My teaching focuses on physics and applied mathematics, particularly dynamics and optimal control. Teaching students is about more than just sharing knowledge—it is about sparking curiosity, inspiring critical thinking, and equipping learners with the tools to thrive beyond the classroom. Below, you will find highlights from my courses and testimonials from my students and colleagues.
Welcome to Dynamics! Dynamics is a branch of Mechanics that studies the motion of objects under the influence of forces. It is fundamental to engineering, bridging theoretical principles from physics with practical applications to predict the motion of systems such as rockets, cars, and robots. Introduction to Dynamics is the…
Welcome to Optimization! Optimization and Optimal Control are essential tools for designing systems that operate efficiently while minimizing cost, time, or resources. These methods provide a systematic approach to decision-making in engineering and science, enabling solutions for problems ranging from fuel-efficient spacecraft trajectories to real-time energy optimization in robotics and…
Recognition in Numbers
Introduction To Dynamics
Voice of a Dean:
Your teaching evaluations for Dynamics are remarkably high, both in a relative sense, given that undergraduate dynamics is often rated lower than other courses in Mechanical Engineering, and in an absolute sense, given that typically your scores are higher than either the Mechanical Engineering Department’s averages or the School of Engineering’s averages. The written course evaluations reveal a clear appreciation and admiration for the rigor that you impart to your students.
Optimization and Optimal Control
Voice of a Student:
When a new topic was taught, it was always taught with a good introduction and in the context of what we already knew. So each class felt like just a small extension of the previous one. That is how a course should ideally be taught. The workload was quite a lot, but I think that is required in order to feel confident about subjects like these (otherwise, it remains as knowledge, and not a useful skill). One learns about the finer aspects only by practice. So the solution is definitely not to reduce the workload. Maybe the number of credits for this course could be increased. The professor also spent ample amount of time with the students to guide them with their projects. Overall, a very useful course, taught in an ‘optimal’ way!
Voices from the Classroom
Dynamics (ME 2190) – Vanderbilt
First, I enjoyed the professor’s teaching style very much, and think that his methodical approach to solving problems with math, not intuition, proved to be helpful to make sure I was thinking about the problems correctly. In addition, I thought that having five exams broke up the material nicely, and helped with incremental learning and building off of previous material, instead of having one or two large midterms where I would forget material that I’d learned before and then have to relearn it.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The lecture was incredibly helpful. Great examples, and always made sure we knew what was happening. Kept it light and cracked jokes when he saw attention dying down. Cared deeply about all of the students and allowed us to think creatively about the problems. I was very very happy with the course and how it was taught.
Anonymous Student Feedback
In-class lectures had the most significant impact on my learning. Professor Braun did a lot of really good examples in class in addition to teaching all of the necessary material. He is also an effective question answerer, which helps a ton in a class like Dynamics.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Although the course was tough, Dr. Braun made sure to thoroughly explain the material and assure understanding during class.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Prof Braun has been one of my favorite professors at Vanderbilt so far. He is very engaging in class and loves to talk to us about things that are going on and how we are doing with life in general and his class.
Anonymous Student Feedback
I really enjoyed having Dr. Braun as a professor! I appreciated that he always the class how we were and what other responsibilities we had that week.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Don't change anything. You are incredible at explaining this material!
Anonymous Student Feedback
Examples are conducted thoroughly. Questions are answered with respect to the questioner as well as the entire class. I would like 1 or 2 examples / guides posted for every week's homework (examples that pertain to the homework problems).
Anonymous Student Feedback
Professor Braun was a very good professor and definitely cared about everyone understanding the material.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Prof Braun was very good about checking in with students and their learning, he made a strong effort to include students even with the limitations of zoom.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The examples done in class and the emphasis placed on creating good analytical habits allowed me to stay on course and helped me develop the necessary habits for solving difficult problems later in the course.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The examples worked in class, paired with an active learning perspective, allowed me to grasp how to solve the problems in a mathematically rigorous way.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Prof. Braun is one of the best professors I have had so far at Vanderbilt.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Optimal Control (ME 8391/3890) – Vanderbilt
I liked how the professor started from the basic to build up to the complicated ideas and topics. Plus the professor had a lot of energy for the material he was teaching.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The material is well presented and the importance of the material and its applications are made clear, great course!
Anonymous Student Feedback
Probably the best class I’ve taken at Vanderbilt, graduate and undergraduate classes all included.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The content was great. I definitely have a better understanding of NLP, Calculus of Variations and the Maximum Principle – all of which were a bit shaky at the start of the course. Now I am very confident in these tools.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Dr. Braun is a great lecturer who can deliver the abstract material in an easy–to–follow and concise way. It is clear that he is very knowledgeable on those topics and dedicates time and energy to prepare for lectures. The material is very interesting and the applications could be quite universal. The lecture is very organized, and there are examples to exemplify the theory. The supplementary material (slide, code, notes) is well–written/prepared and very helpful. Dr. Braun actively asks for feedback and makes immediate adjustments to improve the learning experience. He also encourages questions and comments during/after the class.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Dr. Braun taught the material in a very easy to understand, recipe based way that made solving problems and understanding material very simple. He also provided very well commented code for implementing the methods we learned in class, which made it extremely helpful.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Dr. Braun organized the class material very well and thoroughly covered topics/questions. He provided many extra solutions and examples on Brightspace and clearly had a very thorough understanding of the material. He tried to relate it back to research topics. The workload was manageable in regard to homework.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Modeling the Systems World (MS 10.007) – SUTD Singapore
Good teacher that explains concepts clearly and effectively… Humorous, critical and calm.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Great teacher, very engaging, gets students to think about more than what is being asked.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Great teacher, goes through content very clearly.
