Humans of Chaffey: Professor David Nimri
The Breeze sits down with David Nimri, the hardest working professor in Cybersecurity.
By Curtis Mikell
I have been attending Chaffey College since fall of 2019 and at the beginning, I was not sure which path to take. At first, I wanted to learn how to program video games, but I quickly learned that writing code was not something that I would want to do every day of my life.
About six months into my coursework, I found out through one of my professors that there was a brand-new pathway that Chaffey College was offering; Cybersecurity. This is how I met Professor David Nimri.
Nimri, who prefers his students to refer to him by his last name, is the lead instructor in the Cybersecurity Program, which falls under the Computer Information Systems department. Busy with typical professor duties and the development of the cybersecurity major, Nimri was kind enough to take a little time out of his busy schedule to do a brief interview with me.
I started off by asking him what plans did he have for the Cybersecurity pathway.
“So the plan is to kind of have an interdisciplinary cross-section between cloud computing and computer science. So I want to have cloud security, business cybersecurity, and then cybersecurity engineering.”
Nimri wants to cross-correlate the three main programs in information technology to give a well-rounded educational plan for students. He also touched on how businesses are moving towards cloud computing solutions instead of housing on site servers. He continued.
"More opportunities for students is a big thing for me. So anything that I see as a potential location for new jobs or higher demand for a specific kind of job in cybersecurity, that's where I want to aim."
We went over a few different topics, one of which involved his opinion on how Covid-19 affected his teaching process and some of the positives that came from it.
"I think the net effect was very positive in terms of my teaching because it allowed me to record lectures and put them online so that students have the benefit of asynchronous education."
Going to school and working can make it hard to attend classes and finish assignments on time. This brought me back to my own personal experiences where online, asynchronous learning had helped me out during my busy schedule. He continued.
"I just say: Hey... Watch this lecture covering the same topic from, you know, from a prior class so the student doesn't get to miss a beat."
Although, we both agreed that in-person, hands-on learning has a stronger impact on the student.
The whole conversation was not purely about his job, we hit on some lighter topics. About how he enjoys spending time with his children.
“I like to do activities, things that keep me engaged, like building things, arts and crafts, anything that kind of allows them to use their hands, hand-eye coordination type things. I really enjoy that with them.”
Nimri is one of the hardest-working professors in the field today, and all of his hard work is dedicated to his students. I, for one, am extremely appreciative of all of his efforts. Thank you Professor Nimri for being who you are.