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Mechanical engineering professor James Forbes regularly attracts glowing reviews from his students, but he says聽he鈥檒l聽never forget one negative student evaluation he received early in his teaching career. It changed the way he approaches teaching.聽

Much of his research has focused on aerospace and robotics systems, and Forbes, a William Dawson Scholar, tended to give students examples from those industries during the classes he taught. 鈥淏ut in one course evaluation, a student said, 鈥業聽don鈥檛聽know why I聽have to聽take this course.聽It鈥檚聽only applicable to aerospace and robotics.鈥欌�澛�

Forbes describes that evaluation, which he received about 10 years ago, as a turning point. 鈥淚 thought, 鈥業鈥檝e totally failed the students.鈥欌�� From then on, he made sure to use a wider variety of examples to make it plain that the principles he was discussing聽weren鈥檛聽just relevant to a few specialized areas.聽

Forbes recently became the first recipient of the Faculty of Engineering鈥檚 new Donald L. Mordell EUS Teaching Excellence Award. The $16,000 prize will shine a spotlight each year on a professor, faculty lecturer, or course lecturer who has made an extraordinary contribution to teaching in engineering, architecture, or urban planning.聽

The award was created thanks to the generosity of Don Nilson, and named for Mordell, Nilson鈥檚 late father-in-law. Mordell, an expert on combustion, aeronautics and gas turbines, served as 麻豆传媒网站鈥檚 dean of engineering from 1957 to 1968.聽聽

Nilson, the co-founder and president of the wealth management firm AFT聽Trivest, is himself no stranger to teaching. He taught accounting at the University of British Columbia for 37 years. During a short speech at the Mordell prize ceremony, he emphasized the commitments that both teachers and students make at the beginning of each course. 鈥淲hen you each enter a classroom, you make an unwritten, unspoken contract with each other. One to teaching excellence and the other to learning excellence.鈥澛�

This聽isn鈥檛聽the first teaching award that Nilson has helped聽found. He was also the driving force behind a teaching prize at UBC鈥檚 Sauder School of Business. In both cases, Nilson wanted students to have a large say in聽determining聽the winners of the prize. The award sub-committee for the Mordell prize includes student representatives from the Engineering Undergraduate Society (EUS) executive.聽聽

Dean of Engineering Viviane Yargeau spoke at the Mordell prize ceremony and thanked Nilson for his generosity. 鈥淲e are profoundly grateful for this extraordinary gift,鈥� she said. 鈥淥utstanding teaching is what enables our students to grow,聽to explore,聽to imagine, and聽to push聽boundaries,鈥� Yargeau added.聽

While working as a TA during his graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Forbes began to see how he could help 鈥渃lear the fog鈥� and make a difference for students through his teaching.聽

He regularly focuses on real-world applications in his classes 鈥� in one course, he had his students design a control system to cool car brakes, a task inspired by similar work already done by the 麻豆传媒网站 Formula Electric team (and using data supplied by the team).聽聽

Student assessments of Forbes these days tend to be overwhelmingly positive.聽

One student wrote, 鈥淢y classmates and I spent three hours in [Forbes鈥橾 office the day before the midterm, and he never made us feel like we were wasting his time. He really wanted us to understand these critical concepts.鈥澛�

Forbes says his favourite classes are the ones where students are asking questions, looking at the big聽picture聽and applying earlier lessons. 鈥淟earning is not passive, learning is active.鈥澛�

Forbes was one of seven nominees for the inaugural Mordell prize. Laurent Mydlarski, Daniele聽Malomo, Caroline Wagner, Fiona Zhao, Philippe聽Ouzilleau聽and Sherif Kamel were the other finalists.聽

While Forbes says he is聽honoured聽to have won, he gives props to the other nominees. 鈥淚鈥檝e聽sat on awards committees and聽it鈥檚聽infuriating because all the nominees are so good. The reality is all the others are great instructors, too.鈥澛�

He was recently contacted by a former student who congratulated him on the Mordell prize. The student had begun work in a research position and told his former teacher that he was using the tools Forbes had taught in his course for the project he was involved with.聽

Forbes told the student that while he appreciated the good wishes for the Mordell prize, he was delighted to hear that his teaching had made a difference for the student. 鈥淚 said, 鈥楩or me, the prize really is hearing how you鈥檙e using the tools from that class to solve a聽real world聽problem.鈥欌�澛�

This article was originally published on the聽听蝉颈迟别听