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Mechanical Engineering Professor Eliza M. Haseganu will make a little bit of history next month when she is awarded the first Engineering and Computer Science Teaching Excellence Award at spring convocation.
She was speechless this week -- a bad case of laryngitis -- but delighted. However, her students have had plenty to say about her warmth and skill as a teacher.
"She is the most 'human' teacher I have ever had," said one. "Just seeing with how much devotion she teaches the class motivated me much, much more."
Another wrote, "It is an honour and pleasure to be taught by someone who is passionate about the material and committed to students' learning." A third described her as "human, helpful, conscientious, very knowledgeable, motivating, professional, available -- a real engineer who cares about the future of engineers."
Dr. Haseganu obtained her Diploma in Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Brasov, Romania, and her PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta. Before joining Concordia in 1994, she taught at several universities in Romania and Canada.
Her research and teaching
interests are in solid and structural mechanics, dynamics and vibrations, computational solid mechanics and biomechanics. She has published more than 30 research papers in international journals and conference proceedings and has contributed as a co-author to five textbooks.
Haseganu has developed several undergraduate and graduate courses at Concordia. She has adapted her teaching techniques to the particular needs of her students, and developed new techniques and materials appropriate for engineering education by using the latest innovations in the field. She is also the faculty advisor for Concordia's student chapter of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Her passion for teaching has been recognized before. In 1997, the Department of Mechanical Engineering gave her a Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Teaching, and her students made her the recipient of the 1998 Concordia Council on Student Life Teaching Excellence Award.
She is often invited to speak on the subject of women and science because of her commitment to encouraging women to pursue careers in engineering, and to raising awareness of gender-based discrimination in engineering schools.
- Barbara Black
