Stephen Redfield began his career in technology at a very early age. When he was in the second grade, his elementary school received Apple II computers, but none of the teachers knew how to use them. The school’s principal chose several students — including Redfield — who taught themselves to use the machines and in turn, the students served as technical resources for their teachers.
Redfield and his older brother wanted to learn more about computers and asked their father to buy one. “We harangued our dad into getting us a beat up old computer that barely functioned,” Redfield said. “It didn’t even run Windows or DOS. The operating system was called Le Menu, and it was rudimentary at best.”
Nonetheless, their computer served its purposes and in the sixth grade, Redfield took a programming class, where he designed a game that involved tanks blowing each other up.
In middle school, he joined a programming club and when Redfield was in high school, the club developed a graphing calculator app. The team ultimately presented their project at Supercomputing '99, a professional conference held in Portland.
Redfield also took a microelectronics class in high school, and made a rudimentary scanner by retrofitting an old dot matrix printer with an LED, a photosensitive resistor, and an analog-to-digital converter. “That was so much fun that it got me into computer engineering instead of computer science,” he said.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University, Redfield continued on to a PhD program. He also took the opportunity to teach a section of the Signals and Systems II class, where he discovered his talent and passion for teaching.
“I got really good reviews for that class,” he said. “I thought, this teaching thing kind of works for me.”
This experience led him to realize that he had been teaching in one way or another for most of his life. He taught others how to use those Apple computers in grade school. As an undergraduate student, he worked in the Math Learning Center, led study groups, and tutored other students. And he was a graduate teaching assistant during graduate school.
Redfield continued teaching classes as a doctoral student and kept earning high marks for his teaching. So when his research stalled, Redfield jumped at the opportunity to become a full-time instructor for the online computer science program.
Redfield has taught a wide variety of classes and has continued to earn great reviews from students. He received the College of Engineering’s Loyd Carter award for outstanding and inspirational teaching.
He think the students respond to him because he tries to be approachable. While it can be difficult to do for online students where classes do not meet synchronously, Redfield tries to inject his personality into his online videos. He also takes the opportunity to interact with students as much as possible.
Redfield also encourages students to interact with their instructors and fellow classmates as well. “Research shows that students who are socially engaged in their education are almost always more successful than those who aren’t,” he said, adding that finding friends is important.
“If you need help with a concept, you’ll have a study group or teaching assistant you can turn to for help. But if you hit a wall and there’s no one to catch you and help you get back to where you need to be, then that’s going to be hard,” he said.
In his spare time, Redfield still likes playing video games, but also likes working on his house and in the yard.
In fact, several years ago, he singlehandedly remodeled a fixer-upper house he and his wife bought in Corvallis. At the time, the family was living in Salem, about 40 miles from Corvallis. “I thought it would take me three months to redo the house enough that we could live in it,” he said. “It did not take me three months. It took me 11 months.”
Redfield spent the weekdays in Corvallis, working at Oregon State and working on the house in his spare time, and returned home to Salem on the weekends.
He gutted and rebuilt the kitchen, replaced walls, put in a new bathroom, and built a walk-in closet. He installed new flooring, re-textured and painted the interior walls, and fixed the plumbing. He pulled out a wood stove, put up new brick on the wall behind it, and dealt with a rat infestation.
After nearly a year, the Redfields were finally able to move into their new and improved home in Corvallis. “Every time someone comes over to our house for the first time, my wife shows them pictures of what it used to look like,” he said.
Redfield enjoys living and working in Corvallis and is happy to have chosen a career in teaching. “I worked for a year in industry and I get to do more fun things when I’m teaching,” he said. “I’m more a master of my own destiny and my job allows me to work on the fun projects at home.”
By Gale Sumida
October 2021