Despite being thrown a coronavirus curveball, new Engineering Dean Jeffrey W. Holmes, M.D., Ph.D., who began his tenure at UAB July 1, says he is looking forward to what the future holds for the School of Engineering — opportunities for growing and diversifying its student population, defining and developing new research areas and constructing a new building, to name a few.
“I am so excited about working with the faculty, staff and students to plan for the future of UAB Engineering,” Holmes said. “It all starts with the students, so my first priority is to grow and diversify our student body. I want more junior high and high school students in Alabama to choose careers in engineering and choose to study engineering at UAB.
“And over the next few years, we plan to identify and grow new research areas at the school, taking advantage of our location near a premier medical center, the many excellent schools at UAB and collaborations with local industry here in Birmingham,” he continued. “The faculty we hire, the new building we are planning and the exciting research areas we launch will shape the school for a generation.”
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“The faculty we hire, the new building we are planning and the exciting research areas we launch will shape the school for a generation.” |
Engineering faculty remain committed to ensuring their students get the best possible education, regardless of class format, Holmes says. This proved true during the school’s transition to remote learning during the spring and summer semesters.
“This fall will be even better,” Holmes said, “because we’ve had much more time to prepare. The hybrid format we are using will let us harness the strengths of both online and in-person delivery, and the Engineering Peer Instruction Center will be supporting students with virtual tutoring.”
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“Learning engineering is like learning to play an instrument, or really any other skill — it takes practice. Lectures are a good start but doing homework and practice problems are where you really learn the most.” |
His advice for students returning to UAB for a fall semester that will likely be much different than they had imagined, is “practice makes perfect,” he said. Utilizing online options for study groups and discussions is an easy way to find a sense of normalcy within the hybrid model, and may be potentially easier to organize, with less pressure to all gather in a single space, he continued.
“Learning engineering is like learning to play an instrument, or really any other skill — it takes practice,” Holmes said. “Lectures are a good start but doing homework and practice problems are where you really learn the most. This semester, the extra advice is that you shouldn’t forget that you can do group activities online, too.”
Holmes joins UAB from the University of Virginia, where he was a professor of biomedical engineering and medicine and the inaugural director of the Center for Engineering in Medicine. The initiative was designed to jumpstart medical innovation by fostering partnerships between engineers and clinicians. Prior to UVA, he taught at Columbia University and helped found and build a new biomedical engineering department there.