Discussing Problem Is First Step Towards Finding Solution

When Brugger speaks about his classes and his lab sessions in clean rooms, he likes to draw on the analogy of cooking - for him, teaching is an exercise in combining the right ingredients in just the right amounts to give students a taste for learning. He's also enthusiastic about experimentation. That's what he particularly enjoys about engineering: the ability to test different mechanisms - including those invisible to the naked eye - and figure out how they work. Today he heads EPFL's Microsystems Laboratory and is specialized in nanotechnology - a field he discovered while working for a microchip manufacturer as a student in Neuchâtel. His research looks at how microsystems can be produced in a "low-cost, reproducible and cleaner way," he says. "This technology has potential applications in sensors and medical implants, for example."

When Brugger joined EPFL over 25 years ago after working as a researcher for IBM and the University of Twente, he tried out several teaching approaches before finding the one that worked - one that can capture students' attention while imparting the knowledge they need. He still remembers the very first class he taught: "There were suddenly 150 pairs of eyes staring at me," he says. "I was nervous - I'd never taught a class that big before. Coming from the world of research, I was more accustomed to speaking with experts. But then I remembered that I liked it when my professors were able to convey their love for the subject matter in a tangible way. I followed my intuition and took my students' feedback on board. That's what really taught me how to teach and enabled me to improve my classes."

I think the biggest change over the past 20 years is that our role as teachers is no longer to convey information - since students can now find everything online - but rather to organize the information and arrange it for them in the right way. We've become like the curators of an exhibition!

Getting students to come out of their shell

A fan of Socrates, Brugger believes in principles such as active listening, dialogue and introspection. "Sometimes when I look at students' exam papers, I wonder why some of them got a given question wrong," he says. "It could be that they hadn't studied enough, or perhaps I hadn't explained something well enough in my lectures." He ultimately aims to give students the tools to learn on their own. "I think the biggest change over the past 20 years is that our role as teachers is no longer to convey information - since students can now find everything online - but rather to organize the information and arrange it for them in the right way. We've become like the curators of an exhibition!"

There's no doubt that keeping the attention of 100 people or more is an art form. What's Brugger's secret? Combining class discussion with hands-on exercises - and bringing the theory to life with anecdotes. "I do a lot of storytelling since that makes the subject real for students," he says. "It also ensures that everyone's listening!" He also feels it's important to hand the floor over to students. That's why he runs student-led tutorials - a method he learned about during a sabbatical at the Eindhoven University of Technology. For these tutorials, he divides the class into groups of 15-20 people and gives them exercises to complete and questions to answer for the following week. Then, when the class meets again, the groups are sent to different rooms where they work under the guidance of a teaching assistant. A student is chosen from the group at random to present their solutions and discuss them with the rest of the group.

"The idea is for all students to have presented their solutions at least once, and it's happened that some students have been called on twice - meaning they always have to be prepared," says Brugger. "Students are graded on this work" - it accounts for 25% of their final grade - "but what matters more than the solutions per se is their participation and engagement. Students motivate and learn from each other as they discuss things. These tutorials get them out of their shell. They also require students to come to campus and concentrate on just one thing. I've seen that a lot of young people often have difficulty expressing themselves, but that's really important in the learning process."

What's more, the tutorials force students to put down their smartphones and tablets and get away from ChatGPT. "It's essential that students maintain direct contact, and reason things out, with other human beings," says Brugger. "As soon as you start discussing a problem, you're already on the way to finding a solution."

Learning by doing

Brugger is also a firm believer in learning by doing. "Touching and building things with your hands really influences the learning process. I think it's crucial - maybe that's because I also play a musical instrument." Brugger spent several years playing the double bass in an orchestra. "Physics is like music in that you've got to explore and feel how the system works." He's currently supervising a PhD thesis in the learning sciences that involves studying the use of virtual-reality headsets in a clean room. Students put on the headsets, and key information is displayed in their environment to help them perform specific tasks. "This year around 80 students volunteered to help test the system," says Brugger. "We want to determine whether it can help students learn complicated processes. I always say that a clean room is like a big kitchen: there's a whole array of tools and equipment, and you've got to know how to use them all in order to cook up something good." In both his research and teaching, Brugger is not afraid to try new things in his ongoing quest to improve his recipe. His aim? To strike the right balance - not too bland and not too spicy.