Abhishek Kumar Remote Sensing of Inland Water, Earth Observation
1 Review

Teaching is embedded in my inherent nature, and I have enjoyed it since my college student life. It gives me immense pleasure and sense of satisfaction when I share my knowledge and skills with my students and learn from their experiences. I have been fortunate to teach and assist in a variety of remote sensing courses at the University of Georgia (UGA) in the Department of Geography. I assisted in teaching three graduate level courses that included “Remote Sensing of Environment”, “Field Remote Sensing”, and “Digital Image Analysis”. I designed and taught labs (8-10 labs for each course) for these courses. I also served as Instructor of Record for an undergraduate level course “Introduction to Landform”. I was also invited as a guest lecturer in the Department of Ecology at UGA for “Lake Ecology Seminar” class. All the classes that I taught or assisted in teaching included students from various departments (Geography, Ecology, Forestry, Crop & Soil, Computer Science, Agricultural & Environmental Science etc.) and diverse backgrounds.

There are several major goals in my teaching philosophy: (1) teach fundamental
concepts aided with interactive hands-on learning, (2) incorporate open access tools in teaching that can be easy to access and share, (3) prepare students for their future workplace.

Mentoring Experience:

I am the first-generation college student, and my first mentoring experience started with my younger brother and sister; currently both are working as engineers. I believe everyone needs guidance at different stages of career to move forward and achieve their goals. I recognized the importance of mentoring during my master’s and experience that completely transformed me. The constant support, guidance, and encouragement from my major professor helped me to overcome many obstacles that first-generation students often encounter. I was also fortunate to have a great PhD advisor who provided me various learning, teaching, and mentoring opportunities throughout my PhD program.

In our diverse research lab, I mentored and closely worked with students from seven countries and from various socio-economic background. I found my experiences helped other international students to overcome the similar problems that I faced at the beginning. For example, I was assigned to mentor a student from India during Summer-2019, who was amazed by the differences he observed in work and classroom environment here. I invited him to my field trips, encouraged his participation in our lab meeting, provided critical feedbacks, and other professional trainings that helped him successfully complete his internship. Also, I encouraged him to apply for PhD program at University of Georgia and now, two years later, he is starting his PhD. I also had an opportunity to mentor a visiting PhD student from Turkey last year. It was great to learn about similarity and differences in work culture and environment in Turkey. At the beginning, she was having trouble in communication but with our regular meetings and international lab environment, she is now much better at communication. During COVID-19 restrictions, I met virtually with her bi-weekly and helped her learn a variety of research skills.

Apart from above two examples of one-on-one mentoring, I have guided many participants during my NASA DEVELOP internship when I was team lead for consecutive four-terms. At the beginning of each term project, I surveyed the interests of my team members and then assigned tasks according to their skills and interests. This approach helped us to minimize the conflicts, improve the productivity, and everyone felt included and contributed equally towards the project goals. As a result, our team produced first ever peer reviewed publication from 10 weeks of work at University of Georgia’s NASA DEVELOP center. Later, from other two projects, my team produced another two peer reviewed publications from NASA DEVELOP projects. During my entire NASA DEVELOP journey, I worked closely with students from diverse backgrounds and from various countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, China, South Korea, Columbia, India, Iran, Indonesia, and USA. My strong passion for mentoring was well received by NASA DEVELOP National Program Office in Fall-2017 when they selected me as DEVELOPer of the term (among 102 participants) across 12 national and regional centers.

Subjects

  • Microsoft Excel modelling Beginner-Intermediate

  • Remote sensing Beginner-Intermediate

  • GRE Maths

  • Satellite image processing Beginner-Intermediate

  • Geospatial programs (ArcGIS, ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, SAGA, IDRISI, ERDAS Imagine, ENVI) Beginner-Intermediate

  • ArcGIS Desktop Beginner-Intermediate

  • ENVI Beginner-Intermediate

  • Sentinel Application Platform (SNAP) Software Beginner-Intermediate

  • Google Earth Engine Beginner-Intermediate

  • SeaDAS Beginner-Intermediate

Experience

  • Instructor (Remote Sensing and Digital Image Interpretation) (Sep, 2022–Dec, 2022) at University of Massachusetts Amherst
    I taught this course as an Instructor to undergraduate, Masters, and PhD students. This was a 4-credit course. Students had access to lecture both via in-person and over zoom. There were 24 students in the class. I had a TA for this class as well who helped me to conduct labs every week (total 10 labs) for this class. Students had excellent reviews for both lectures and labs under this course where they learned fundamental concepts as well as advanced remote sensing techniques.
  • Instructor of Record (Sep, 2021–Dec, 2021) at University of Massachusetts, Amherst
    I taught a seminar course to first year PhD students. This seminar course was focused on components and topics for successful graduate student life. I covered a wide range of topics including professional development, scientific writing, applying for fellowships and funding, networking, time management, CV building, and preparing students for future work environment.
  • Teaching Assistant (Digital Image Processing) (Jan, 2019–May, 2021) at University of Georgia Athens GA
    This was my second remote sensing course in which I was involved in teaching hands-on lab materials on satellite image processing using various image processing software including ERDAS IMAGINE, ENVI, SNAP, ArcGIS. Students learned how to download various satellite images, processing images, and extracting useful information from satellite data.
  • Teaching Assistant (Remote Sensing of Environment) (Aug, 2018–May, 2021) at University of Georgia Athens GA
    I was involved in teaching part of the remote sensing (intro level) course and also designed and taught labs for this graduate level course for last three years in Geography Department at University of Georgia. I also helped students in their class projects.
  • Teaching Assistant (Field Remote Sensing) (Aug, 2017–Dec, 2020) at University of Georgia Athens GA
    This was my first remote sensing course as Teaching Assistant. This course was 70% project based and students learned how to use spectroradiometer and other remote sensing instruments to collect field data, process the data, and analyze the results. Students also learned to write scientific report at the end of their individual and group projects.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Aug, 2015–May, 2021) from The University of Georgia, USA

Fee details

    US$15–30/hour (US$15–30/hour)

    Fee will vary based on students level and content

1 Review
5 out of 5

User Photo March 8, 2022
Payment verified US$ 15

Fantastic, knowledgeable and friendly tutor

Abishek is an amazing tutor who is very knowledgeable about remote sensing and satellite image processing. I came to him with 0 knowledge and experience and he explained all the important concepts to me and taught me how to download and process the data using several different softwares (NASA Giovanni, SNAP, QGIS, SeaDAS). He is a very kind, reliable and patient person and he goes above and beyond to make sure that you understand the subject matter. Without Abishek I would not have been able to perform my research and I am very grateful for his help.
I would 100% recommend him to other students who need guidance or tutoring on this topic!