco is among a group of eight educational leaders who have won this spring's University of Wisconsin-Madison Distinguished Teaching Awards. He has received the Chancellor's Award.

Something of an educational conduit, DeMarco has a special gift for creating synergy between on-campus undergraduate students and nontraditional students who take his distance-learning courses. Working engineers in continuing education classes contribute real-world problems and concerns that DeMarco incorporates into the rest of his courses. In turn, he transfers back to industry the new developments and insights gleaned from the classroom and lab.

Students of all levels cite DeMarco's use of innovative technology in teaching. He has "engineered" an extensive set of computational tools used by students on campus and off. DeMarco is also experimenting with web-based video materials to supplement difficult lecture material in one of his electrical circuits courses.

"Skills students develop in electrical and computer engineering are critical in shaping our nation and world, enabling the creation of vital new technology. Perhaps more importantly, they foster analytical thinking and a problem-solving approach that will be necessary to effectively manage this new technology and integrate it into society in a beneficial manner," says DeMarco, who joined the engineering faculty in 1985.