A University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar at the Urbana-Champaign campus, his interests include computational complexity theory, professional ethics and, for the past decade, engineering education research. He spent the 2012-2013 academic year on sabbatical at the School of Engineering Education (ENE), saying at the time that Purdue “is Mecca for engineering education research.”

Dr. Loui believes his background and interests can help meet ENE’s mission and needs.

“As a senior professor, I enjoy mentoring graduate students and faculty members,” he says. “I created interdisciplinary undergraduate courses (at the U of I) on engineering ethics and on technology and society, and I taught a graduate course on college teaching and academic careers. I hope to teach similar interdisciplinary courses for undergraduate students and professional development courses for graduate students.”

Initially, Dr. Loui will have a 75%-time appointment at Purdue. During the 2014-15 academic year, he plans to spend one day per week in Urbana advising his continuing graduate students, participating in ongoing projects, and meeting the assistant editor of the Journal of Engineering Education (JEE). Loui serves as editor of JEE, which will continue to be based at the U of I.

Among his research goals, Loui says he would like to work with faculty at Purdue and other institutions to propose the creation of an NSF engineering research center devoted to engineering education.

“The center would include a focus on the translation of research to practice,” he says. “For example, the center would organize regional professional development workshops for engineering faculty and administrators, including K-12 teachers who want to learn to teach engineering. The center would provide a permanent online home for peer-reviewed and tested resources for engineering instruction, analogous to the Science Education Resource Center.”

The Carnegie Scholar and IEEE Fellow served as associate dean of the Graduate College at Illinois from 1996 to 2000.

Dr. Loui earned his Ph.D. at M.I.T. in 1980.