My roots

July 8, 2026

Storing things in an attic, forgetting about them for thirty years, and then rediscovering them may get you into tears. It happened to me just now. I can only recommend going through this process yourself. So, up to the attic and store some stuff that you think is valuable, but not in your direct need. Let's get back to the beginning of this all.

My engineering education

When I studied engineering in the early nineties of last century, I had some magnificent professors. Some of them are still alive, some of them have passed away. I think of them even up till this day. They mastered the state of the art ánd the art of teaching. I also had some 'professors-by-accident'. They did not master the state of the art or the art of teaching. I guess that every profession has professionals and accidents-continuously-happening. We studied transistor circuits containing feedback loops. Trying to explain what we measured in the lab was not easy, especially since the course material that was available to us was close to nonexistent. Actually, there was some material, but its quality was sub par. So whas the quality of the teacher. None of the students was able to make sense out of what we measured in the lab, and at some time I found myself being stared at by a number of fellow students. One of them uttered out-loud what they were all thinking: "you're the smart guy, you tell us what we need to do."

My first syllabus

So I spent some time going to the library, finding some books, reading about the topic. I digested it and condensed it into a small set of course notes titled 'Feedback.' I even gave a two-hour lecture to my fellow students. Were the lecture and the course material of high quality? Not according to my current standards, but in all honesty: as a first attempt it could have been worse. I recently rediscovered that syllabus, emptying the attic of my parental home. Tears were welling up. I found one of the telltales of how I got onto the path of teaching. Trying to help my fellow students to understand a nontrivial matter, and finding myself being not half bad at it. I scanned the document and will keep the scan in my personal archive. I may use parts of that bundle again for my course on control theory.

Being pedantic

I'm sure that some of the teaching staff at that time found my behavior quite pedantic, especially since at the end of the very same year, I gathered some of my co-students to write a quality report about the engineering degree program we were registered in. I must admit, I probably was a little bit of an arrogant lad at that time. I think I've toned down since. However, I still like students how enter my examination room with a little bit of an attitude suggesting "hey, ask me what you want to know, I'm ready for it." If they fail miserably, hopefully it is a point of reflection for them and they tone down a bit. However, sometimes they hit the ball out of the park. Then the smile on my face lasts several days. I genuinly feel proud of them. A bright future is waiting ahead.

Establishing your own progress

I must admit I was pleased to see that the course material I rediscovered was not of a very high quality. I could clearly see some pedagogical mistakes that were made. Details that did not matter were drawn into the conversation (me showing off what I knew), an ordering that was not logical, and the framing on why this topic mattered was totally missing. This reassured me that my talent for teaching matured over time and that it is has become more than a talent, it has become a skill. Anyway, I cannot but recommend: go and bury some stuff in your atic!