Teaching for an Accelerated Future
Mason Smith (BS '09) establishes the Institute's first endowed teaching professorship to meet demand in Computing and Mathematical Sciences.
Decades before Claude and ChatGPT became part of daily life, Caltech was an incubator for ideas that connected the functions of the brain with the emerging workings of the computer. It was lunchtime dialogues between Institute faculty Carver Mead (BS '56, PhD '60), Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, and future Nobel Laureate John Hopfield in the early 1980s that eventually led to the creation of the Institute's computation and neural systems program and to research that would help lay the groundwork for today's advances in artificial intelligence.
That intellectual legacy was still unfolding when Mason Smith was completing his undergraduate degrees in math and computer science. It was 2009 and the Institute was still a year away from forming the department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS), a merger of the computer science, applied and computational mathematics, and control and dynamical systems departments.
"When I was on campus, the computer science department wasn't for undergrads," recalls Smith. "The number of people in my class that graduated with CS was maybe less than 10 percent of the class."
Today the computer science option easily draws more than 40 percent of undergraduates at the Institute and Introduction to Computer Programming is now part of the core curriculum. To meet the current demand for CMS and help prepare new graduates for an ever-changing future, Smith has endowed the Mason Smith Teaching Professorship Fund. As Caltech's first fund for an endowed teaching professorship, it will support the salary for a teaching faculty member in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science with a preference for CMS. The division currently has seven teaching professors who focus on instruction and curriculum, not research.
Investing in Teaching
"Teaching faculty are an important part of the department," says Chris Umans, the William M. Coughran Jr. Leadership Chair for CMS. "They have been key in how we have been able to meet students' growing interest. Mason making a gift to support teaching faculty is really wonderful."
Umans, a professor of computer science, commends the way teaching faculty can draw students into the field and make introductory courses more accessible and welcoming to individuals from a variety of backgrounds. "Those courses can either make or break somebody's fascination," he says.
The inspiration behind Smith's gift was a personal one. Donnie Pinkston (BS '98), currently a Schmidt Academy instructor and software engineer, also lectured for many years in the CMS department. Pinkston first taught Smith in CS 11 where they worked closely on a graphics rendering project. Subsequently Smith served as Pinkston's teaching assistant.
"He was very generous with his time. I can think of at least a half a dozen times where we ended up having multi-hour conversations about Caltech—because he had been a student—and our shared experiences there," says Smith. "He also told me about his experience as a software engineer. He's been an outstanding mentor and friend."
This gift is not the first Smith has contributed to his alma mater. As part of the Initiative for Caltech Students, Smith has supported both the First-Year Success Research Institute and the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology (ASCIT). He also established the Mason Smith Endowed Scholarship to support students directly.
"A big reason why I give to Caltech is to pay it forward," says Smith. "The education I received, and access to the alumni network, has been instrumental in my success. It was also such a formative experience that I want to make sure that other students have those same opportunities."
At the Nexus of Innovation
CMS continues to grow, with three new faculty including one who brings a research focus in quantum cryptography. According to Umans, an area of potential growth lies at the intersection of AI with other disciplines. "The opportunities for AI to transform fields across campus are more potent here than it is in almost any other place," he says. "Working with domain experts, we can discover ways to transform the way science is done and make new things possible in chemistry, biology, astronomy, geology, even the social sciences."
Embracing its interdisciplinary origins, the department advanced the concept of "CS Plus X" to illustrate the impact of infusing its research with other fields. Early examples include Richard Murray (BS '85) creating synthetic biological machines with programming written directly into their DNA and Thomas Vidick exploring quantum mechanics that could create unbreakable cryptography. Looking back at the concept's launch a decade ago, Umans believes that vision has been realized, perhaps even more dramatically than originally anticipated. "I think it's interesting that the department noticed that nexus of fields and the potential that it had at a time long before ChatGPT," he adds.
Collaborations in areas such as robotics and autonomous control, quantum information and computation, and AI have helped galvanize research in machine perception, imaging dark matter (including black holes), and the development of assistive robots, among other pathbreaking outcomes. This research excellence builds on the educational foundations laid through the introductory course offerings along with upper-level courses like quantum cryptography, power system analysis, deep learning, and many more.
A Passion for Understanding the World
Smith cannot remember a time when he was not interested in math. At the Institute, he found a community that shared his curiosity to understand how things work. "Caltech is part of a collective of research institutions motivated by improving our global understanding of technology, of science, and of the world," says Smith. "We don't achieve innovation by trying to build a better mousetrap. We get there by a passion for understanding."
Yet Smith also appreciates that many students may not yet have discovered their passion for math because of a lack of access to higher-level courses. So in addition to leading software engineering for TGS Management Company, Smith is chair of the Los Angeles advisory board for Bridges to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM).
"BEAM provides support for students from middle school to when they apply to college," says Smith. "It's really about fostering that love and engagement of math for students who might not otherwise have that opportunity."
The importance of nurturing future researchers, engineers, and scientists is not lost on Umans or Smith.
"The next generation of researchers who are going to change the world will likely have their first experience in a carefully crafted introductory course delivered by the teaching faculty whose focus is on making that experience transformative," says Umans.
Caltech Giving Day, on Wednesday, April 29, is a powerful opportunity to support the undergraduate experience. Every gift made now through April 29 will count toward Caltech Giving Day. Give early to help build momentum and inspire others to participate.