UCLA Honors Engineering Professor Jonathan Kao, Teaching Assistants Alexis Korb and Ivy Kwok for Teaching Excellence

At UCLA’s 2025 Andrea L. Night to Honor Teaching, three engineering awardees were among the 17 members across campus recognized for their commitment to education. The honorees from the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering are: Jonathan Kao, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and graduate student teaching assistants Alexis Korb from computer science and Ivy Kwok from civil and environmental engineering. 

Kao, one of eight faculty members who received the Practice of Teaching Award, was recognized for his work designing a course on artificial intelligence. He finds teaching offers scholars a way to acknowledge gaps in their own knowledge while deepening their understanding of unfamiliar concepts.

“I had to learn this material at such a depth so that I could teach the course,” Kao said. He elaborated on his teaching philosophy in a video interview with the UCLA Teaching and Learning Center

Korb and Kwok were among five graduate students who received the Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award, which recognizes innovative teaching methods and efforts to foster inclusive learning environments, among other factors. Korb encourages her students to look beyond a single homework or test grade. Because coding assignments are often graded solely on whether a program runs successfully, she emphasizes assessing students’ conceptual understanding as well. She says her goal is to help students recognize the value that comes from their attempts.

“I like to focus on giving them the intuition to ask, ‘What is actually happening? Why is this working?’ Not just the solution, but how do we actually solve this problem?’” Korb said in her interview. Her graduate advisor is computer science professor Amit Sahai.

Kwok, who is advised by civil and environmental engineering professor Shaily Mahendra, similarly aims to ensure students gain more than just academic knowledge in her class. She emphasizes small group settings as a way to encourage participation and create a more approachable learning environment. 

“It gives students a chance to think through things and be able to talk through them,” Kwok said in her interview. She added that her own experiences as a student influence how she approaches teaching.