Teaching & Supervision
Thesis supervision, pedagogical training, and teaching in NLP, data science, and deep learning.
Opening the Black Box: a hands-on course in explainable AI
I built and teach Opening the Black Box, a five-day course in explainable AI for large language models. The free, self-paced edition is public: thirteen hands-on labs that run in the browser on a free GPU, built on the companion notebooks of my book Hands-On Explainable AI. The full instructor-led version runs as a summer school for universities and companies.
- Free courseOpening the Black Box: thirteen labs, self-paced, no sign-up · DOI
- PlaygroundPoke the Black Box: an interactive two-minute demo of explainable AI, in the browser
- LabsThirteen open-source notebooks (MIT) · DOI
- FormatSelf-paced (free) · instructor-led five-day school (institutions)
Field notes and guides for people studying and working in AI
Alongside the course I write an open blog. Modern AI Engineering is six chapters of field notes on building production LLM systems, from calling models well to serving them cheaply. Four further guides are living documents: master’s programmes in the Netherlands, machine learning summer schools in Europe, ordered course paths for five different jobs, and a reading list on explainable NLP. All free, corrigible by pull request, archived with a DOI.
Master’s thesis co-supervision
I co-supervise Master’s theses in the Applied Data Science programme at Utrecht University, together with Dr. Robert A. Bagheri (2024 & 2026) and Dr. Anastasia Giachanou (2025). Topics center on explainable AI, cultural fairness in LLMs, and human-AI collaboration.
- 2024Mijntje Meijer, Evi Papadopoulou, Lourenço Santos Moitinho de Almeida (graduated)
- 2025Hein Brouwer, Tamás Kozák, Mohamad Jouhar
- 2026Aliyah Vos, Geanina Verestiuc, Thomas Rietman
- TopicsExplainable AI · Cultural fairness in LLMs · Human-AI collaboration
Teaching development
Since 2025 I follow the Start to Teach course at Utrecht University, the first step toward the Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs (BKO). The course covers practical teaching skills, didactics, and distance learning.
Courses and workshops
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Dec 2023
Practical Assistant
Transformers Workshop, University Medical Center Utrecht
- Supervised practical sessions in Python alongside Dr. Robert A. Bagheri and Prof. Dr. Albert Gatt.
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Sep–Oct 2023
Computer Lab Assistant
Data Wrangling & Data Analysis, Utrecht University
- Assisted in the MSc Applied Data Science course.
- Focus: R for data visualization, EDA, supervised learning, and text mining.
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Aug–Sep 2021
Lead Teaching Assistant
Deep Learning Summer School, Neuromatch Academy
- Facilitated learning for a global student cohort and coordinated with mentors and organizers.
- Fully remote teaching. Certificate.
Before Utrecht
- Fall 2021Interactive Learning: graduate TA, University of Tehran (MSc level)
- 2019–2022Econometrics: lead TA, University of Tehran (MSc and PhD level)
- Jan–Jun 2020Dynamic Programming: graduate RA, University of Tehran (MSc and PhD level)
- 2019–2020Elementary Python (data preparation and regression models): course instructor, University of Tehran (MSc level)
- Sep–Dec 2019Data Mining: course instructor, Sharif University of Technology (MSc level)
- 2013Intermediate English Language: lecturer, Isfahan University of Technology, Golpayegan (BSc level)
- 2011–2014General Mathematics & Basic Physics: TA, Isfahan University of Technology, Golpayegan (BSc level)