To me, teaching equals sharing while learning. My mom was my first teacher, so at a very early age I learned the beauty of asking questions and experienced how questions can expand our world. I also learned that love and knowledge increase if we share them.

Now, as a faculty member at MIT, I continue to explore—and expand—my ideas about teaching, learning, and how we interact with the world. I am passionate about the importance of blending science and art, and finding innovative ways to combine personal passions with scientific exploration.

At the Media Lab, I teach a popular course series, entitled Decoders (1.0, 1.1, 1.2): Learn, Imagine, Integrate, Design, Fabricate, Demo. At first glance, my approach to teaching and mentorship might look quite unusual—especially at a university so entrenched in science and engineering—because I place a strong emphasis on being a well-rounded citizen. Students pursue studies ranging from micro-scale electronics and bioengineering, to technical writing, and even to filmmaking—all of which are necessary not only to produce great science with profound integrity, but also to capture and communicate their scientific creations to the outside world.

The purpose of my three-course Decoders series is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the microfabrication processes that embody "decoders." Students obtain proficiency in microfabrication techniques while understanding their impact in driving toward new technological developments. At the end of this course, the students identify a real-world problem, and then, working in our YellowBox cleanroom, microfabricate a device to address it. When completed, they demo this device to the world.

Given that device design and microfabrication is similar to cooking in the kitchen, I encourage all my students to create their own “recipes,” and thus not be dependent on a textbook or set curriculum. In fact, students compose their own textbook with the definitions of microfabrication terms using their own wording and imagination after learning these terms in the classroom. I believe having this flexibility allows all students to be more creative in blending their passion/style with their science without reservation. I also believe having no emphasis on grading (all my courses are pass/fail) encourages all to be less worried about being “evaluated” with a letter grade. To be honest, when I was a student, I never enjoyed being graded or having my studies framed by fixed textbooks. As a faculty member, I really wanted to create a course series that requires no grading, but rather encourages more personality and creative exploration. I am very happy to achieve one of my long-lasting dreams at the Media Lab—and especially pleased that my students have reacted so positively to this approach.

As an additional part of the learning process, all students get the opportunity, via Skype, to consult with leading experts in relevant fields of research throughout the world. This interaction gives them new insights while exposing them to a wide variety of current research topics.

My favorite part about this course—and the most intimate and memorable experience for me—is having the entire class submit an article forecasting the trends and needs of such biomedical devices, based on what they have learned from these experts, for submission to a scholarly peer-reviewed journal. In addition to the overall experience and skill set that this gives the students, having my name shared on a publication with all of my course students is very intimate and dear to me. Last year, all Decoders 1.0, students contributed to “Towards personalized medicine: the evolution of imperceptible healthcare technologies,” published in the November 2018 issue of Foresight, a journal of future studies, strategic thinking, and policy. 

At first, writing this article with students from so many different disciplines proved challenging, but the result was so rewarding: this paper was recently selected by the journal’s editorial team as an Outstanding Paper for the 2019 Emerald Literati Awards. 

In commenting on the article, Dr. Ozcan Saritas, the publication’s editor-in-chief, wrote: “Research undertaken by Dr. Canan Dagdeviren and her students is a true application of ‘foresight on site.’ They translate visions into reality for the future of humanity. Let’s listen to the future from the people who make it happen!” 

In Decoders 1.1, in addition to learning the main aspects of microfabrication in the classroom, the students gained hands-on experience with all six components of microfabrication techniques: substrate cleaning, deposition, patterning, etching, transfer printing, and testing in our very own cleanroom. The midterm project was to create a fun, artistic video to document the microfabrication process as taught in our cleanroom. The students’ videos of the various microfabrication procedures was then published as short YouTube videos of experimental processes for global outreach.

Decoders 1.2 provides the research level for students to design their dream device, create a recipe to fabricate it, and demo its performance at the course’s conclusion.

To encourage my MAS 810 Decoders 1.2 class students to communicate their science to the broader community, we created The Bees of Science exhibit—currently on display in the Media Lab lobby—which draws upon the media, art, and sciences aspects of the students’ course research projects. 

For this exhibit, we followed a bee analogy: much as bees draw nectar from a host of different flowers, my students draw on their diverse cultural and academic backgrounds to create their scientific “honey.” I decided to display the projects of seven students in seven honeycombs. Each honeycomb shows not only a new conformable device developed by the student, but also his or her artistic/personal inspiration for the design: a grandmother’s face, an ultrasound image of an infant son, or a beautiful butterfly.

Overall, the experience to teach and learn with my students has added another dimension to my academic life. From the dimension of knowledge to the dimension of wisdom, I feel like there are lots of unknowns that we’ll continue tackling with our medical device inventions in coming years!

Here is the interview video with some of my students:

Special Thanks and Acknowledgements

On July 11, 2018, I had a chance to sit next to Mitch Resnick on the bus ride returning from the Media Lab’s summer faculty retreat (I should confess that I intentionally sat next to him☺). Mitch was so kind to listen to all of my course series plans that I composed in January 2017, soon after I joined the Media Lab as a faculty member. With his encouragement, I literally felt a strong gust of air under my wings to fly—and to proceed with my course series idea. Hearty thanks, Mitch!

I would also like to thank my dear mentors, Drs. John Rogers, Zhong Lin Wang, Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, Takao Someya, and Michael McAlpine, who so generously participated in my Decoders 1.0 course by sharing their profound experience in conformable biomedical device research and answering so many questions from my students.

Special thanks also to Erik Hansen, Senior Tech Innovation Director & Creative Play Lab, Partnering for providing us with LEGO bricks, and again to Mitch Resnick for introducing me to Erik. Playing with these LEGO bricks took me back to the fun moments of my childhood.☺