Fiori, Chang and Kumbur
The Office of Faculty Advancement and the Office of Research and Innovation
recently announced their annual awards to Drexel faculty for outstanding
achievements in teaching, research and service.
Christine Fiori, PhD, clinical professor and program director of construction management and
department head of engineering leadership and society, received the
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. The
Lindback Award is the most prestigious teaching honor available to Drexel
full-time faculty, recognizing long-standing excellence in instruction. In
2016, Fiori convened a committee of students, faculty, and construction
industry professionals to re-envision the construction management
undergraduate curriculum. The improved structure provides students with
both the technical and soft skills required for success in the industry,
impacting every student in the construction major and minor. In her own
classes, Fiori uses many evidence-based teaching practices, such as flipped
classroom, problem-based learning, peer-to-peer engagement, and games that
illustrate construction concepts to allow students to apply their knowledge
to different scenarios. Building upon Drexel’s experiential learning model,
Fiori engages industry in the development of her undergraduate courses,
working with industry professionals and alumni to create exercises,
projects, and class content. Every term she tailors her class examples and
activities to the co-op experiences of her students, bringing new meaning
to the material and making direct connections between classroom and
experiential learning.
Wesley Chang, PhD, assistant professor in mechanical engineering and mechanics and
E. Caglan Kumbur, PhD, professor in mechanical engineering and mechanics, received a Scholarly
Materials and Research Equipment Award. The funds will be used to purchase
equipment for quantifying the true density of porous materials that are
used for batteries and electrochemical capacitors to understand how their
material properties influence device performance. This award will further a
collaborative project that seeks to understand how mechanical properties in
semi-solid electrodes are affected by electrochemical operation.