I was hooked. You want to make sure that you have thought through the material and the issues in such a way that you can ask questions and start a discussion that really engages students and makes them appreciate the subject matter and enjoy the learning experience. He always is pleased when students stop by to say that what he taught them made them think. Baraniuk's goal is to give students not only the details, but also to provide the whole picture so they understand how their projects fit into the outside world. It's material that is still being actively researched and is connected to real-world things, such as cell phones, the Internet and medical imaging technology.
Students can see the big picture and absorb the material more deeply.
I watched them teach early classes and saw how seriously they took it. It's really nice to be at a place like Rice where good teaching is recognized and matters. He is a past recipient of the Charles Duncan Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement and the 2000 Eta Kappa Nu National Outstanding Teaching Award for electrical engineering professors. I knew I had finally made it. Olson adds his third Superior Teaching award to his growing collection, all received in the last four years.