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Newest Thurnau Professor James Barber (third from left) joins three other ME Thurnau Professors (from left): Alan Wineman, Noel Perkins and ME Department Chair Dennis Assanis. |
James R. Barber, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been named a 2005 Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. This prestigious professorship recognizes and rewards faculty for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education.
Mr. Thurnau attended the University of Michigan from 1902 to 1904, and the professorship is now funded by the Thurnau Charitable Trust. Every year the university designates five or six tenured faculty members as Thurnau Professors for a term of three years. Each professor receives a $20,000 grant to support teaching activities.
Barber has been a member of the U-M faculty since 1981. He said his reaction upon learning of his appointment to the professorship was one of "satisfaction and pleasure." It was also one of humility. "Many of the recipients of the Thurnau Professorship have instituted substantial teaching innovations. I'm not that kind of person–I just go into the classroom and talk."
While his approach may sound simplistic, it is effective, not to mention extremely popular with students. "I tell it like it is," he said, "and I have a sense of humor. Because I've done quite a lot of engineering consulting work over the years, I can use example problems with obvious engineering relevance and I can convincingly explain which parts of the material are particularly useful in engineering practice."
Barber, who teaches classes in solid mechanics, does not bring notes with him to class, nor does he memorize the material he presents. He derives theoretical results and solves problems as he goes along, he explained, a discipline that evolved from a combination of his educational background (he earned his PhD from Cambridge University, where independent study was de rigueur) and his temperament (he doesn't accept anything solely on the basis of authority). "When students ask a question, I can go in any direction they want–I'm always live, and that makes the classes less boring."
Barber believes strongly that true learning in engineering comes only from working it out for ourselves. Reading plausible textbooks gives only an illusion of knowledge and encourages students to overload their memories with irrelevant facts, which they then frequently confuse and use out of context. “If I want to solve a problem, I ask what the assumptions are that I might reasonably make. Then I'll make an amateurish attempt at trying to solve it using whatever skills I presently have, but without reading anything. Of course, with this approach I often end up re-inventing the wheel, but at the end of the day I really know how the wheel works.''
Barber actively discourages his students from excessive memorization. "Anything scientific and mathematical flows from an extremely limited number of initial assumptions. Understanding this, and learning to trust their own reasoning rather than looking to authority, can be an empowering experience for the student."
That ability to understand and convey fundamental principles is at the heart of his approach to education. "I like to be able to work on a level that's simple enough to see what's really going on. Especially these days where we have the ability to do such complex calculations–you can easily lose sight of what's happening in the physical system."