The Best

Dr. Constantine Tarawneh does not measure his own success by the number of research papers he produces or projects he takes on, but by the success of his students, many who go on to prosperous careers in the field of mechanical engineering.
For Tarawneh, associate professor and graduate program director for the Department of Mechanical Engineering, seeing his students succeed is the ultimate form of flattery and it lets him know he has done his job in developing the best engineers in The University of Texas Pan American’s College of Science and Engineering and possibly the nation.
“I want my students to excel and learn. For me ‘okay’ or ‘passing’ is not good enough, I want them to be the best,” he said.
Credits students and colleagues for success

To be the best you have to be taught by the best, and in August Tarawneh was dubbed just that as he along with five other UTPA faculty members were the recipients of The University of Texas System’s first Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. The awards were presented to 73 individual faculty from UT System academic institutions, and are believed to be among the highest in the country for rewarding outstanding undergraduate faculty performance and innovation.

Tarawneh said the award would not have been possible without the continuous support of his students and colleagues in the department, who are major players in his research for the railroad industry. He said receiving the Regents’ award was a crowning achievement for him, but it was not as important as receiving the Outstanding Faculty Award as Selected by Vote of the Mechanical Engineering Students in the college five consecutive times since 2004.

“This (Regents’ award) is good, but I think I care more about the vote of the students because I would not have been able to get this without those (Outstanding Faculty Awards). The students are basically why we are here and my position exists because of the students,” he said. “Having the recognition of the students and them say ‘yes, this guy is a good professor and I have learned from him,’ is more important than anything nationally.”

When preparing to submit nomination materials for the Regents’ awards, Tarawneh said he approached his students about writing him three recommendation letters to include in the packet. At the end of the day he ended up with six letters, and was completely floored by the gesture he said.

“The stuff that students wrote brings the highest joy to me. Reading those recommendation letters by the students was priceless because I would not have been able to do it without them,” he said.

One of those letters of recommendation came from Michael Acosta, a 2006 UTPA mechanical engineering graduate and upcoming Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering prospective graduate for December 2009, who wrote “His personal drive to motivate the students to not only learn, but love engineering is his biggest strength. … I know of several students, including myself, that decided to develop further as engineers and proceed in obtaining a master’s in mechanical engineering mostly from his recommendations and words of encouragement.”

Acosta, who is involved in the Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) of General Electric, a highly selective program that recruits recent graduates from the best engineering colleges in the nation, said he has known Tarawneh, or “Dr. T.” as his students refer to him, nearly five years and considers him to be a very influential professor in his life, but also a very good friend and mentor.

“He has inspired me to always be committed to the things that I love. He invests an enormous amount of time in his students because it is something that he loves,” Acosta said. “Initially, when I started college, mechanical engineering was something that I was interested in and Dr. T. helped me realize the real beauty of mechanical engineering. I am proud to represent my University as I progress in my professional career.”

Acosta, who resides in Houston, said the EEDP is considered to be one of the best technical programs offered by a company. It consists of taking advanced-level GE courses in engineering over a two-year period.

The Edinburg resident said when he comes home for a visit; he always takes time to see Tarawneh, and also talks with him on the phone periodically when in need of advice or a friend to talk to.

“He believed in me when I was a young engineering student and pushed me to become an exceptional engineer,” Acosta said.

Leading the way in railroad industry research

Tarawneh, who was born in Greece to a Greek mother and a Jordanian father, started as a lecturer at UTPA in August 2003, after earning his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) that same year. After serving his department two years as a lecturer, he was appointed as a tenure-track assistant professor in fall 2005. Tarawneh was recently awarded early tenure and promotion to associate professor staring fall 2009 after only four years as an assistant professor.

To coincide with his tenure-track position in 2005, Tarawneh, who every summer serves as a visiting professor at UNL where he teaches heat transfer, thermodynamics and dynamics, was approached by UNL colleague Dr. Brent Wilson to assist him in solving a problem that has troubled the railroad industry for several decades. The problem known as bearing temperature trending is a phenomenon that has some bearings heating up to higher temperatures when compared to other bearings on the same train.

Wilson, who at the time was contracted with BRENCO QBS, a leader in railroad bearing manufacturing, to figure out the problem, asked Tarawneh for help in heat transfer related research, which resulted in positive results. Those results helped Tarawneh secure his first contract for $15,000 from BRENCO, which he brought to UTPA. Today, the funding has grown to more than $849,000 and funds and supports a bearing research lab, six graduate students, six undergraduate students, and five faculty. In addition, UTPA has become the leading research institution for BRENCO, a company under Amsted Industries Incorporated.

“A master research agreement is now in place between UTPA and Amsted Industries Incorporated which will ensure a long-term relationship between the two institutions,” he said.

Tarawneh and his crew of students and colleagues this past year also organized a collaborative on-track field test with The Union Pacific Railroad, Rail Sciences Incorporated, and Amsted Rail that is considered a first of its kind and will result in some major changes in the railroad Industry. The results of the field test will be used in the development of algorithms to be used in a new on-board monitoring system for early detection of bearing problems Tarawneh said.

“Right now I feel like we are a pretty well-oiled machine and I know that I can go down to the lab with any task at hand, and by end of week the students will get it done,” he said. “My fear is once they graduate how will we fill in that void because we do not have a Ph.D. program where we can keep them three more years. That is why I try to recruit undergrads so that at least they have a longer time to contribute to the research team.”

The projects have also facilitated the publication of several papers in high impact international journals and major international conferences, of which the majority of papers published had graduates and undergraduates as co-authors.

“Many of the students feel they are learning a lot. When we started, the students did not know what a railroad bearing looked like,” he said. “They feel much better and more confident now because the engineers at Amsted Rail rely on us and we are considered an extension to the company performing duties of research and development. I think that is why it has been so successful because the students can see the fruits of their labor.”

Joining the crew

Getting his students involved in his projects is important to Tarawneh, who is very selective on who joins the BRENCO/Amsted team. One requirement he enforces is that students have to take at least one or two classes with him or the other four mechanical engineering faculty (Dr. Javier Kypuros, Dr. Arturo Fuentes, Dr. Stephen Crown, and Dr. Robert Jones) working on the research team to be considered for the group. That is why Tarawneh said he never misses a semester of teaching so as not to overlook potential team members.

This semester he will teach Heat Transfer and Introduction to Engineering, which will allow him to see the talent of incoming engineering students from the start.

“Teaching classes is the key to this project. Introduction to Engineering is a very good class because I get to see the talent right at the beginning. I get to mentor those students and let them know if they want to continue on this path and in two years when they are sophomores or juniors I may want to hire them, and that actually motivates a lot of students,” he said.

“I strongly believe I have been successful in my research because I have been successful in the classroom. The most important thing to remember is that you cannot be an effective researcher without good teaching skills,” he added.

To learn more about Tarawneh and his research, contact the Department of Mechanical Engineering at 956/381-2394.