At the Outstanding Faculty Awards, Shengyong Zhang, associate professor of mechanical engineering, won one of the Faculty Awards for Teaching. Zhang was born and raised in a small town in China where he earned his bachelor and master degrees before moving to Kentucky and earning a doctorate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Louisville in 2005. After moving to Valparaiso in 2010 with his family, he has since served on the staff at the Westville campus and was given a permanent position as an associate professor in 2015.

Currently, he teaches a series of mechanical engineering courses, including dynamics, mechanics of materials, machine design, kinematics and kinetics of machinery, advanced engineering mathematics (I, II) and vibration analysis. Zhang said that the professors he met while studying for his degrees inspired him to choose the profession.

“I was deeply impressed by their passion and enthusiasm in their teachings. They were my role models, and I wanted to follow their examples,” Zhang said. “In addition, teaching is fun for me. I love the content and materials I have embraced throughout my education.”

Zhang hopes that he can be an influential professor to his students in the same way that his professors were. George Nnanna, department head of mechanical and civil engineering, said Zhang shows many traits of being as such.

“He’s really well-liked by students because of the strategy he uses when he teaches. He provides them with practical problems and then tries to show them how to apply the theories they learned in class to solve the problems,” Nnanna said.

Nnanna said that the student feedback from Zhang’s classes show that the students felt they learned a lot in Zhang’s classes and that they are well-prepared for their careers. According to Nnanna, Zhang believes students should be able to grasp and develop life-long learning skills they will need after taking his class.

“A good instructor should allow the students to see the relationships between the courses that are required in general education, and Dr. Zhang strives to show these relationships to his students. He also uses an integration of research in his teachings to help the students prepare for the work force,” Nnanna said.

Nnanna explained that a large part of Zhang’s teaching methods focuses on standard assessment methods and postsemester feedback to improve his classroom teachings. Zhang said that improving student learning is one of the challenges one is faced with when teaching engineering because of its complexity.

“Utilizing the student course evaluations, I will provide a more effective and efficient academic environment for students to strive within. Hopefully, I will be able to continue pouring my passion towards engineering upon my students.”

Zhang hopes his methods will help foster a passion within his students as is within himself, which was recognized by his award.

“I am very pleased and honored to be recognized with this award for teaching. At the same time, I feel relieved knowing that all the work I have done to optimize my teachings is finally brought to light. Without a doubt, it is a point of pride on my academic resume and one of the greatest achievements in my academic career,” Zhang said.