Damith C. Rajapakse

Damith C. Rajapakse

Fellow

"Good design, when it is done well, becomes invisible” is an idea in the domain of product design. It roughly means that a good design simply facilitates the intended usage of the product in the best possible way, without drawing attention to the design itself. Good teaching too can be similarly invisible, making learning happen without drawing too much attention to the act of teaching itself. Along this vein, I aspire to teach in a way students feel the ‘learning’ more than the ‘teaching’. I aspire to teach in a way students feel they are ‘learning by themselves’ more than they are learning from me.

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Biodata

Damith C. Rajapakse received his BSc Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Moratuwa (Sri Lanka) and his PhD from NUS. A faculty member in the Department of Computer Science at the School of Computing, NUS since 2006, his research interest is mainly in the area of Software Engineering Education. He has authored or co-authored several books and is the founder of the TEAMMATES project, a public domain student peer evaluation tool used by many universities. He is a member of several teaching-related committees in his faculty, and a program committee member of several education-related international conferences.

About being a part of the Academy…

I feel honoured and excited to join the NUS Teaching Academy. It is a great privilege to be able to work with other like-minded educators in transforming the educational landscape of NUS.

Teaching Awards / Accolades

  • Faculty Teaching Excellence Award – 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012
  • Faculty Teaching Honour Roll – Since 2013
  • Annual Teaching Excellence Award – 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2011/2012
  • Annual Teaching Excellence Award Honour Roll – 2013-2017