Meet the Faculty

Curt Schurgers 

Curt Schurgers received his Ph.D. from UCLA in integrated circuits and systems, and his MS in EE from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (KUL). Before coming to UCSD in 2002, he was a postdoctural associate at MIT. He has also held a research position at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Belgium. From 2004 until 2010, he was an Assistant Professor in the UCSD ECE Department, leading the Wireless Information Systems Lab. In 2010, he became a Development Engineer at the UCSD Qualcomm Institute, supervising the Prototyping Lab. Since July 2017, he has been an Associate Teaching Professor in the UCSD Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.

Leo Porter

Leo Porter is an Associate Teaching Professor at UC San Diego.  Professor Porter completed his Ph.D. at UC San Diego in 2011.  After working as a professor at a small liberal college for three years, he returned to be a teaching professor at UC San Diego in Fall 2014.  Although Professor Porter teaches a myriad of courses for the CSE department, from introductory programming through graduate special topics courses, he mainly teaches computer architecture and computing education research courses.  He's well known in the field of computing education research for his work evaluating effective pedagogies, designing assessments, using machine learning to identify at-risk students, and training new faculty on best practices in teaching.  Ultimately, he tries to incorporate the lessons learned from his research on education into his classes to improve the outcomes for his students.  He also serves as the Director of UCSD's COSMOS.

Karcher Morris

Dr. Morris joined UC San Diego’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department within the Jacobs School of Engineering as an Assistant Teaching Professor in 2020. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCSD working with the Talke Lab for Biomedical Devices and focused on design, numerical methods and control theory. During his graduate studies, Morris was awarded as a Technology Management and Entrepreneurism Fellow with the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur and as a Science Policy Fellow with the School of Global Policy and Strategy. He has held summer internships with RAND, Northrop Grumman, Western Digital, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Morris received B.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Management Science (Quantitative Economics) also from UC San Diego.

Khamphet "Phet" Pease - Teacher Fellow - Gold

Phet has spent her entire 15 years of teaching at Wilson Middle School and has taught numerous grade levels and subjects including mathematics and science. Currently, she teaches STEM elective courses including Intro to Coding, Gateway to Technology: Design & Modeling, Automation & Robotics, and Computer Science for Innovators and Makers. Phet works tirelessly to increase access to STEM education to underrepresented students including females, BIPOC, and those from lower socioeconomic families. She focuses on project-based learning such as developing apps, games, and products to address authentic community problems. She founded the Wilson Robotics Club in 2012 where the students compete in robotics competitions like Botball and First Lego League (FLL). Her students have won many awards at the local and national levels. She has received multiple recognitions including 2015 San Diego County Teacher of the Year; 2019 National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Educator Award Winner; 2020 California State Finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST); and 2021 San Diego County Engineering Council's Outstanding K-12 Engineering Educator. She is a San Diego Rotary Club 33 STEM Advisory Committee board member and a Chibitronics ambassador. Her most recent accomplishment is a spotlight feature on the second season of CBS's "Mission Unstoppable with Miranda Cosgrove" in partnership with Infosys Foundation USA.