Maurice Rabb

“I had the pleasure of working directly with Maurice from 2007 - 2011 as teaching assistants for the four core Software Engineering classes at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. These classes are: Programming Studio (CS242), Software Engineering I (CS427), Software Engineering II (CS428/429) and Advanced Software Engineering (CS598REJ, CS527). The number of students for each class range from 20 - 120 at the time we were teaching. Together, Maurice and I helped the instructors design, teach and grade the homework assignments, exams and projects. These classes were highly interactive and we met with students both during class and outside of class. What impressed me the most about Maurice was his ability to inspire students. Unlike many other teaching assistants, Maurice was not fixated on just helping the students finish the assignment on time. Instead, he was genuinely interested in piquing the students interest in the subject matter. He had an eye for picking out interesting aspects of the project and drilling down into it. He would regularly present students with "what if" scenarios and challenge them to come up with more interesting solutions. When they came to discuss their solutions with him, he would always be positive about it and encourage them to work on it even more. Maurice's overall personality also made him very approachable to students. He is very easy to converse with. He is very conscientious and careful with his choice of words. I've never heard him ask "why didn't you do this?". Instead, he would ask "why did you choose to do it this way". While it might seem minor, these little things can make the world of difference to a student who is struggling or having doubts about his/her approach. Personally, I have learned a lot from Maurice about how to teach and, more importantly, how to work with others. Just like he has been a positive influence on his students, he too has made a positive impact on my life. It was indeed a pleasure working with Maurice.”

“I hold Maurice Rabb in the highest regards as an instructor, and would give him the gold medal for most effective programming professor I’ve had so far. I can assuredly say that I have yet to encounter a more friendly and thought-provoking learning environment than that created by Maurice. It was always obvious that, as in software development, in his curriculum he made use of the tug-of-war for the “right” answer. There are always many different answers with many different benefits and detriments, and Maurice embraces and embeds that quintessential mentality in his instruction as appropriate. Undoubtedly, my current understanding of software design patterns would not have evolved nearly as rapidly under any instruction other than his. There have been few cases where I’ve been confused or uncertain during his instruction, and by the end of the day he’s always found a way to perfectly clarify. He employs a variety of extremely effective techniques (i.e. many possible variations of the same code) in conjunction with his invariably appropriate use of metaphors and examples. He has continuously shown his propensity for providing quality software engineering instruction and I strongly recommend his instruction for all levels of programming.”

“Maurice is great at going over computer science concepts. Before I started working with Maurice, I had only really touched JavaScript as a scripting language in Unity3D, where it was only JavaScript by syntax and file extension. Maurice was able to motivate and inspire me to be excited about jumping into JavaScript in the deep end, I was joining a project that was using a lot of JavaScript and its associated libraries while still going to school full time and learning C# and C++ in the classroom. Having him teach me about the concepts and utility of JavaScript helped me better understand computer science in general, instead of just understanding specifically the C derived languages. Working for Maurice also helped expose me to certain design patterns that I never had seen before and this gave me a chance to inquire about them such as test driven design. I would still be skeptical of the usefulness of test driven design if Maurice hadn't been there to expose me to them. Maurice is a deep well of knowledge not just in JavaScript but in computer science as a whole and is a great teacher/ mentor who really shows care about my passion for programming. He has helped continue to motivate me to learn programming and better myself as a designer and programmer.”

“As my teacher Maurice helped an old dog object-oriented coder make the transition to useful, real-world Javascript development by not soft-pedaling its idiosyncrasies but also celebrating its utility. I suspect my rekindled interest in functional code is rooted in his explanations of JS’s treatment of functions as first-order citizens. More broadly, Maurice is one of those special thinkers that understands that software development is an exquisitely human activity. He brings this sensitivity to his teaching, making very complex ideas accessible, funny and engaging. There is nothing dry or dull when he is teaching and he practices one of the critical skills of any excellent instructor: remaining in a learning space with the students. He is there with you on the journey and in the effort not lecturing from afar.”

“Maurice's design insights and Software Engineering mentorship were invaluable during Prof. Johnson's Object-Oriented Programming & Design course. Specifically, he was the first person to turn me on to Eric Evan's Domain-Driven Design, reinforcing what Johnson calls the "Scandinavian View of Object Orientation"; i.e.: programming is modeling. I've since used this basic premise with great success in very diverse domains, including: Scientific Computing, Geographic Information Systems, and Scalable Email Services. A self-proclaimed "Dynamic Languages Zealot" (paraphrasing), it was also very edifying to see what a flexible language like Smalltalk can do in the hands of a master craftsman like Maurice. Kent Beck would be proud.”

“I met Maurice in Programming Studio class at the University of Illinois in 2010. He was a TA leading discussion sections and I was one of his students. Students in that class are exposed to a number of programming languages and frameworks and require to write a large amount of code, which is tough. Maurice not only has a variety of technical skills starting from several languages to design patterns, but also cares about his students one by one thoroughly. He is exceptional at keeping track of the progress of each student, giving advice and encouraging students to improve their skills each class. I was able to learn my strengths and weaknesses of technical skills that I was not aware of, so that I can improve practical skills. I was especially amazed by his adaptability. Maurice is great at understanding how each student writes code and finding out areas to improve, regardless of their choices of languages and frameworks. In that class, I wrote Java, C, Python, and Objective-C to expose myself to a variety of languages, and Maurice gave me great advice on technical implementation. Maurice greatly impacted my career life. At the time I was taking his class, I was exploring several areas of computer science to start my technical career. As I implemented an iPad application as the class project, Maurice found out my strengths of front-end mobile development, user interface & experience, and human-computer interaction. As a result, I decided to build my career on UI/UX application development. I'm currently working at Amazon Music, developing Music Store for Mobile, which is a perfect project for me.”

