MSE Professor Receives
College of Engineering
Excellence in Teaching Award

When materials science professor Ismat Shah first came to the United States in 1980, he saw an offer for a free pair of gloves at a local department store.  His excitement at the concept of free quickly turned into disappointment when he found out that in order to get the free gloves, he had to first buy two pairs.

However, the “bait-and-switch” experience provided him with a valuable strategy for teaching:  “Whenever I see my students start to slow down or look bored, I switch to something more exciting, like a discussion of religion,” he says.  “Once I see that they’re alive again, I go back to materials science.”

Apparently the approach works, as Shah received the College of Engineering’s Excellence in Teaching Award for 2007.  The classes he teaches, especially Statistical Thermodynamics, are among the toughest in the College, but he finds ways to make them interesting and relevant to his students.

“There’s always a way to find a connection,” Shah says.  “The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us that things fall apart, so I ask my students, ‘How does that relate to life?’”

As a parent, Shah noticed that his kids responded to him better when he got down on his knees and placed himself at their level.  That provided another lesson for the classroom.

“Getting down to their level is more effective,” Shah says.  “It’s about communication and speaking in a way that they understand.  If you can find a common language, then everyone comes up to his or her potential.  Some people are especially difficult, but I don’t give up on anybody.”

Shah has also found that when students express apprehension regarding a course, the issue isn’t always about academics.  “Sometimes they just need someone to provide an ear for their problems,” he says.

Given his zeal for meaningful education, it’s not surprising that Shah was the first faculty member at UD to lead a Study Abroad program in engineering.  Since 2001, Shah has led a trip every Winter Session, organized around teaching “Introduction to Materials Science.”

After visiting Germany for the first couple of years, Shah realized that it would be better to choose a different destination every year.  “There has to be something to keep me interested, too,” he says.  Since then, he has taught the course in Italy and Greece as well.

Shah thinks that Study Abroad programs are valuable for everyone but especially so for engineering students.  “Our curricula are so fixed that engineering students have little opportunity to explore other things,” he says.  “When you take students to another culture, everything is stripped away, and their guard is down because they’re isolated from everything they know.  It’s a way to put them in a context with people who have a totally different outlook on life—an opportunity to explore the world.”

Shah is taking that concept one step further next year when he and Ralph Begleiter, Edward and Elizabeth Goodman Rosenberg Professor of Communication, join forces to take a mixed group of engineering and journalism students to Turkey.

“I think this program will be especially exciting,” Shah says, “because it will give us an opportunity to see how they share their daily experience with each other as well as how they interact with the other culture.”

Shah says that he has had nothing but good experiences in his seven years of leading Study Abroad programs.  A significant part of that success is undoubtedly due to what Shah himself brings to the mix.

by Diane Kukich