Here at Waterloo, we like to recognize the efforts made by our teaching staff for enhancing our learning experience. The Waterloo Engineering Society presents the Engineering Society Teaching Excellence Award every term to an outstanding Engineering instructor.
Nominations are made by students for their professors or instructors who have displayed one or more of the following criteria:
a) Employing non-conventional teaching techniques
b) Providing opportunities for hands-on learning
c) Showing commitment and dedication towards ensuring academic success for our students
Detailed evaluations packages are made for review by the Teaching Award Committee, comprised of the VP Education, the Associate Dean of Teaching, and two members-at-large. Taking into account the supporting letters by students, past course critiques, and other relevant information, the council fairly evaluates a recipient for the award.
After a rigorous selection process, the recipient of the Spring 2015 Engineering Society Teaching Excellence Award is Ehab F. El-Saadany with honourable mentions to Elaine Boghaert and Ariel Chan.
Ehab F. El-Saadany is a professor for the Mechatronics class. He was presented this award for his teaching excellence displayed in MTE 120: Circuits and MTE 320: Actuators & Power Electronics. El-Saadany is not a professor who makes his classes easy; in fact it is quite the opposite. He challenges his class and pushes them not to just learn the concepts, but also to learn to solve problems and apply theory. One student was quoted saying “His examinations were extremely challenging yet students performed well due to the well prepared assignments, tutorials, and labs that supplemented his excellent lectures”.
As an instructor, El-Saadany cares deeply for his class. He is constantly finding new ways to enrich his lectures. From implementing computer aided tutorials for his MTE 120 class to organizing class trips to a transformer factory for MTE 320, El-Saadany puts into countless extra hours to ensure a pinnacle learning environment for this students. His lectures are also very well organized: each one is evident of prior planning and rehearsal.
Overall El-Saadany has a great relationship with his students, leading many of them to remain in touch over the years. He is very patient when answering questions and will often put in the time to explain difficult concepts until everyone understands them inside out. His role as an instructor stems far past just his work hours as El-Saadany is willing to put in the extra time and effort for each of his students.
Below we have an excerpt of a short interview conducted with Ehab F. El-Saadany about his thoughts on teaching.
What advice would you give to junior faculty members just beginning their teaching careers?
“Make sure you to read the course critique evaluation forms, be open to student feedback, and try to implement suggestions in the following year. I am also open to giving advice to newer faculty members.”
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
“I like keeping in touch with students and seeing their success after graduation. I’ve had students that initially struggled with my courses but went to complete masters or went on to be very successful in the industry.”
What unconventional teaching methods do you employ?
“I don’t consider it unconventional, I think of it as a different way of presenting material. I give students computer dictated tutorials where students are put in groups to build teamwork. I also conduct field trips to better relate course content to the real world. In the power electronic course, lecture notes often have real world examples because the manufacturing process is just as important as the theory. I give students take home quizzes which have challenging problems that are at the exam level to give students a chance to practice.
“For experimental learning, I make sure to align the lab experiments with theory. I coordinate with lab instructors to ensure that concepts are taught in class and are covered in the following lab shortly after. This helps students relate theory to practical experiments.”
What message would you like to send to students reading this article?
“Students have lots of resources and they are not using all of them. They sometimes come at the last minute for help. Students should try to use all of their resources including instructors, teaching assistants, and office hours. Most engineering professors are very passionate and are willing to help.
“Also, don’t lose hope because of a bad midterm. Some students feel like giving up because of a bad exam but they shouldn’t. We always have different exams, different ways to evaluate work, not just written exam and not just one exam. Try to catch up, everyone makes mistakes.”
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