Colleges are one of the core elements of society. Along with knowledge transmission, a teacher should encourage student discussions, questioning and research. I have been practicing the teaching role since being in high school. During my graduate studies, a teaching assistant's and a lab instructor's roles helped me to take a breath between the periods of reclusive research, enjoy the communication with students and the fruits of knowledge sharing. Moreover, teaching helped me to improve my knowledge of multiple subjects. Today, I am enjoying my position as Assistant Professor at Alfred University, where I have designed and taught several courses for the new Computer Science program.

Before coming to the USA, I was part-time working as a private math tutor for high school students. After I graduated from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, I started my career at Diasoft, one of the leading companies that develop banking software in Russia. My duties included preparing and conducting training for banks' employees, to teach them how to use and troubleshoot the complex banking software. In 2014, Diasoft gave me "Employee of the Year" award, thanks to the positive feedback received from bank employees. I was also promoted to a "Senior Implementation Specialist", and later to a "Lead Implementation Specialist" position at Diasoft and had been involved in numerous implementation projects in Russia and abroad.

During my graduate studies at Clarkson University and Rochester Institute of Technology, I worked as a Teaching Assistant for various courses. For all of the courses that included an instructor's evaluation, I received positive feedback from students with an average grade above 4 out of 5. In 2016-2017, I was instructing introductory labs for C++ (CS-141) at Clarkson University for more than 40 students and held office hours (5 hours per week). Besides, I was responsible for grading lab assignments and exams. I was assisting Dr Jeanna Matthews and the lecturer Padraic Cashin. In 2016-2017, I was holding office hours and grading homework assignments for the advanced C++ course (CS-142, up to 50 students) under Dr Alexis Maciel. The grading included giving detailed feedback to students in electronic form. In 2016, at Clarkson University, I instructed labs for the Computer Networking course (CS-455/555) with up to 50 students. The labs were based on the GENI testbed to simulate different network topologies and scenarios. I was assisting my advisor Dr Yaoqing Liu. In 2018, at Clarkson University, I instructed labs for the Operating Systems class (CS-444/544) for up to 40 students. In the lab, students were required to design several standard mechanisms of an Operating System on top of a toy open-sourced operating system XV6. In 2019, at the Rochester Institute of Technology, I held office hours for a graduate course for Computer Algorithms (CSCI-665) with more than 60 students and worked as a homework and exam grader. I was assisting the department chair of Computer Science Dr. Mohan Kumar.

Today, I teach different Computer Science courses to students of Alfred University, CS majors and non-majors. My courses are designed to offer an engaging learning experience through a variety of hands-on coding activities and labs. During a course, students have multiple opportunities to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios, which provides them with a deeper understanding of the subject.

I have designed and taught the following courses:

• Computer Science I (Introductory to Computer Science), in-person and online;
• Computer Science II (Data Structures), in-person;
• Database Systems, in-person;
• Computer Networking, in-person and online;
• Computer Algorithms, in-person.

I believe there are several keys to successful teaching. First of all, a teacher should have a deep knowledge of a class subject and a strong understanding of the adjacent subjects. Second, the teacher should be able to have a fresh look at a subject from a student's point of view. For this goal, I review materials every morning before classes. Also, I have found it very efficient to explain the material using real-life simple examples. Third, a teacher needs to encourage the active participation of students in the class, with hands-on exercises and discussions. Additionally, providing assignments that prompt students to study outside of class is valuable, considering the diverse ways in which students learn. For my courses, I designed dozens of quizzes, labs and other activities. Fourth, a teacher should give detailed feedback on assignments submitted by students. Students should be encouraged to review their graded work, and possibly discuss it with the instructor. Next, a teacher needs to motivate students with examples, assignments, and projects that solve real-life problems. Finally, the teacher must show integrity in the classroom: to be precise, on-time, clear with assignment requirements, consistently sharing materials online and keeping communication with students during a semester by replying to their emails and holding office hours. If students' schedule does not allow to attend walk-in office hours, they can always schedule an appointment with me using scheduling services such as Calendly.

"Fantastic TA. Cares about students. Best of luck, Garegin."

"He is always extremely helpful, I would always go to office hours and he would explain things very thoroughly and clearly. One of the best TA's I've had at Clarkson!"

"A very nice guy, taught the information in an interesting and understandable way. Was always helpful when we didn't know what to do."

"You made OS bearable and were very generous and helpful."

"I really like the practice w/ the things we learned in class that we get to do in lab. The best lab days were when it was mostly time to work w/ a short lecture".

"It was an elective course and it was great. I loved it. I learn a lot about programming and gained vast knowledge that I did have. Thanks Professor Grigoryan."

"All the code being available on canvas was helpful. Professor Grigoryan was very effective overall."

"I like everything about the course. One thing I liked really the most was his availability after class."

"I like that Professor really likes and know what he is doing, and he usually have answers on the students questions. I really like a lot of practical assignments we have."

"Overall, I enjoyed the content covered. Networking is a very important topic and we were able to cover a wide range of material. I liked the order things were taught, where an overview was taught, including high level info for each network layer, followed by going through each layer in more depth. I liked having the quizzes after many classes as homework to help reinforce the concepts. I felt two tests was a good amount and covered a good amount of material, and were a fair/good difficulty."

"Prof allowed us to be creative with how we solved problems."

"Dr. Grigoryan explains things in a clear manner, often explaining things multiple ways. I also thought it facilitated problem solving skills, and the problems were quite fun."

"I liked how the course never got boring. We were always taught new ways of solving problems which held my interest."