Thoughts and conversations on teaching during a scientific conference

Last week, I attended the annual conference on Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM) which took place in Minneapolis (United States). While the central topics of this conference were all related to cutting-edge research in the field of magnetism, I still had the chance to think and talk about teaching physics and materials science. Therefore, in today’s blogpost, I would like to touch on a few of my thoughts and conversations.

Thoughts on a new class named "The Physics of Modern Information Technology"

Currently, I am thinking about a new (elective) class on the physics of modern information technology for both B.Sc. and M.Sc. students that I would like to teach in the near future.  

Technically, this idea isn't entirely new, since, for example, there exists a book and a related class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Professor Neil Gershenfeld. However, the concept of my own proposed course is quite a bit different with a stronger focus on magnetic recording and spintronics, new devices in information technology (e.g., resistive random access memories and phase change memories) and alternative computing architectures (i.e., non-von Neumann computers based on neuromorphic computing, probabilistic computing, etc.). I also like the concept of the "Information Storage and Spintronics" class taught by Professor Atsufumi Hirohata at the University of York.