Manu Jayadharan

Teaching

One of the recurring challenges in mathematics education is the perception of math as inaccessible and overly abstract. I strive to counter this by linking mathematical concepts to real-world applications and interdisciplinary themes: calculus to classical mechanics, probability theory to financial modeling, and linear algebra to optimization problems in machine learning. I believe applied mathematics courses must include hands-on computational components, and I often design assignments where students develop small-scale algorithms or simulations to reinforce mathematical principles.

Instruction experience

Role Institution Course When
Instructor & course designer Northwestern University Agentic AI for Scientific Computing (graduate, project-based; funded frontier-model access for enrolled students) Fall 2026 (forthcoming)
Instructor Northwestern University Engineering Analysis 4: Differential Equations & Numerical Methods Fall 2023
Summer Instructor University of Pittsburgh MATH 290: Introduction to ODEs and Applications Summer 2017
Teaching Fellow / TA University of Pittsburgh Calculus I–III, Business Calculus, ODEs 2016 – 2021

Mentoring

I have mentored six undergraduate students and two graduate/master’s students across Northwestern, UC Berkeley, CMU, IIST, and the University of Pittsburgh, co-authoring papers with several of them. My mentorship philosophy is to nurture young talent and foster their growth as independent researchers, especially around real, usable research software.

Courses I am prepared to offer

Teaching is also an opportunity to deepen my own understanding: preparing courses involves revisiting familiar material from new perspectives, reinforcing my grasp of the subject and providing fresh insights.