Students’ comments

 

 

26/9/2005

Date: 24 Sep 2005 16:10:34 -0000
To: nazim@csd.uwo.ca
Subject: Thank You!


Dear Prof. Madhavji,

Hello.

I am pleased to inform you that I got the job of a
Software Usability Analyst at Research in Motion. They sent me an offer letter yesterday.

I am really thankful to you for your guidance and help.

Kind regards,
Parul.

13/5/2005

Hello sir,

I was a student at western, and graduated with the class of 2004. Im actually writing to tell you or thank you rather, for those brilliant courses you taught us.(471 and 473). i am working as a business analyst in an IT services company in Pakistan these days and i must tell you that your courses have helped me out enormously in my job. i have been actually learning a lot in the field of requirements engineering and have been able to provide valuable insights because of your courses. So just wanted to thank you for that.

 

Nadir Ahmed Shah

Business Analyst

Inov8 Limited

 

 

6/3/2005

Dear Prof Nazim,

 

The last time I saw you was in McGill just before you left to New Zealand. You taught me only software process engineering in the Fall of 1998 and you were an extraordinary teacher ... I still remember the things you taught me to the degree that I can teach now some of it.  My research area is algorithm and I was and still working with Luc Devroye

Best Regards,

Ebrahim

 

5/3/2005

Hi Nazim,

I’ve sent emails out to all the students who didn’t submit drill 1 or 2, to let them know that they can still do so.  There have been a couple of people who wrote back with different stories.  One only submitted a softcopy to XXX, so I didn’t get.  Another had gotten an extension and was still finishing it up, intending to submit tomorrow.  Anyway, it looks like sending those emails out was worth it to get that information.

 

One of the students also had some positive things to say about your teaching that I thought I’d forward to you.

 

>Also, Nazim is a great professor, and I was amazed how he puts what we actually learn over how we are able to adhere to deadlines. I have seen enough instructors who couldn't care less if you could make the dealine or not. This can do more damage to student's attitude towards the course, and sometimes the whole field, than anything else. Stuff happens without our control and not every instructor is supportive. 

 

Hopefully that’ll make your Monday morning pass a little faster.

 

James

 

30/11/2004

Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 7:13 PM
To: bigideas@tvo.org
Subject: Nomination entry for "10 most inspiring univ/college teacher"

Dear Mr. Szemberg,

 

I would like to offer my enthusiastic support for the nomination of Prof. Nazim H. Madhavji of the Univ. of Western Ontario.

 

I have been a past student of Prof. Nazim and in my eight years in the industry, I have continued to collaborate with him on research issues. My relationship with him has evolved from him being my instructor (when I took courses under him), to him being my mentor and research guru (when I conducted graduate research under him), to him now being an intellectual friend insofar as our profession and areas of academic interest/research are concerned.

 

Prof. Madhavji excels in nurturing his initial academic relationships with his students and gradually transforming them into personal relationships. This unique ability enables him to build and grow a solid network of contacts across the world, in academia and industry. He is able to effectively leverage this network for conducting research in areas of mutual interest with a variety of people having rich and diverse professional experience. He thus makes an invaluable contribution to his profession by fostering collaborative work between those in the academic world and those in the industry.

 

I have observed firsthand that Prof. Madhavji consistently pushes the envelope and makes one think about what may not be readily obvious. This is an innate gift and skill for a researcher to excel in his field.

 

Prof. Madhavji is clearly among the few visionaries and innovators in the quality profession. For example, the concept of “process cycle” that he introduced around 1990 has been the precursor to the increased “process focus” in the quality profession since the mid 1990s. Arguably, some of his research has been way ahead of its time, which underscores why I regard him as one of the pioneers in his field.

 

Regards,

Vic Nanda

Sr. Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Ulticom Inc.

Mt. Laurel, NJ

 

30/11/2004

To:  Wodek Szemberg, Big Ideas

2180 Yonge St.

Toronto, Ontario

M4T 2T1

(TV Ontario)

 

Dear Mr. Wodek,

 

This is in response to your call for nominating Ontario’s 10 most inspiring post-secondary lecturers. I’m writing to nominate Professor Nazim H. Madhavji at the University of Western Ontario, Department of Computer Science, for this award.

