Passing on decades of earned knowledge and experience neccesary to sustain humanity and learning different ways of doing things from my students is a key cornerstone of why I am always excited to wake up in the morning and head to the classroom.
Professor of Practice
I want students to learn from my experiences and apply them to advance humanity. It is the job of current students to change our future lifestyles and needs. For instance, I want my students to see the need to abandon the use of roads and cars as mode/means of transport. That was our way, and it should not be their way of transportation. It is simply not efficient.
Passing on decades of earned knowledge and experience neccesary to sustain humanity and learning different ways of doing things from my students is a key cornerstone of why I am always excited to wake up in the morning and head to the classroom. The passion to teach is embedded in the basic need to know more. It is rewarding to see that things can be done diffidently from the status quo when, through interactions with students, a new light is lit. That new thinking and new way of doing things, perhaps in a better way, exists. It is simply a beautiful feeling and a rewarding experience.
My teaching philosophy revolves around the phrase, “teach to leave no student behind.” I do hands on and group work in my class, I believe in activity-based learning, I believe in one-on-one consolation with my students, I believe in extended assessment time periods including take home exams, I believe in giving students the second chance to redeem themselves, etc. With all these, there is a good chance most students will do well, including students who are not motivated.
Over the years, I have been able to acquire different skills across several fields. Of course, as an academic, I have the experience of being a student. I have good experience in research, teaching service and above all, field experience putting my profession of civil engineering into practice. I also have a deep experience in university administration after serving as a provost / vice president of a university for about seven years. I believe I have completed the 360-degree cycle of my profession, where my academic pie chart has representation across all the fields in the academic space. What interests me most is applying all these skills and experiences in the classroom, in meetings, in advising students on their research and projects, and even in casual conversions where any of these areas are discussed.
Over the course of my 26-year academic career, I have developed and taught several courses, conducted several cutting-edge research, developed several academic curricula, mentored several students and faculty, managed several university partnerships, and supervised over 50 post graduate students.
I have taught in several universities including Iowa State University, Georgia Tech., Bradley University, Clark Atlanta University, Gainesville State College, Southern Polytechnic State University and the Ghana Technology University College in Ghana.
I have consulted for several engineering firms and have managed several civil engineering projects, including projects at the Hartsfield-Jackson International airport in Atlanta, the Birmingham airport in Alibaba, and several county and citywide projects in Georgia, USA.
Prior to joining the University of Georgia in 2016, I served as the provost/vice president of the Ghana Technology University College in Ghana for about seven years. There, I supervised the development of several academic programs and managed several of the university’s transnational education (TNE) partnership including one with Coventry university, UK and Aalborg university of Denmark.
For two consecutive years, I served as a Carnegie research fellow (funded by the Carnegie corporation of New York) to work with the Accra Technical University to develop various curricula, MOOCs and train faculty on engineering project capstone design, manuscript writing and publication and proposal and research writing and defense.
I have written over 100 proposals, and received several grants from such agencies as NASA, USDOD, the US NSF, and the World Bank. I have published several peer reviewed papers and have reviewed and edited many peer-reviewed proposals and papers. Over the course of my teaching, research and academic leadership career that spans over Twenty-Six (26) years, I have mentored many students and supervised over fifty (50) theses/dissertations.
I am currently the Treasurer/Program co-chair of the Engineering Economy Division (EED) of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
I am originally from Ghana, and I am looking for a mode of transport that will take me to Ghana from my home in the US and bring me back in one hour all in one piece.
Learn more about Robert Baffour.