The Art of Teaching | Engineering Art Lecture Series

Engineering Education: Teaching, Training, and/or Thinking?

James O. Jirsa
Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair Emeritus in Engineering
University of Texas at Austin

Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Lecture:  4:30-5:20pm – HAMP 1144
Reception:  5:30-6:15 – Wood Commons

The process of developing students for a career in engineering is not well-defined.  My generation of teachers was molded by inspiring role models, universities that had an obligation to produce practicing professionals, mentors that had a profound influence on their protégés, and colleagues who provided counsel and leadership.  But each member of an engineering faculty travels a different route during their career. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the impacts of teaching, training, or thinking on the art of engineering and to provide some observations on the changes in engineering education that have occurred during the past 50 years.

Bio:
James O. Jirsa holds the Janet S. Cockrell Centennial Chair Emeritus in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.  He has engineering degrees from the Universities of Nebraska and Illinois and was on the faculty at Nebraska and Rice University before joining UT Austin in 1972.  He served as director of the Ferguson Structural Engineering Lab and as Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at UT.  His teaching and research interests were in the areas of behavior and design of reinforced concrete structures with special emphasis on rehabilitation of existing structures in seismic zones, durability of structures in corrosive environments, and detailing of reinforcement in structures.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and served as Chair of Section 4—Civil Engineering.  He is an Honorary Member and Past-President of the American Concrete Institute.  He served on the ACI Board of Direction and was chairman of the ACI Technical Activities Committee.  He is a member of ACI Committee 318 Standard Building Code.  He is an Honorary Member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and served on the Board of Directors.  He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Other memberships include the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering, International Federation of Concrete, and Structural Engineers Association of Texas.  He has received awards for professional leadership and technical achievements from these professional organizations and from the University of Texas.