Beyond 'The Two Cultures'

My name is Zahidur Rahman. My research interests are in the area of satellite remote sensing and the application of NOAA environmental satellite data, which include climate and weather impact on ecosystems, vector borne diseases systems, environmental hazards, error correction of NOAA/GOES environmental satellite data, and solar and wind energy. In the past six years, I have published several research papers in the area of satellite remote sensing. Currently, I am a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in the states of New York and Michigan. I enjoy teaching math, statistics, and engineering courses. 

  

As an engineering faculty member, I teach electrical circuits course that is required for all engineering students (electrical, civil, and mechanical). The concept of electrical circuit theory is abstract and can be hard to grasp for some students. This course is a three credit course based on traditional lectures, class notes, and tutorials. The traditional teaching method in this course mainly focuses on problem solving through circuit diagrams with a few defined electrical quantities (voltage and current) identified on the circuit. Even the simplest of circuits contains a wealth of information that goes unseen by the student. Only a few of the values in a circuit are ever calculated in class or in their homework. The focus of the students’ concentration is directed to one element or value at a time. Information about other values is often neither shown nor seen. The limited visibility of the circuit voltages and currents seems natural to engineering students because instrumentation—voltmeters, ohmmeters, oscilloscopes—typically show only one value at a time. Based on my teaching experience, I also observed that most of the engineering students find difficulties in problem solving (e.g. identifying problems, presenting topics, analyzing problems, attempting problem solutions, responding to problems, thinking carefully, or evaluating alternatives) in their electrical circuit course. Students solve their problems by hand calculation but they may be unable to find an exact solution and cannot verify whether their solution is correct or incorrect.  Students need to use computer simulation software or a real lab to visualize their problem and verify their solutions so that they can be assured that their solutions are correct. Therefore, I choose to teach electrical circuits  course using Multisim simulation software as a DH simulations/ Model tools to schematically represent electric circuit problems. I hypothesize that using Multisim to solve and verify electric circuit problems that require computer simulation and visualization will increase student’s understanding of electrical circuit theories and concepts.

I think two cultures ( humanities and science/math)  play an important role in undergraduate engineering. Yes, I see a ‘tension’ in our engineering students who come to us for advisement.

As an engineering faculty member, I provide advisement/guidance to engineering students on course selection, transferring and summer internships. The students always ask me why engineering students need to study humanities. When I ask what the problem is, they say that they came to LaGuardia for engineering. They don’t see the point of reading all this old impractical stuff that has nothing to do with their careers. When I ask them to guess why LaGuardia requires these courses of them, someone usually says, smirking, ‘I don’t know’.

I usually tell students about my personal experiences of taking humanities classes during the course of my undergraduate study. My school (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh) required Humanities credits to graduate. This was a mandatory course that every sophomore had to take. I remember before our first lecture I could hear students complaining that it was a waste of time to learn all this irrelevant information – we didn’t have the time for this course.  How could Engineering students use art or music or urban sociology?  But before long we looked forward to each lecture. We were learning that any advance in one area affected society as a whole.  Advances in chemistry led to better paints, advances in building materials changed architectural designs.  The most important thing I learned from that course is that life is interconnected. I’m so very grateful that these courses were mandatory, and that every sophomore attended the lectures together. Because there are so many different people, such as architects, artists, engineers, writers, or politicians, and we each have something to learn from others.

My personal communication with students gave me the impression that they enjoyed learning about fields other than their own. I think students will realize when they work with other people why studying humanities is very important for their life experiences.