Janos Gergely, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is one of the finalists for the prestigious Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence, one of UNC Charlottes highest accolades.
Gergely, along with the other award finalists Anita Blanchard, associate professor of psychology and organization science; Matthew Davies, professor of mechanical engineering and engineering science; Jae Emerling, associate professor of art and art history; and Daniel Jones, associate professor of chemistry; are being featured in Inside UNC Charlotte prior to the naming of the 2016 recipient on Friday, Sept. 9.
As a teacher, Gergely keeps a strong focus on the practical side of his ever-changing profession, but he also guides his students to be knowledge-seekers and helps them develop a sense of the humanity behind the structure. Infrastructures, especially bridges, buildings, dams and power plants must be safe.
As a structural engineer, Gergely knows that the consequences for professional incompetence are severe. It is with this mindset that he dedicates himself to teaching and maintains high expectations for his students.
John Daniels, professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, stated, “High expectation in a demanding major is not a recipe for fabulous student evaluations, yet Janos consistently has the highest scores in the department.”
Committed to experiential learning, Gergely spends considerable time every semester gathering contemporary real-life examples, organizing field trips to construction sites and emphasizing the practical nature of the engineering profession. For example, in his sophomore-level civil engineering course, he makes frequent use of the many ongoing construction activities near campus as teaching sites. The new light rail extension project has been salient to students who respond well to this approach to teaching.
“Dr. Gergely explains content in a way that makes it intriguing and amusing. His passion has enlightened me and made me want to strive to reach new goals and standards for myself,” said senior civil engineering major Ahmad Alshamali.
As faculty advisor for UNC Charlotte’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Gergely was instrumental in the chapter’s team qualifying for the national steel bridge competition. To prepare, teams spend between six and eight weeks designing and building bridges. Recently, he was able to turn one team’s disappointment into a successful teaching moment.
In preparation for the competition, the team tested its steel bridge entry in a simulation of the competition environment, and several steel components began to fail. Fearing for the students’ safety, Gergely stopped the test and turned this “failure” into an engaged teaching session. The students were able to figure out what happened and made modifications to the bridge. They went on to represent UNC Charlotte at the national competition.
To remind his students about the humanity of structural engineering, Gergely joins the ASCE student organization for Habitat for Humanity work days and co-leads trips to the Dominican Republic to help communities build hurricane-resistant homes.
For his commitment to teaching excellence, Gergely received the inaugural Chi Epsilon (UNC Charlotte’s civil engineering honor society) Civil Engineering Professor of the Year Award in May 2008 and the William States Lee College of Engineering Graduate Teaching Award in 2005.