April 14, 2011
Not only does Professor Glenn Lightsey encourage his students to shoot for the stars, but recently, he's landed among the stars himself: within the same week, Lightsey received a university-wide teaching award and a national industry-wide teaching award for his outstanding contributions as a UT aerospace engineering professor.
From the University of Texas at Austin, Lightsey was awarded the 2011-12 William David Blunk Memorial Professorship, "designed to recognize a member of the university faculty who has demonstrated an outstanding record both of undergraduate teaching and of concern for undergraduates as demonstrated through advising and general guidance given to students," according to the university website.
Lightsey's second award, the John Leland Atwood Award of the ASEE Aerospace Division and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is bestowed annually on an outstanding aerospace engineering educator whose career demonstrates success as a teacher, a researcher, and a participant in organizations important to aerospace engineering education.
"Both are extremely gratifying and reinforce my belief about the value of education and our purpose here as faculty at the university," Lightsey said. And receiving both in the same week was quite a surprise, he added.
"I don't know what was going on in the sky at that time, but perhaps I should have bought a lottery ticket," Lightsey joked.
But in fact, what was going on in the sky is a big part of why Lightsey is being recognized in the first place. As he continues teaching students here on earth, the satellites his students built in the FASTRAC program have been orbiting since their launch in November. As Lightsey's colleague, Dr. Wallace Fowler, noted in his Atwood Award nomination package for Lightsey, the FASTRAC program and the Texas Spacecraft Lab (TSL) where so many students have gained hands-on experience did not exist until Lightsey pioneered the programs just two years after arriving in 1999 to teach at UT.
"Dr. Lightsey convinced the departmental administration to support initial efforts to get students involved in building mini-satellites," Fowler wrote in the nomination. "The fact that Dr. Lightsey has been able to inspire students sufficiently to enable them to design, fabricate, test, re-build, and deliver space worthy satellites with volunteers is an immense tribute to his talents as an engineering educator."
Similarly, Dr. Philip Varghese, the chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering & Engineering Mechanics, highlighted Lightsey’s work with nanosatellites in his nomination of Lightsey for the Blunk award.
“Dr. Lightsey is a natural nominee for this award because of his extensive involvement with undergraduate student projects and research and the national prominence he has gained for his efforts to integrate undergraduates into the design and construction of small satellites,” Varghese wrote. “When the satellites were launched into space the undergraduate students had the incredible thrill of knowing that their handiwork was orbiting the earth.”
To Lightsey, who spent 13 years in research and development at NASA before coming to UT, providing students with practical opportunities to practice what they are learning in the classroom let students learn new skills that only experience can teach.
"I try to give students a sense of where the field is heading and what the future holds for them as future engineers and members of society," he said. "What's important to me is that these are real satellites. These are not like blueprint designs. They're actually flying machines that will be launched into space just as people do at NASA or a major aerospace company. Students get to lead and practice and learn what it's like to work on a flight project before they go into their professional career."
That kind of experience is a core aspect of Lightsey's teaching philosophy.
"I think first you have to be an ambassador for the subject matter that you teach," he said. "You're working with some of the brightest people in the world, and all of these people are going to be future leaders and visionaries for our world. Your job is to inspire them and motivate them and to help them see the value of what you're teaching."
Sebastian Muñoz, a graduate student and the FASTRAC project manager, emphasized just how valuable this teaching philosophy is for Lightsey's students.
"Throughout all the years that I have known Dr. Lightsey, he has always been a huge advocate for students getting involved in extramural activities to learn real life engineering," Muñoz said. He added that Lightsey's role as an adviser and mentor encourages students to pursue whatever research area interests them most.
"He has always provided great guidance and support all while pushing me to do my best and having my best interest at heart," Muñoz said. "I have always felt that his door is always open to discuss anything, such as advice about taking a one class over another or sitting down and figuring out how to resolve a problem we have encountered with one of our projects in the TSL."
That kind of trouble-shooting is essential to students' learning, Lightsey said.
"I try to challenge students to think for themselves," Lightsey said. "The difference between a good engineer and a great engineer is not so much the technical expertise in their area of study. It is how they manage the bigger picture items, how they work with others, how they are able to translate a requirement into an engineering design and how they're able to follow through and build and test and ultimately put their invention into practice."
Indeed, it's that dedication to student learning and the field of engineering that inspired Fowler to nominate Lightsey.
"Overall, Glenn Lightsey is perhaps the most innovative, dedicated, talented, and resourceful aerospace engineering educator active in America today," Fowler wrote. "His efforts are having more positive impact on our students, curriculum, and faculty than anything that has happened in at least the past 20 years."
