Teaching — Eric Ford

Eric B. Ford

Teaching

  1. Penn State
    1. Recent Courses
    2. Guest Lectures
    3. PhD Committees
  2. Previously
I emphasize active learning and providing hands-on experience with real data and modern computational tools. I developed two courses (Astro 416 & Astro 528) courses that emphasize:

  • Fundamental concepts — lab tutorials start as low-code, emphasizing concepts over syntax. As students gain experience, they start modifying code, and eventually work up to developing a quality scientific code or dashboard to support a project of their own design.

  • Modern software development practices — selected courses use Julia for high-level, performant, scientific computing, while teaching modern software development skills as such as version control, literate programming, and automated testing.

  • Real scientific data — students work with actual astronomical datasets.

Penn State

Recent Courses

🌌 ASTRO 140: Life in the Universe

Introductory undergraduate · General education · Taught by different instructors most Spring/Fall semesters

An introductory course exploring the scientific search for life beyond Earth, from the origins of life on our planet to the detection and characterization of exoplanets and the prospects for finding biosignatures.

📈 ASTRO 416: Data Science Applications to Astronomy

Upper-level undergraduate · Typically taught once every two years

An upper-level undergraduate course providing an overview of data science skills, including statistical methods, data analysis, data visualization, and computational techniques for astronomical research.

🖥 ASTRO 528: High-Performance Scientific Computing for Astrophysics

Graduate · Typicallly taught once every two years

A graduate course introducing modern techniques for computationally intensive astrophysical research, including parallel computing (shared memory, distributed, GPU), the Julia programming language, software development skills, testing, benchmarking and optimization, and reproducible scientific computing.

🌈⃤ ASTRO 589: Seminar — Extremely Precise Radial Velocity Surveys

Graduate seminar · Topics and instructors change each semester

A graduate seminar covering the latest developments in EPRV science, instrumentation, and data analysis.

🧬 ABIOL 590: Astrobiology Seminar

Graduate seminar · Typically taught once every two years

A graduate seminar about recent advances in Astrobiology that emphasizes building interdisciplinary communications skills.

Guest Lectures

  • Astro 1: Astronomical Universe

  • Astro 542: Interstellar Medium & Star Formation

  • Geosc 474: Astrobiology

  • DS 200: Introduction to Data Sciences

  • DS 440: Data Sciences Capstone

  • Astrostatistics Summer Schools (lectures about Markov chain Monte Carlo in practice)

PhD Committees

As a member of the Penn State graduate faculty, I serve on many PhD committees. I can serve as a faculty representative for the Graduate Computational Minor and the Astrobiology Dual-title Degree PhD program.

Previously

University of Florida

  • Ast 2037: Life in the Universe

  • Ast 4930: Planetary Astronomy

  • Ast 6612: Planetary Astrophysics

  • Ast 7939: Extrasolar Planets

  • Ast 6935: Frontiers of Astronomy