 

I have known Prof. Madhavji for the past two years, since I came to Canada in Sep. 2002. I have been a student of Prof Madhavji in one graduate course – Software Evolution, a reading course – preparation for research, and I did my Master’s thesis under his supervision. I also have been the teaching assistant for four of his undergraduate courses. I’d like to express some of my feelings for Prof. Madhavji as follows.

 

He is always motivational. He would like to spend several lecture hours as a motivation phase for the students to a new course, to help them establish the motivations to learn something new, and to create something in the courses. In this sense, there is no wonder that we achieved a class average of 83.5% with a class size of 75+ in CS471 2004.

 

He is always encouraging discussing, debating and innovation. He has spent much more than “office hour” time every week with students in discussing issues and giving feedback. He also created a “Let’s talk shop” session in the department, held every two weeks to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to exchange their innovative ideas.

 

He is always willing to help. Every time the students have a question about the course, or an issue about the team project, or have some new ideas about research, Prof. Madhavji is always willing to sit down with you to clarify it, to solve it or to evaluate it. He likes face-to-face feedback, which I believe is much better and more effective than other manners, especially from students’ point of view. Students like to talk with Prof. Madhavji.

 

Definitely there are much more than what I have mentioned which I believe Prof. Madhavji is a great candidate for this award.

 

 

Best regards,

 

Yaqian Shen

 

30/11/2004

> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 1:06 PM

> To: bigideas@tvo.org

> Subject: Canada's Best Professor

>

>

> This is a letter to nominate Professor Nazim H.Madhavji, University of Western

> Ontario for Ontario's best lecturer.

>

> Professor Madhavji's class is definitely not about getting a grade.

>

> Professor Madhavji has developed a unique teaching approach that emphasizes

> learning over grade achievement. As a result, students become passionate about

> learning both within and outside the university credited course. I enrolled in

> one of Nazim's undergraduate classes in Computer Science, later became one of

> his graduate students and currently work in the domain that I was introduced to

> by Nazim. Of particular mention, is the participation of many of his students in

> several small group sessions to discuss current research  articles, with Nazim

> and other fellow students, completely independent of university credit. In the

> classroom, through careful guidance and one-on-one support, Nazim directs

> students to seek out and learn vast amounts of information on their own,

> instead of simply memorizing what they're told.

> His approach to teaching is so unique that I've never seen anything like it or

seen anything as successful. Even so, Nazim, regularly asks students for one-on-one feedback on how his class can be improved.

Although some classes are large in size, Nazim develops a strong relationship with

many of his students, who become inspired by his passion for learning.

This is the core of Nazim's teaching philosophy, which has had a major

impact on the careers of many of his students.

>

> In closing I challenge you to schedule a short meeting with Nazim, where you can

> discuss his teaching approach in greater detail. I am  convinced that you will agree that Professor Nazim is one of Canada's best.

>

> Best regards,

> Kevin Strike, B.Sc., M.Sc, McGill University

> Motorola Inc.

 

29/7/2004

> Hey Nazim,

>

> just to keep you informed, I got the job at Teekay.

> It pays $XX.00 an hour which works out to be about

> $XXK per annum.  I am really excited right now.  I

> actually made reference to your class in my interview

> discussing the importance of documentation for traceability

> issues and they seemed pretty impressed.

>

> Thanks again

>

> Dean

 

20/5/2004

Subject: Job news
Importance: High

Hello Nazim!

 

I just wanted to share some excellent news with you!  I just received a job offer from Bell Canada which has blown my socks off.  And I’m pleased to say that my experience in Software Architecture and Requirements Engineering are two factors that contributed to me receiving this offer!  And since you are the source of my experience in both of these areas I thought you deserved a thank you!  So, thank you very much!

