Visiting Assistant Professor Hashim Hassan

A Purdue AAE masters and doctoral alumnus has received the Outstanding Instructor Award in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The school’s undergraduate students selected visiting assistant professor Hashim Hassan (MSAAE ’17, PhDAAE ’21) as the inaugural winner of this award.

“The existing AAE teaching awards have some restrictions on eligibility, so the School’s Curriculum Committee (led by Prof. Karen Marais) and the School’s Awards Committee (led by Prof. Li Qiao) put together and approved the procedures for selecting the [winner],” says Bill Crossley, the Uhrig & Vournas Head of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Specifically, we wanted to recognize outstanding instruction by our lecturers, visiting professors, and graduate student teaching fellows.”

Rounding out the top five instructors for the 2022-23 AAE Outstanding Instructor award are: Tom Cunningham, visiting assistant professor; James Goppert, lecturer and managing director of PURT; RJ Power, graduate research assistant; and Wenjie Cai, graduate teaching assistant.

We asked Hassan a few questions about his decision to teach at Purdue, and what this award means to him.

What classes do you teach?

I teach AAE 203, AAE 204, AAE 352, AAE 20401, and AAE 35201. In the past I also taught an AAE 490 course on self-sensing composite materials.

Why did you choose to stay after getting your masters and doctorate here?

After I finished my PhD, I was conflicted about whether to stay in academia or to pursue an industry career. Some of my senior colleagues including my doctoral advisor, Prof. Tyler Tallman, encouraged me to give academia a try. So, with tremendous support from both Prof. Bill Crossley and Prof. Tallman, I decided to stay at Purdue and teach.

What do you find rewarding about being an instructor?

I was extremely nervous before my first lecture, back in Fall 2021. I had never delivered a lecture before that. But once I started speaking to large classrooms with over a hundred students, it almost became natural.

Seeing how engaged the students were with the course material made me feel much more confident in my ability to teach them. And this is what I find most rewarding; teaching students who are as passionate about aerospace engineering as I am.

It is especially rewarding when a student tells me they have chosen to pursue structures/materials as their major or that they have landed an internship because of one of my courses!

How do you feel about receiving this award?

I am incredibly honored and tremendously moved to have won this award, especially from among so many excellent instructors/lecturers. I know how much work it takes to prepare lectures and course material, so I must congratulate the other nominees as well. I must also thank Prof. Bill Crossley for giving me the opportunity to teach the undergraduate courses, and Prof. Tallman for greatly influencing my pedagogical methods and note-taking style. And of course, a big thank you to my current and former students!