Jonathan Mace - Teaching Statement

Teaching is enjoyable and rewarding in many ways, and I am excited by the opportunity toworkwith students throughout my future career. Mymain areas of interest are computer systems, including distributed systems, operating systems, cloud systems, and computer networking. One of themost interesting parts of teaching computer systems comes in unraveling the layers and abstractions of complex systems; in doing so, it is immensely gratifying to see how systems combine simple components in elegant ways, carefully balance their design constraints and goals, and in turn hide complexity through simple, well reasoned interfaces and layers. My teaching philosophy is to focus on the challenges that systems are designed to address, the rationale behind diòerent design decisions, alternative approaches (successful or otherwise), and commonalities among systems despite diòerent goals or constraints. I aim to present systems in an accessible and inviting light, discouraging myths such as the “all-night super-hacker” that can make systems seem like intimidating and unwelcoming subject.