“I met Maurice when he was my teacher for a best practices programming course. This course was focused on making smart programming decisions and less on correctness of algorithms. Maurice helped me get out of bad programming habits that had rarely been brought to my attention. He helped me learn the importance of modular code. Maurice encouraged frequent peer reviews of other students code. This made me a better interpreter of other's ideas and design patterns. Maurice was really the first person in my computer science career who taught me keeping your code simple and straight forward was much better in the long run than trying to make a piece of highly optimized complex code. Maurice always came to class willing to help each student no matter their skill set.”

“Initially during my time at Columbia I only had experience with statically typed languages (C++/C#). Maurice gave a great run down over a few days about Javascript, the nature of its dynamic type system, and dynamic typing systems in general, as well as some of the common Javascript pitfalls and common wisdom about what idioms to avoid while developing with it. Simple to understand over several hours, but very a useful knowledge "tool kit" to get started with.”

“I had the privilege of working with Maurice more than a few times, and I always found him to be not only a conscientious student, but a dedicated educator, always making sure his students got whatever help they needed. Always personable and professional, Maurice was a genuine pleasure to work with.”

“I met Maurice about 5 years ago when I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois. At that time, I was a teaching assistant of an introductory software engineering course and Maurice joined our staff. At that time, I had been teaching the course for several years and personally felt that I was a master of the content and knew how to teach it. Once Maurice came onboard our staff, my attitude took a complete 180. He not only is a master of software engineering and computer science, but more importantly he has the unteachable ability to connect with students in a way that they understand. Maurice is able to take concepts that might be obvious to an established software engineer and translate them into a format that is not only easy to comprehend, but even easier for educators to explain to students. I cannot express how much I learned about how to teach, connect with students, and relay technical material to students from Maurice. If I ever need an expert to give a class about object oriented design, programming best practices, or SE essentials to a group of people, Maurice would be at the top of my list of experts to contact. I cannot say enough good things about Maurice, my only wish is that I would have been able to work professionally with him for a longer period of time than I was able to.”

“I have had the pleasure of having Maurice as my TA for the Software Engineering course at the university of Illinois. Having studied in different departments at multiple institutions and having served as a member of the faculty for a few years, I have interacted with many instructors and faculty from various disciplines. I can truly place Maurice on the most top tier of all, as an outstanding instructor and one of the very best mentors. I can say that I have never seen someone as dedicated and supportive of students as Maurice. He cares for their learning and mentors them disregarding the time that it took and the conditions in which he would have to work with them. He makes himself available after hours, weekends, and holidays, and has always been very aware of their time constraints with respect to classes and projects. These days, many of undergraduate and graduate alumni get back to the faculty at the University of Illinois and speak about the usefulness of the interactions and opportunities they particularly had under Maurice's mentorship. I, as one, have certainly benefited from his guidance and mentorship in designing, implementing, and most importantly testing code. In all interactions, all students loved him and always praised him for his support and his ability to teach, even when they knew nothing about the principles of software engineering prior to joining the course. I can particularly attest to this as I joined CS from a non-CS background. In all interactions, Maurice proved to be very knowledgeable, approachable and caring, which are the key qualities that students tend to look for in a teacher. In the interactions with the students that I have observed, Maurice is very close to them. He nurtures them and they look up to him. He is able to create a wonderful mentoring relationship with them which will last long after they graduate. I would say that Maurice's ability to present his work and to interact with students at different levels is truly exceptional. Working with Maurice and learning from him is definitely one of the best educational experiences that I have had in my academic career. He is truly an exceptional instructor and a terrific mentor.”

“I had Maurice as a Student Teacher in a course at UIUC. Maurice was a great teacher and really helped introduce our class to concepts that were up and coming in the industry. His ability to connect with students is really what stuck out. There was never a time after class he wasn't willing to stick around and debate about the extensibility of JavaScript or how your project was going. I would jump at the chance to learn from Maurice again.”

“Maurice is a wonderful instructor and human being. He was my TA for an undergraduate Computer Science course at the University of Illinois and it was easily one of my best experiences there. His passion for software engineering and for teaching is undeniable and it makes for such a great learning environment. When I began taking his course, I was particularly averse to (and terrible at) object-oriented design, but he enthusiastically explained all the benefits of it and encouraged me to explore it more. I ended up doing an object-oriented design for my final project and it turned out to be such a pleasure. Without his encouragement and technical expertise, I never would have actively pursued an area outside of my comfort zone. He inspired me to have confidence in my technical abilities and to be unafraid to take on new challenges. Maurice's energy and love for what he does is contagious. He's personally invested in seeing his students improve and succeed. He's an amazing teacher and one of the most brilliant, respectable, patient and passionate people I have ever met.”

“As a first-time programmer with no experience of any kind in designing and implementing software, Maurice took me under his wings and patiently explained the ins and outs of designing, implementing, and most importantly testing code. Maurice was infinitely patient in this undertaking, explaining complex issues in very understandable terms and never tiring of my endless questions. Within a few weeks, he had me writing and testing basic code, and with his guidance I wrote my first working system within six months. Working with Maurice was THE highlight of my educational experience working in the MCS program at the U of I. He is an exceptionally bright person and a terrific teacher.”

“Maurice is detail oriented, extremely knowledgable and a joy to work with!”