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Professor Timothy Sherwood, an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at UCSB, was recently awarded the Distinguished Teaching Award by the Academic Senate. The award is given in recognition of the efforts of faculty members who have successfully united teaching and research. Nominees are judged by their fellow professors on their excellence in teaching and their contributions to the teaching mission of the University.

Professor Sherwood joined Computer Science in 2003. He holds appointments in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering and the College of Creative Studies. He is also a founding member of the UCSB Center for Computing Education & Diversity.

In summarizing Professor Sherwood’s teaching evaluations, Computer Science chair Subhash Suri notes that the professor’s scores are consistently impressive, and even his lowest ratings since starting at UCSB exceed the college average. Furthermore, Professor Sherwood’s scores are particularly remarkable, because, says Suri, he achieved this “while teaching some of the most difficult required upper-division classes in the curriculum.”

In addition to his excellent teaching in the classroom, Professor Sherwood is acknowledged by many for his after-class activities. Professor Suri praises Professor Sherwood’s “dedication to education and excellence, which spans his work in the classroom, the laboratory, and our student community. He also works with students to excite them about our field, and to prepare them for professional life outside the university.”

Professor Sherwood’s students were grateful for the time and dedication he put into his role as “Faculty Liaison” with the student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery. Another student describes how he organizes “programming contests for undergraduate students, events where students can come together, program for many hours in a friendly competition, and essentially form a community that sees computer science has a fun pastime.” Students were impressed that he conducts these events “by staying late into the night, even when he has papers to submit, grants to apply for, and classes to teach without letting his performance drop for any of these primary tasks.”

Finally, one of his students states that “Professor Sherwood’s work as a teacher and mentor is stunning; it doesn’t just shine through in examples like the ones above, but is a practice that he has kept up every single day for the last 7 years that I have known him.”

In their official announcement, the Academic Senate stated that Professor Sherwood was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award for “his dedication to teaching excellence.” Many congratulations to Professor Sherwood!