Potential Engineering dean emphasizes 'experiential learning'

What do David Letterman, Nintendo Wii, and YouTube have in common? They are all a part of Gregory Washington’s plans for UNM.

In the Stamm Commons room at the Centennial Engineering Center, engineering students were given an opportunity to ask Washington, a finalist for the dean position at the College of Engineering, a few questions.

“I’m not your average Dean,” Washington said before launching into his top-10 reasons — David Letterman style — why he is considering a University of New Mexico appointment.
Washington brings what he refers to as “experiential learning” to the College of Engineering at UNM. This is an approach that enlists freshmen students in programs that take apart components, like Wii controllers, and then puts them back together to control robots that they constructed.

“Experiential learning takes the academic rigor out of what students have learned in the classroom and allows them to use it in an applied fashion,” he said.

This concept facilitates a greater understanding of harder engineering concepts as students progress in their engineering studies.

Washington, who is interim dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University, said he has built strong relationships with Ohio’s local industries, garnering dollars for research work and providing internship positions for engineering students.
Engineering student Michael Sheyka said Washington showed an interest in student experience at the college.

“He’s the first guy to worry more about the student than the other deans we’ve had, or the other ones being considered,” Sheyka said. “He wants to be connected, and most deans are detached.”

Sheyka said he prefers Washington over the other two School of Engineering candidates — Patrick O’Shea and Daniel Fleetwood.

“I’d be more comfortable interacting with a dean who cared about me as a student and that would allow my needs to supersede administrative duties,” he said.

Scott Carreathers, director of African American Student Services, said he is eager to see an African-American man such as Washington appointed as dean of the College of Engineering.
“There are very few African-American professors at UNM,” Carreathers said. “I’d like to see if Dr. Washington could help, if appointed, expand the number of black male students in our mathematics and science areas of learning.”

Washington also has a YouTube video that discusses his educational journey as an African-American. He said his philosophy as dean would be to integrate students into the real world, whether they are graduates or undergraduates.

“I don’t look at undergraduate students as being any different than graduate students,” he said. “They are all students, and I want to help them connect the knowledge they learn in the classroom with the real world and make things work for
the better.”