Recipients of the Faculty of Engineering Graduate Student Teaching Awards, with Dean of Engineering Fraser Forbes (back row, right).
(Edmonton) University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering teachers were recognized for their commitment to students today at an annual Engineering Teaching Awards ceremony.
"Teaching is the main part of our business - it is our most important job," Dean of Engineering Fraser Forbes said, following a presentation of teaching awards to professors and graduate student teaching assistants.
Forbes thanked the professors and graduate students for putting tremendous efforts into their roles as teachers.
"You can feel particularly proud because we have 1,400 dedicated graduate students and 206 committed faculty members who do really well at teaching," Forbes said. "You can feel very proud of being amongst the very best."
Two Faculty of Engineering Research Awards were also presented-to Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Alireza Bayat and Department of Mechanical Engineering professor Pierre Mertiny.
Graduate student Brian Yang said it was humbling to be presented with a Faculty of Engineering Graduate Student Teaching Award.
"Teaching is something that I assumed would be a huge part of graduate studies," said Yang, who is working towards a Master's degree in mechanical engineering. "To be recognized for this is huge. It shows the work that people put into teaching."
He added that there is a special motivation for teaching, and inspiration that comes from your own teachers-including graduate students.
"We don't do it for the money, we don't do it for the prestige-we do it because we want to educate. It's an honour to have the students and my supervisor say "Yeah-you deserve this." "