Anonymous Student Feedback
He tries to connect with the students and is free to share more information other than what was covered in lectures.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Whenever we are doing the activities in class, he will walk around and ask students if they need help. He did not just focus on those that are actively working on the class whiteboard but also engages students who are working on their own, whom I think needs more help as they try to do it on their own instead of freeriding on the better students.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very clear in his teaching. Really kind and approachable as well.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very encouraging professor who is very clear in his instructions. When he says ’look this look this, this is very important’ it really works to bring our attention to the board to emphasize a point, and it improves memory retention. All professors can learn from this. All professors need to ’look this’ teaching technique. Also humorous.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Best math educator I’ve had in my life.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Systems and Control (EPD 30.101) – SUTD Singapore
Systems and Control has proven to be one of the most interesting courses offered by SUTD to date.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very interesting and is certainly useful in the future for future engineering projects.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Well-planned and well-thought. At first I thought this would be another average course, but the 2D rally and the in depth analysis of PID controls afterwards really sparked my learning. It is these kinds of things that makes education fun.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Best instructor for system & control subjects.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very clear lessons with good flow, clear writing on the board and good explanations.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very patient and constantly keep you in track as to what is going on in class. 🙂
Anonymous Student Feedback
Awesome! Good at teaching. Very thorough.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very encouraging as an educator as well, constantly pushing us to higher knowledge and guiding us through when we struggle through the activities!
Anonymous Student Feedback
He is knowledgeable and he is passionate about his teaching topic. He makes an effort to assist us.
Anonymous Student Feedback
He talks with this cool accent, that no one else can muster, we have to learn to match his coolness to be as cool as him.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Optimization and Control (EPD 30.508) – SUTD Singapore
Impeccable board work! Very committed to teaching, and cares about students.
Anonymous Student Feedback
The small jokes / relaxed attitude during class make for a very comfortable learning environment.
Anonymous Student Feedback
One of the best profs in SUTD.
Anonymous Student Feedback
First of all, thanks to Prof. Braun for the nice and very helpful course. I really like the way in which Prof. combines math with real application and introduces many useful tools to solve the real optimization problems. And the content was very well structured and delivered, combined with numerical tools.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Excellent teaching. The course content was made to seem very intuitive. When a new topic was taught, it was always taught with a good introduction and in the context of what we already knew. So each class felt like just a small extension of the previous one. That is how a course should ideally be taught. The workload was quite a lot, but I think that is required in order to feel confident about subjects like these (otherwise, it remains as knowledge, and not a useful skill). One learns about the finer aspects only by practice. So the solution is definitely not to reduce the workload. Maybe the number of credits for this course could be increased. The professor also spent ample amount of time with the students to guide them with their projects. Overall, a very useful course, taught in an ‘optimal’ way!
Anonymous Student Feedback
I really like the solving of problems at the board. Because it is slower than with PowerPoint, it gave us more time to think and understand the solution. That was very good 🙂
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very good – Best lecture series I have attended in at SUTD.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Dynamics (EPD 30.104) – SUTD Singapore
I was initially skeptical about the video-lecture case-problem-tutorials approach, but it actually works wonders! Not only can I review the contents at will, we actually have more time to digest these concepts in class, to the extent I can fully remember the flow of the whole course now.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very good and clear explanations. Very friendly and dedicated 🙂
Anonymous Student Feedback
David is a very patient teacher. He achieves the right balance between explanation and speed.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Prof David has been very knowledgeable, understanding and approachable during the course. He never fails to help us out when we are in doubt.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Classes & explanations are systematic and easy to follow. Steps in the videos/classes are also clearly labelled.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Awesome!!! Proactive in asking students if they need help too.
Anonymous Student Feedback
I like the idea of bite sized video lectures which is better than 1 entire 1 hours lecture, as it is easier to follow. I am also able to review the lecture material at my own pace. This course is challenging, but it will push the boundaries of one’s conceptual understanding of how things move… Please keep the rigor of the course at the same level for the next batch, I believe they deserve to be challenged in the same way as we were.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Doing case problems in class rocks. They really help you understand or at least zoom in in important parts of the material that you need to know. And can bomb questions haha.
Anonymous Student Feedback
You have the best handwriting, its neat and clear. Keep it up! Your explanations when solving case problems in class is also very good, clear instructions as well as well written workings on the boards with as little skipping of steps. … Job well done and thank you for teaching us dynamics! Look forward to future modules with you… Cheers!
Anonymous Student Feedback
I think David is a very patient instructor who sincerely wants to help students. … I also admire his spirit of how he consistently seeks to improve his teaching by gathering student feedback to make his lessons better. … I feel that it is a privilege to have him as an instructor.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very hardworking. Takes a lot of effort to go through things with students. He is able to break things down into details and explain it such that students understand.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Fantastic. Loved this course. Absolutely enjoyed the time we had to work on problems on the boards – that really gave me the opportunity to enhance my understanding.
Anonymous Student Feedback
Very dedicated, patient and able to explain difficult concepts well and in a easy-to-understand fashion. 10/10 would recommend.
Anonymous Student Feedback
One of the best professors in SUTD. Really knows how to engage the students and keep the class interesting throughout the class. Very helpful as well.
