fooWare!

One of the people I follow on Twitter, @ccseed, tweeted a question earlier today “What was the best class you ever took, at any level, and why?”. My answer to this was short (limited by the 140 character limit on Twitter, “Aerospace Propulsion, senior year in Eng. at SU. Very challenging, coupled with very motivating and encouraging professor.” I wanted to take a minute to tell the rest of the story.

Spring term, senior year in Aerospace Engineering at Syracuse University was a rough place to be. I was taking 7 classes, including Thermo 2 and Rocket Propulsion (an “elective” with the Dean of Aerospace). I was in the second half of Aerospace Design, which was a year-long course required of Aero students in which each student was required to complete the design of a 150 passenger commercial jet. Most of them ended up looking very much like a Boeing 737. In addition, I was also working 2 different work-study jobs; dining hall supervisor and overnight dorm security. I was also required to take Aerospace Propulsion with Dr. T. Q. Dang.

I remember the first day of class, Dr. Dang diagrammed the internals of the engines on the SR71 Blackbird. The SR71 Blackbird utilizes a ramjet at supersonic speeds, but a more conventional jet turbine engine at subsonic speeds. I was fascinated. This was real stuff, this was where theory left the pavement and took flight. But it was also just the beginning. Propulsion was no joke. But what I remember of the course was Dr. Dang’s ability to make the very complex information accessible, even to a student such as myself with no spare braincells.

I showed up one Thursday morning for class (8:30am), after working a double shift of dorm security the night before. I had probably slept no more than 6 hours since the class on Tuesday morning. I had a cup of coffee, but I fully expected to struggle to stay awake. Quite the opposite! I was riveted by Dr. Dang’s lecture on force triangles within the turbine section of an engine. Everything was making sense, it was “flow”. And it seemed as if he was lecturing just to me.

Again though, the reality of it was, I was taking far too many courses to do well in all of them. By the time finals came around, I was failing the class on the basis of homeworks (though my projects and quizzes were reasonable). The grading was heavily weighted to the final exam. We were told on the first day of class the final exam would have 4 questions, and we were told the answer to one of them. So I walked into the final expecting I had one question locked up. Problem was, Dr. Dang left that question off. I had a reasonable grasp of 3 questions. On the fourth, I was stumped. I ended up starting from Newton’s third law, and deriving the entire solution from the raw fundamentals. But I still needed to pass Aero Propulsion in order to graduate. I went to graduation practice not knowing if I would actually have the grades to walk. Went from graduation practice to Dr. Dang’s office to find my performance on the final exam had pulled my grade up (almost to an A, I think). I might have hugged Dr. Dang, I know he could tell how excited I was. This was the last hurdle in my 4 year quest to call myself an Aerospace Engineer.

Richard Reeve asked a follow-on question, “What makes for an exceptional teacher?” which I didn’t get a chance to respond to. But to me, Dr. Dang was exceptional.

1. He saw I had the potential
2. He made sure he got through to me
3. He didn’t cut me any breaks
4. He celebrated my triumphs with me
5. He probably never realized the difference he made

That is the rest of the story behind my most memorable class and the exceptional teacher who taught it.