 

Also, you advertised earlier about having former students come and talk to your students next year.  I’d be willing to come in and do that if I can.  I’m moving to Toronto to take the job.  So I may not be able to do it.  But when the time comes, include me in the email, and I’ll see what I can do.  (steve@stevegoodall.net is the best way to reach me for the foreseeable future).

 

I may also be able to provide a “real world” point of view.  As a “Business/Systems Analyst” my first project is to revamp their billing system.  So I’m sure Requirements Engineering and Architecture are going to come into play in a major way!

 

Thanks again,

Steve

 

16/4/2004

I have to say that although this paper has been a pretty massive undertaking, I've really enjoyed doing it.  As I kept working I began to really start to enjoy the work.  I found it must more intrinsically rewarding to do this kind of work than the usual assignments and projects which are assigned.

 

Sincerely,

James

 

15/4/2004

> However, only

> after I started working on the enrichment study, i realized

> the investigative nature of graduate-type work which showed

> me what research is truly about.  I am very glad experienced

> first hand the type of work i would be involved with in

> graduate school.  It is at this point when i realized that I

> would much rather enjoy working in the software development

> field where i would be able to explore the methods involved

> in process development as well as issues and conflicts that

> arise from it.  This gives me the opportunity to not only

> research technical issues but also people issues too.

 

> Cheers,

> Vlora

 

 

10/4/2004

Hey Nazim and Remo,

 

On behalf of Group 16, I would like to thank-you again

for all of your dedication to helping us this

semester.  I know I speak for the whole group when I

say that the two group projects were a great learning

tool, and your desire to motivate us was an

inspiration.

 

Thanks again

 

Dean Bruce

 

10/4/2004

You're very welcome!!!

 

Actually, I should be thanking you for giving me the opportunity to TA such an interesting and creative course.  Although it was difficult at times, we got through it and I really believe everyone has learned a lot from being involved.  For myself, I feel much more confident, not only with the content of software architecting, but of working with people, communicating, and thinking 'outside the box' after TA'ing not only this course, but 473 as well.  These skills and knowledge will aid me throughout my life in every area, and I thank you for helping to bring those out. 

 

Looking forward to more interesting work in the summer,

Remo

 

7/4/2004

Dear Prof Madhavji,

 

Though the course is not over yet, I wanted to thank you for the diligent effort that you have put in to teach the course. However, I would not deny that I have cribbed the whole term about the course workload:)

 

Taking your course was a great experience.Your innovtaive techniques of delivering lectures will be something that will stay with me forever, especially if I go on to become an educationalist.

 

Thank you!

 

Warm Regards,

Parul.

 

26/3/2004:

I have appreciated your use of the Socratic method throughout 471 and 473; it has always kept me on my toes and provided the motivatation to prepare for your lectures well. Your enthusiasm is always infectious, even when the work load seemed a little overwhelming :)

 

So my thesis is done, I can finally sleep and I hope I have not damaged my reputation too much in the interim. Thank you for your time (again).

 

Sincerely,

 

Richard

 

16/2/2004

Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 1:12 PM
To:
'Nazim H. Madhavji'
Subject: RE: cs471/549 -- REALLY IMPORTANT: Project Templates and project description

 

Nazim, you rock!

I’m glad I took this course with you and no other prof!

Luke

 

 

Just to let you know, I feel really guilty for missing almost last 2 weeks of classes, but my schedule with midterms and assignment was hell.

I’ll be back this week thoughJ. I’ve read chapters 4, 5 and 7 from the book and the book is great too.

One thing that I wish it did was to show the UML digrams of patterns they mention, such as factory patters etc., to solve specificc design issues.

Love this class and I think you’re the best person to learn it from. Good thing you’re our supervisor, it’s always good to learn from the master himselfJ. BTW, I’ve never seen a prof with so much passion as you!

 

Kind regards,

Luke

 

Nazim, huge thanks for taking your time to describe the books.

I really appreciate it. Wish we had more faculty members like yourself J.

Luke

 

What do I need to do to get a reference letter from you? J J J

I’m in your 471 class…

I can’t think of anyone better to get such a recommendation from.

 

J

 

Kind regards,

Luke P.