hello world! my name is omar.
i teach computer science, currently at the university of illinois chicago. this is a place i show what i've worked on.
hi! i'm omar ("OH-mar", or əʊmɑr in IPA), and i am currently a lecturer for the department of computer science at the university of illinois chicago.
previously, i earned my B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the paul g. allen school of computer science at the university of washington in 2021 and 2023 respectively. while I was there, I helped teach computer science courses, taught my own courses, and completed my master's thesis on methods for teaching proof-writing advised by Robbie Weber and Lauren Bricker. I also am very anti capital letters, as you might be able to glean from this site.
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meeting with me
please feel free to meet with me! i'm often busy, but i'm happy to make some time to meet with students.
my office is SEO 811 -- if my door is open, feel free to pop in to chat! if you'd like to set up a specific time to meet, please use this link to schedule a 1-on-1 meeting with me (please be as descriptive as you are comfortable being about why you want to mee).
my current office hours schedule:
current for spring 2025
- MWF 1-2pm (cs 301)
- Th 12-2pm (cs 401)
- F 2-3pm (cs 401)
About me
lecturer
department of computer science - university of illinois chicago
office: SEO 811
i am currently a lecturer for the department of computer science at the university of illinois chicago.
previously, i earned my B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the paul g. allen school of computer science at the university of washington in 2021 and 2023 respectively. while I was there, I helped teach computer science courses, taught my own courses, and completed my master's thesis on methods for teaching proof-writing advised by Robbie Weber and Lauren Bricker. I also am very anti capital letters, as you might be able to glean from this site.
currently, i am teaching a number of cs theory courses at uic, and i help to manage our undergraduate ta program. i'm also deeply interested in work on embedding ethics into computer science curriculums.
teaching
lecturer, teaching assistant, and other teaching related work
i currently teach computer science at the university of illinois chicago. this semester (spring 2025), i am teaching cs 301 (languages and automata) and cs 401 (computer algorithms 1).
university of illinois chicago (2023 - present)
cs 401: computer algorithms 1
spring 2025
•
fall 2024
cs 301: languages and automata
spring 2025*
•
fall 2024
•
spring 2024
•
fall 2023^
^ cotaught with evan mccarty
* cotaught with gonzalo bello-lander
teaching faculty application materials
last updated march 20, 2025
if you've found this page, then you're probably interested in applying to a teaching faculty position. i applied for teaching faculty positions in 2022 for the 2023-24 academic year. hopefully, you find the info and materials here useful, particularly if you're applying without a phd.
when i wrote my materials, i referenced the materials of a number of earlier ms-only teaching faculty, including kevin lin, suraj rampure, and adam blank. i also referenced the materials of some of my mentors who offered them to me. i've also referenced some of these peoples' websites in making my own materials available here.
feel free to reach out to me if you wanna chat about the teaching faculty applciation process. i personally got a lot of benefit from discussing with others who went down this path when i was applying.
if you're interested in pursuing teaching computer science without a phd, you might also be interested in this site, which has been put together by a number of people in our commuinty of practice.
CV
i put all of my teaching activities at the top right at the top, followed by scholarship i was involved in, and then other professional experience/activities that were less relevant to my teaching.
Teaching Statement
the first time i tried to sum up what my teaching philosophy, i realized i had no idea what it was. luckily, i had some time before i had to write my teaching materials. thinking about my teaching philosophy as I taught more made it easier, as did reading other people's teaching statements. i've seen people structure these in some very different ways, but mine has a few overall sections covering general themes in my philosophy on teaching.
Diversity and Inclusion Statement
it ended up really being an extension of my teaching statement covering general themes in my philosophy on teaching that related particularly to fostering diversity and inclusion in my classroom. it's even formatted really similarly.