Suraj Rampure

β€œsoo-rudge rahm-poo-ray”

Lecturer III
Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan
4721 Beyster Building
rampure@umich.edu

Hey! πŸ‘‹ I’m a member of the teaching faculty in Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan. I am affiliated with MIDAS, serve on the undergraduate computer science and data science program committees, and am one of the hosts of Faculty Chats (come say hi!).

Previously, I taught in the HalΔ±cΔ±oğlu Data Science Institute at the University of California, San Diego, where I received the campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Award in 2024. I earned BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and I’m originally from Windsor, Ontario πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦.



On this page: πŸ‘¨β€πŸ« Teaching πŸ“š Scholarship πŸ† Awards and Distinctions
Other links: πŸ“„ CV πŸ“ Teaching Faculty Application Materials βœ‰οΈ Recommendation Letters

Teaching

Course websites for all courses I’ve taught as an instructor or TA can be found below. Most websites have links to lecture slides, recordings, and assignments.

EECS 245: Mathematics for Machine Learning Winter 2026 Fall 2025 EECS 398: Practical Data Science Spring 2025 (Half-Term) Winter 2025 Fall 2024 Building Robust ML Models (MIDAS Biomedical Researchers Summer Academy) Summer 2025


DSC 40A: Theoretical Foundations of Data Science I Spring 2024 Fall 2021 DSC 95: Tutor Apprenticeship in Data Science Spring 2024 Spring 2023 DSC 80: Practice and Application of Data Science Winter 2024 Winter 2023 Spring 2022 DSC 180AB: Data Science Project (Senior Capstone Coordinator) AY 2023-24 AY 2022-23 DSC 10: Principles of Data Science Fall 2023 Spring 2023 Fall 2022 Winter 2022 Fall 2021 CSS 201S: Introduction to Python Bootcamp (Week 1 only) Summer 2022 DSC 90: History of Data Science Seminar Spring 2022 Winter 2022

These days, I spend a lot of time building interactive teaching materials that help students visualize the mathematics of machine learning.

This widget shows how PCA equivalently minimizes orthogonal projection error and maximizes variance (drag the slider!). See more like this at notes.eecs245.org.

Data 94: Introduction to Computational Thinking with Data (now known as Data 6) Spring 2021 Data 100: Principles and Techniques of Data Science Summer 2020 TA: Fall 2020 TA: Spring 2020 TA: Fall 2019 TA: Spring 2019 TA: Fall 2018 CS 198-087: Introduction to Mathematical Thinking (DeCal/Student-Run Course) Spring 2019 Fall 2018 CS 70: Discrete Mathematics and Probability Theory TA: Summer 2019 CS 375: Teaching Techniques for Computer Science TA: Summer 2019 CS 61A: Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs TA: Spring 2018 Data 8: Foundations of Data Science TA: Fall 2017 Tutor: Spring 2017


Scholarship

Teaching Faculty Careers without a PhD: A Mentoring Community
Adam Blank, Michael Ball, Travis McGaha, Suraj Rampure, Yesenia Velasco and Kendra Walther.
Birds of a Feather session at Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2026). Cracking the Classroom Coding Interview: Technical Interviews as an Assessment of Student Learning
Suh Young Choi, Arpan Kapoor, Kevin Lin and Suraj Rampure.
Birds of a Feather session at Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2026). A New Class of Teaching-Track Faculty: No Ph.D. Required
Michael Ball, Suraj Rampure, and Kevin Lin.
Birds of a Feather session at Proceedings of the 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2025). A New Class of Teaching-Track Faculty: No Ph.D. Required
Kendra Walther, Adam Blank, Michael Ball, and Suraj Rampure.
Panel at Proceedings of the 54th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2023). A New Class of Teaching-Track Faculty: No Ph.D. Required
Kendra Walther, Adam Blank, Michael Ball, and Suraj Rampure.
Panel at Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2022). Introduction to Computational Thinking with Data and Society
Deb Nolan, Lisa Yan, Suraj Rampure, and Vivian Carter. In 2022 National Workshop on Data Science Education.
πŸŽ₯ video

Talks

RISE and Shine: Teaching with Jupyter Notebooks in Real Time
Suraj Rampure, Nishant Kheterpal, and Janine Tiefenbruck.
Talk at JupyterCon 2025.
πŸŽ₯ video Different Mediums for Different Audiences: A Capstone Case Study
Suraj Rampure.
Invited talk at Teaching and Evaluating Data Communication at Scale 2024.
πŸ—£οΈ slides πŸŽ₯ video Otter-Grader: A Lightweight Solution for Creating and Grading Jupyter Notebook Assignments
Suraj Rampure, Christopher Pyles, Justin Eldridge, and Lisa Yan.
Talk at JupyterCon 2023.
πŸ“‚ materials πŸŽ₯ video Data 6: A New Introductory Course
Suraj Rampure. Talk at 2021 National Workshop on Data Science Education.
πŸ—£οΈ slides πŸŽ₯ video Various sessions on Data 100: Principles and Techniques of Data Science
Suraj Rampure et al.
Talks at 2020 National Workshop on Data Science Education.
πŸŽ₯ pre-recorded talk πŸŽ₯ Q&A πŸŽ₯ workshop

Papers

The Challenges of Evolving Technical Courses at Scale: Four Case Studies of Updating Large Data Science Courses
Sam Lau, Justin Eldridge, Shannon Ellis, Aaron Fraenkel, Marina Langlois, Suraj Rampure, Janine Tiefenbruck, Philip Guo.
In ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale (L@S), 2022. A New Data-Focused Introductory Programming Course
Suraj Rampure. 2021. Master's technical report, UC Berkeley EECS. Experiences Teaching a Large Upper-Division Data Science Course Remotely
Suraj Rampure*, Allen Shen*, and Josh Hug.
In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE 2021).
πŸ—£οΈ slides πŸŽ₯ video

Media

UC San Diego Today: Signature Program Demonstrates How UC San Diego Undergraduates Learn to Transform Data into Action ComputingPaths at UC San Diego: Meet Suraj Rampure, Lecturer in the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute UC Berkeley Research News: UC Berkeley and Tuskegee University Announce Data Science Partnership UC Berkeley Data Science Education Podcast: The Importance of Data Science Course Staff


Awards and Distinctions

Awards

2023-2024 UC San Diego Distinguished Teaching Award 2020-2021 UC Berkeley Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times Award πŸ“° article 2019-2020 UC Berkeley EECS Distinguished GSI Award 2017-2018 UC Berkeley EECS Outstanding GSI Award

Distinctions

Fall 2024 LEO Lecturers Professional Development Fund Recipient