Volume 12, Number 1, 2003
Real-world problems in the classroom. A network of potential collaborators and future employers for students. Knowledge of the practical and ethical aspects of business.
These are just a few of the things that engineering faculty bring to the University when their route to academia takes a detour through industry.
"It's helpful to both the students and the faculty to have professors who have spent some time in industry," says Eric Kaler, dean of the College and Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering. "They give all of us a perspective on the practical applications and implications of our work that is very valuable."
Problems based on industrial experience are a prime example, according to those faculty members. "I think I gained a broader perspective on how things are used," says Anette Karlsson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, who worked for Saab Aerospace before coming to UD in 2002. "Working for a company gave me insight into why a topic is worth studying."
Dennis Mertz, professor of civil and environmental engineering, agrees. "I'm able to teach in a way that lets my students see how principles are applied," says Mertz, who spent 10 years at Modjeski and Masters Engineering. "I think it's less onerous to learn the principles if you see the usefulness of them. Even though we don't always focus on the applications here, it's valuable to know what they might be."
After 13 years with the DuPont Co., Babatunde Ogunnaike now uses problems in his classroom lectures that are modified from DuPont projects with which he has been involved, and he gives only open-book exams.
"Your boss in industry isn't going to lock you up in a room and say, 'Solve this problem in one hour,'" Ogunnaike, professor of chemical engineering, points out. "In dealing with a real problem, formulating it appropriately so that it can be solved is 75 percent of the work. I try to focus on familiarizing my students with all the judgment that goes into formulating the problem and setting it up right."
Materials science Prof. Robert Opila, who had an 18-year career with Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies, says he makes an effort to show his students that solving problems goes beyond considering just the technical details.
"We have to look at other issues, like economics and the role of the environment," he says. "Environmental regulations generate a lot of controversy, but they have to be considered in decision making. It's not uncommon for a material that's technically superior but toxic to be rejected in favor of one with inferior properties that's easier on the environment."
Mertz adds another nontechnical item to the list of benefits his background offers. "I think I brought the ethical aspects of business to teaching," he says. "I also have an understanding of the issues associated with litigation. Rightly or wrongly, this has provided some validation of me to my students. And, it's an important aspect of the field because most of our students will not be teachers but practicing engineers."
During his 20 years with AT&T and Bell Labs, Len Cimini worked on the first cellular system built. Today, as a professor of electrical and computer engineering, he teaches wireless communications. "I can tell anecdotes about what was involved in the early days of this technology," he says. "I think my students appreciate that. It goes beyond what they would get out of a textbook."
Learning how industry works is another important aspect of engineering students' education, the professors say.
"You need to know not only the facts but how to use them," says Opila, who teaches a materials science course for engineers in other disciplines. "I recently had a situation where the students couldn't arrive at a solution to a problem. In the classroom, that would be the end of the story, but in the real world, you have to be able to find an alternative."
These faculty members say they also try to convey the importance of working in multidisciplinary teams. "It's good for engineers to work together," says Opila, noting that he'd like to see more engineering courses that cross disciplines. "And, to do this, they need to have a common language. Every project I was on at Lucent involved people from a variety of disciplines--physicists, chemists, engineers and business people."
These faculty members also have a good idea of what industry is looking for in new graduates, an extensive network of contacts to help them get jobs and the ability to prepare their students for working in an industrial environment. "I have an inside view of what my students will have to deal with when they graduate," Ogunnaike says.
Their stature in the field also can be a plus for students. "Dennis Mertz is really helping us build a name for the department as a place to come for bridge engineering," says Michael Chajes, chairperson of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "Everyone in the bridge community knows him, and his professional reputation is helping to build the department's reputation."
John Rabolt, chairperson and Karl W. and Renate Böer Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, has similar praise for Opila, who joined the faculty in 2001. "He has 'hit the ground running,' bringing a significant amount of equipment with him that was donated to our department by Lucent Technologies," Rabolt says. He adds that Opila and a student won a prestigious Best Poster Award at the international Materials Research Society meeting, calling it "a tremendous accomplishment, which has brought an enormous amount of recognition to the College of Engineering."
Teaching itself was not new to any of these faculty members when they joined the University. All had gained experience supervising summer interns, training postdocs and mentoring junior researchers, and most previously had adjunct faculty positions at various institutions.
In many ways, however, their experience prepared them for only part of what they would encounter in their new lives as faculty, they say. Most acknowledge that the transition was not always easy. "It was like trying to get a drink of water out of a fire hose," Opila says.
Cimini compares being a faculty member to running a small startup company: "You're responsible for everything--getting funding for travel and equipment, supporting your students, identifying collaborators for your research. In industry, managers take care of the financial details, and your research group is built into the infrastructure. The entire department is basically doing the same thing and focusing on the same goals."
Ogunnaike echoes Cimini's thoughts and admits that these challenges are part of the reason he did not go into U.S. academia immediately after earning his doctorate. "You have to raise money, teach, serve on committees and do research," he says. "After returning to the U.S. 13 years ago, I couldn't see myself doing all of these as well as I would have liked. The life of a professor hasn't changed much since then, but coming in now with experience enables me to approach these challenges from a different perspective."
There is widespread agreement that the challenges are balanced by the additional freedom that comes with working in academia. "There aren't so many levels here," Karlsson says. "Even as an assistant professor, I can talk directly with senior faculty. In industry, it's not easy to interact with top-level managers."
"In industry, they'll tell you if what you're doing is working or not," Cimini says. "Here, it's up to you to decide what direction to take."
For Mertz, the transition has perhaps been easier. He says he intended to stay at Modjeski and Masters for only "a handful of years," but just when he was contemplating moving on to an academic position, the company got a huge contract to rewrite national bridge design specifications. He stayed to work on that project.
"I guess I've always had one foot in each world," Mertz says. "From the viewpoint of industry, that work on structural reliability was very theoretical, so they always thought of me as an academic, and my colleagues here think of me as a bridge designer, which is very applied."
All these professors may be seen as part of a bigger picture that involves a trend in the College toward application, relevance, payoff and practical experience. Mertz credits Arnold Kerr, professor of civil and environmental engineering whose perspective was based on his experience in Germany, with the vision to recruit an experienced bridge designer to teach design.
"I think we're seeing a lot more pressure for research proposals to be 'relevant,'" Mertz says. "Agencies have to show a payoff, and that need has become more immediate. In the past, an engineer could invent something and then figure out how to use it. Now, there is more focus on having some idea ahead of time where the work might be applied. Faculty with industry experience are well positioned to go with that trend."
Ogunnaike agrees. "I'm determined to prepare my students for what I see coming," he says. "I don't think we're going to be able to keep doing things the way we have been doing them in the past. We're going to have to modify the way we teach to produce the right sort of student."
He says he sees tremendous value in not only his industrial experience but also the ongoing relationship he has with his former employer. "One of my Ph.D. students is now carrying out part of his thesis work at the DuPont Experimental Station," he says. "There's a connection you can't buy with money."
--Diane Kukich, AS '73, '84M