DEE founding chair honored with named speaker series

By Elizabeth Egan 

Funded through an endowed gift of $25,000, made anonymously to DEE, the annual speaker series will serve as a tribute to Carl Lund, the founding chair of DEE, and his contributions to the formation of engineering education at UB, while also allowing the department to bring in additional speakers. Lund served as the inaugural speaker at the first installment of the series on November 12.

“I am excited about this speaker series, and I hope that through the series many engineering faculty will learn about and implement proven engineering education practices,” said Lund.

Before introducing his presentation, Lund added, “I would like to say thank you to the anonymous sponsor for this speaker series. I want also to thank Jim and the DEE faculty for naming it as they did and anyone else who played a role in it—thank you very much.”

According to Lund, many professors who teach engineering start with no formal training in education. “For us, DEE provides opportunities to interact, collaborate and learn, and through its certificate program it allows those of our graduate students who pursue an academic career to begin that career with some knowledge of how to teach,” continued Lund.

Lund, also a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE), became chair when the department formed in 2018 and held the position until Jensen succeeded him in 2023. During his time as chair, Lund grew DEE to have 19 faculty members and one staff member, launched the department’s master’s and PhD programs, created the Advanced Graduate Certificate in Engineering Pedagogies and Practice, and helped to start the engineering science undergraduate degree program, which graduated its first cohort in the spring of 2023.

“I think we forget about how hard it is to actually start a department from scratch, so I am really grateful to have this opportunity to celebrate Carl’s continuing legacy in the department,” said Jensen, who added that Lund’s influence and strategic hiring helped to set the culture of the department.  

Jensen noted that the department looks forward to having the opportunity to bring in more speakers, saying that engineering education is a small and collaborative community, with only 16 PhD granting programs in the country. Speaking at each other’s schools through opportunities like this speaker series can help facilitate that collaboration.

 “When he started the department, Carl did a really good job of reaching out to chairs in other departments,” continued Jensen. “If you mention his name in engineering education circles, people remember him as the person who was out asking questions and making sure he was doing the right thing in how he developed the program. I think that a little extra incentive to bring speakers into this series will be that people feel pride in being the Carl Lund speaker at UB.”

In his presentation, Lund spoke about applying a flipped classroom design to a typical engineering problem-solving course, where an emphasis is placed on practice in the classroom to promote metacognitive reflection and allow students to seek help from their peers and instructors. He outlined course learning outcomes, outcome assessments, post-class practice, in-class activities, pre-class preparation assignments, and formative course assessments.

He ended the talk by expressing gratitude for working in departments that supported him in taking the time needed to implement these strategies in his classroom.

Lund joined CBE in 1986 from Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories where he worked for five years after earning his PhD. He also served as the chair of CBE from 1997 to 2007 and as the associate dean of research for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 2006.

Lund earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University.