Give Back What Others Have Given To You

Give Back What Others Have Given To You

My role is a Professor, but my main responsibility is to our students. I may lead research in my professorial role, but fundamentally, it is the teaching and learning side of my work that I truly love and dedicated to. While grant proposals and publishing research papers are a core part of research and innovation, I love to learn from others and pass that knowledge on. Also, strip away my academic title, and I am a peer to any teacher in a school — in fact, I have a much easier role in my teaching than a teacher in a school.

Overall, I have been so fortunate in my career and have achieved everything I could ever want in my work — and now I can help others in achieving their full potential. For this, I co-invented and led things that became amazing spin-out companies, and which has given me a foundation to help others and feel comfortable in my achievements. Once you discover who you really are, what you want to do, and where you want to be, you have reached an important part of your life.

And, so, as a teacher, I’ve always tried to innovate, and where some things work, and others don’t. I never take risks, though, and always make sure that students are supported in whichever way they learn. For this, I recently did some doodles of my lectures, and it was a great hit — and where most students thought the doodles allowed them to learn more than the recordings of lectures [here]:

But, the best thing or engagement I have found is where we have a Mentimeter test on the things we have covered in a lecture, and then give away a Bob and Alice mug for the winner:

I would have never imagined that a simple mug could be so prized:

A few people have said to me, “You could sell those Bob and Alice mugs online”, but that will never, ever, ever happen, as they reflect the specialness of someone doing great work and excelling at that point in time. They are a small gift of thanks for being part of a shared learning experience.

And, some say I should charge for ASecuritySite.com, but that will never happen either, as education should be free to access and open to all. I didn’t build it to sell anything — I built it from a love of learning cryptography and in supporting our students. While it started as a local thing, it now has over one million unique users per year and is growing in its scope by the day. My payback is that I can still use it and re-learn things that I have written about in the past. If I can get more people into the most interesting area of Computer Science, then that is payback for me.

But, when I reflect back on my career, there were people who helped me and who saw potential and gave me the chance to show that I could successfully deliver things that really mattered. And now, I have the chance to do this for our students and my colleagues — it could just be a small part of their education or career, but it could be a fundamental element of their advancement.

Money is often important to us, but provides us with a foundation to live in the way we want to live, but education, by far, is worth so much more — and no-one can ever take it away from you. We are all different — and that is good — and we all are motivated by different things, and we all learn in different ways. Once you find out what really motivates you, and in the way you learn best, you should be setup to follow your dreams.

So, never take your education for granted — it is the most wonderful thing you can do in your life — and never stop learning. Go be a great teacher or a mentor to others, and reward them with your kindness and thanks for doing great work. Give back what others have given to you.