EPFL · Science

EPFL Professor Clément Pit-Claudel Wins Best Teaching Award

Clément Pit-Claudel, an assistant professor at EPFL, has been awarded the 2026 EPFL Award for Best Teaching for his engaging and hands-on approach to computer science education.

Pit-Claudel emphasizes mastering small tasks for larger goals. His teaching is demanding and practical, aiming to foster student growth through direct application.

He helps students see work value and track progress. Students write useful programs, starting basic and expanding them throughout the semester.

Pit-Claudel likens programming skills to earning superpowers, contrasting them with innate abilities. He empowers students to understand and control computer functions.

His research focuses on formal methods and software verification, proving program correctness. This analytical rigor is taught to students for debugging code.

To assess coding under pressure, Pit-Claudel arranges exams in multiple rooms, simulating real-world conditions.

Regarding AI, Pit-Claudel stresses understanding principles is vital, comparing coding assistants to taxis versus driving.

Pit-Claudel advocates for open science, sharing course materials. He sees parallels between human and programming languages in describing and interacting with the world.

AI-samenvatting op basis van de bron.