My teaching career started at the University of Dar-es-Salaam Tanzania in 1984 after obtaining a Master of Science (MS) degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In a three-year period of employment as a Lecturer at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, I taught courses in the areas of Structural Analysis, Engineering Mechanics, Timber Design, and Steel Design. In addition to classroom teaching, I was involved in the following teaching related activities:

I started my teaching career at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the 1991 fall semester. The visiting status was changed to tenure-track in the fall of 1993. During the two-year period as the visiting Assistant Professor, I taught seven (7) courses each year, including summer sessions.

After one year at FAMU-FSU College of Engineering I saw the need of having a laboratory class for Strength of Materials, which was non-existent at the time. The realization of this need arouse from my belief in the need and importance of learning by experimentation. This realization motivated me to write a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) requesting funding under the Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement (ILI) Program. The proposal was funded from July 1993 to June 1995 with a budget of $101,377. Using the NSF grant with matching funds from the University, I designed and equipped a laboratory facility for Strength of Materials. The NSF-ILI Program had a funding rate of around 10-percent. Following the receipt of the award from NSF-ILI, I was invited to be a proposal reviewer for the same program the following year.

At my suggestion, the department formally started a mandatory laboratory class in Strength of Materials in the fall of 1996. So far, I have received very positive feedback from the students who have successfully completed the laboratory class.

In addition to the new Strength of Materials laboratory Class, I initiated and developed a new graduate course on Advanced Mechanics of Materials. When the class was first taught in the spring of 1998, this class was well received. Fifteen graduate students enrolled in the class, making it one of the largest exclusive graduate classes in the structural engineering division. My teaching efforts have been highly recognized by my students. For example, in 1993 the Tau Beta Pi Association named me the most outstanding professor in the Civil Engineering Department. The undergraduate and graduate courses that I have taught at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering are listed below.  

My teaching philosophy is grounded in my belief that the ability of a student to understand a subject matter is contingent upon cultivating a student's interest in the subject matter. Therefore, I try to make the subject matter interesting to students by clearly defining the practical use of the subject matter, i.e. relating the classroom course content to real world experience, before covering the analytical part of the course.

Furthermore, I believe that even undergraduate students should be involved in the pursuit of knowledge through research. For this reason, I always make it a point to encourage undergraduate students to think of pursuing graduate studies. One way of keeping the fast learners motivated is to invite them to participate in my research activities. I have several undergraduate students involved in my ongoing research activities. In other words, I consider research and teaching as complimentary activities.

My experience of more than ten (10) years of university level teaching have shown me that good teaching must involve the following elements:

It is important for a university instructor to adjust to the realities of the change in technology and demographics. Thus, the procedures of the past may not necessarily be the best for today. I am always open to new ideas and willing to test some of the new ideas that I find reasonable given the available resources. Examples of these new ideas that I am currently trying in my classes include:

a) Cooperative Learning. In implementing cooperative learning activities, my classes are divided into both formal and informal groups. The formal groups are intended for projects and laboratory exercises. The informal groups are formed when I am working on examples in class. First, the group has to discuss the example while I am going around from group to group giving hints and challenges for about 50% to 70% of the time intended for the class example. Then I use the remaining time to summarize the example. My students enjoy the group activities and they all actively participate. Students who were often quiet in class are now asking questions, often challenging group members and myself to explain the various concepts. At times, fellow students explain the concepts in ways that I find new even to myself. Simply put, this approach increases the peer teaching and learning in my class.

b) The E-mail Office hours. These are times when I am in the office ready to react in real time to any message from my students. This allows me to do other things while being available for student consultation.

c) Currently I have a class mail list group and I am in the process of establishing class newsgroups in which we will be able to exchange ideas on the material taught in class. Messages posted to the class e-mail list address are sent to all class members, thus providing the opportunity to extend class discussions outside the classroom.

d) Following my experience on creating my Internet web page and what I learned from a Workshop of Instructors of Steel Design in Southeastern USA Universities, I have created pages for my classes. On these pages, I posted homework assignments, homework solutions and other course related material. This allowed me to provide instantaneous feedback to the students on their homework, something I consider to be very important in the learning process.

*New program in the Civil Engineering Department (approved fall 1997, first student spring 1998), the current PhD student enrollment is three (3) students.