JUNXIONG YIN, a fifth-year PhD student in Marshall’s DEPARTMENT OF DATA SCIENCES AND OPERATIONS, has been awarded a University Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. It is the only university-level award for graduate teaching assistants, according to DSO Department Chair and Professor of Data Sciences and Operations GREYS SOŠIĆ, and it is the first time a Marshall PhD student has won the award.

Yin was nominated by VISHAL GUPTA, associate professor of data sciences and operations, ANDREW DAW, assistant professor of data sciences and operations, and Lanore Larson, an educational program designer who helps professors optimize their teaching techniques.

Yin was singled out for nomination because of his deft hybrid teaching methods, his connection and patience with students, and his deep understanding of the course material.

Gupta oversees the department’s PhD program and works closely with Yin teaching several courses of BUAD 311: Operations Management. BUAD 311 is a large course, and one of the more quantitative classes in Marshall’s core curriculum.

According to Gupta, in Fall 2021 Yin was the only teaching assistant supporting 12 sections of BUAD 311 with a total of 723 students. Some of these students are adept enough with calculus and formulas, but others are less so, and many approach this class with concern.

“Junxiong embraced technology to meet the challenge of supporting more than 700 students,” Gupta wrote in his nomination letter. “We leveraged Slack in the course as a forum for online discussion, and Junxiong used it to answer student questions. He was incredibly efficient at this — often reading and responding to a question before I even saw it on the channel — but also incredibly clear in his responses. Often, his response to a student’s question was so clear that 10 or 20 other students would ‘react’ to it with a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘GOAT’ emoji.”

Continued Gupta: “Even as an experienced professor, I learned a lot from watching how Junxiong interacted with our younger, Gen-Z students on the channel.”

Daw also wrote a nomination letter for Yin, praising not only his pedagogy, but also his patience with students.

“Junxiong’s patience is perhaps his virtue most frequently lauded by students, and I think this has been critical to his success as a TA,” he wrote. “With how frontline the TA role is in BUAD 311, Junxiong’s demeanor has undoubtedly benefited a large portion of USC students, many of whom likely needed the reassurance and encouragement the most.”

Yin received his undergraduate degree in business administration with a concentration in operations management and information systems from SHANGHAI JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY. His research focusses on improving efficiency in matching markets, such as cadaveric organ allocation.

“I’d like to thank Professor Daw, Lanore Larson, and Professor Gupta for their tremendous help and valuable advice on my teaching both when I TAed and when I taught,” said Yin. “I would also like to thank my adviser, Professor Peng Shi, for his support and kindness guiding me through the whole time I was teaching. Finally, I want to thank the Marshall PhD program for offering me such a precious opportunity to teach the aspiring and excellent Marshall undergraduates. I’ll always cherish this memory, sincerely.”