Philip L. Varghese, PhD
Stanley P. Finch Centennial Professor and Distinguished Teaching Professor
Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics and Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
Cockrell School of Engineering
UT Austin
I am passionate about teaching because I want to communicate my fascination with science and engineering to others. I love both teaching and research, but I feel defined by my core role as a teacher, having spent more than 30 rewarding years in this profession.
I want my students to go beyond memorizing the subject matter, so they can use information creatively to solve problems. Data can be downloaded rapidly in the digital age, but it is much harder to transmit the mental attitude required for successful problem solving via the web. My personal vision for the future of undergraduate engineering education is that we will move closer to an apprentice-expert model, though it is likely that learning will occur by non-traditional means.
