Dre Suzanne M. Kresta     Séminaire en anglais
Professeure -Université de l'Alberta

Engineering Professors in general, and Design Professors in the particular, face a difficult moral dilemma. We have a responsibility to teach students to a very high standard of rigor, critical thinking, and analysis – but the great joy of engineering is finding a creative solution that makes a difference in people’s lives. The perpetual dilemma is finding a balance between these two conflicting values and goals. In this talk I propose a both/and perspective which embraces the diversity of the roles we play: educator and evaluator; critic and catalyst; expert and learner. The animosity which sometimes polarizes professors as we struggle with these dichotomies can be turned around to amplify and reinforce both values in a solution which balances our teaching and learning. Successful strategies which build affective domain strengths related to innovation and deep understanding of core concepts will be presented with their twin teaching strategies, those which build the cognitive domain strength needed for rigor and accuracy in solutions

Suzanne Kresta is co-editor of the Handbook of Industrial Mixing and a Professor at the University of Alberta. She has won numerous awards both for her technical work and for her leadership in education: most recently the Rutherford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education (2011) from the University of Alberta, the North American Mixing Forum Award for Excellence and Sustained Contributions to Mixing Science and Practice (2004), and the Academic Women’s Association Woman of the Year Award (2012). In a recent list of the 21 Most Influential Contributions to Mixing Research (2011), 2 of her publications were identified. She is also an Iron Ring Warden and a member of APEGA Council. She credits much of her success to early mentoring from two 3M Fellows, Phil Wood and Don Woods, and to Alan Blizzard, Dale Roy, and Bente Roed, all nationally recognized faculty developers. She has continued their legacy at the University of Alberta with the (New) Faculty Forums, a series of professional development workshops which have been so popular that they have now expanded to the whole faculty – not just new professors. Her interests in education are focused on student learning in the design process. She currently teaches both mass and energy balances and the first of two senior design courses.