David Knox
Post-Baccalaureate Assistant Teaching Professor

David Knox received his BA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1982. He spent the next 30+ years as an architect, designer, and developer in the computer industry in startups and Fortune 500 companies. He returned to academia to complete his MS in Computer Science at CU Boulder in 2010 and received a PhD in Computational Bioscience from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2015. In 2012, he received a Chateaubriand Fellowship allowing him to study at the Laboratoire Joliot Curie in Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon in Lyon, France. 

David's research interests in Computational Biology have focused on cross discipline solutions for modeling and simulations of biological processes. He is also interested in visualization techniques for describing and displaying the results of these complex system interactions for analysis and education. 

Why do you like teaching for the Post-Bacc program?

Online learning is a lifelong way to keep learning.  I want to make the online experience the same as any on campus experience.  I have recorded one course and am working on content for others.  Providing multiple ways for students to learn the material is paramount to making a course reach different learning styles.

Online learning is the future for learning.  Our learning should be facilitated when we have the desire to learn.  That could be the middle of the night or early in the morning, but most likely it will not be when the course is being taught in a lecture on campus.  Providing the material in videos allows students to watch the material as needed, even if it is needed multiple times.  This allows students that have trouble with a section to re-watch the material.  Providing lecture videos has been a big advantage for international students when taking courses on campus.  But in this program we have broken down the videos into individual topics.  In some of our videos we create interactions with students by asking questions about the material.  This is similar to how I would ask questions to the audience when the students are in a lecture hall on campus.  The challenges are still out there and we need to be evolving our courses and methods to meet the needs of all types of students.

What do you like to do outside of CU?

I built my own house from foundation to roof in 1988, cooked at a classical French restaurant from 1991- 1993, and ran the perimeter of the state of Colorado (1814 miles) in 2001.  During the year long odyssey (Jan 1st - Dec 22nd) my dog was able to run about 600 miles along side of me and we encountered lots of wildlife including bears, mountain lions, coyotes, a wolf, bald eagles, turtles, skunks, badgers, turkeys, and snakes.  But the most majestic wildlife encounter was with a golden eagle.  The wingspread of this magnificent creature was wider than my truck (7ft or more) and it glided for several minutes in front of us as it gained altitude.   My latest adventure is to periodically ride a mountain bike sections around the perimeter of Wyoming.