David Shaw, Professor Emeritus: The Power of Creativity and Collaboration in Engineering
David Shaw ‘83, PhD, has received emeritus status after retiring from his 35-year career as professor of mechanical engineering at Geneva College. Shaw has been instrumental in shaping the department through his work in gaining ABET accreditation, creating interdisciplinary course curricula, and working alongside his colleagues to develop introductory courses for freshmen engineering students. Shaw is both a challenging professor and an enthusiastic mentor, deeply committed to the importance of Christian higher education.
Growing up in Chicago, Illinois, Shaw was influenced by his father’s work as a metallurgical engineer. His early memories include visits to his father’s research office, which overlooked the expressway with a view of Comiskey Park (now Rate Field). By the second or third grade, he knew this type of design work was what he wanted to do when he grew up. Shaw was able to narrow his engineering focus when he was younger by observing his father’s various job positions.
His father was also his inspiration for attending Geneva College as an undergraduate engineering student from 1979-83. Though not an alumnus of the College, Shaw’s father brought his family to Geneva from Columbus, Ohio, to hear R. C. Sproul speak on campus. Shaw remembers eating in the old dining area in McKee Hall, before Alexander’s Dining Hall was in existence. Shaw’s father, a first-generation college graduate and a first-generation Christian, valued the integration of his faith in his work as an engineer, pursuing conferences and resources that strengthened this understanding.
Though Shaw was the first member of his family to attend Geneva, all of his brothers attended the College, as well as all of his children. Shaw’s oldest daughter, Kirsten, earned an interdisciplinary engineering degree in 2011, laying a template for the future biomedical engineering concentration. It was a highlight of Shaw’s career to not only instruct his daughter in the classroom but to have her back on campus years later to teach an engineering economics course.
When Shaw first chose to attend Geneva as an undergraduate student, it was one of two Christian colleges that offered engineering courses. He knew he would continue his engineering studies after graduation, quickly landing a spot in the graduate program at Ohio State University after speaking with a professor in need of a research assistant. Though his plans were to enter the field after earning his master’s degree — with the dream of returning for his PhD in a decade or so — a mentor asked him a simple question that changed his trajectory: “Do you really think you’ll want to come back to school then?” He entered a doctoral program immediately following his master’s degree.
He and his family were living in Morgantown, West Virginia, in a fixer-upper house with a young child when he got a call from a friend who served on Geneva’s faculty. Another simple question changed his career path: “When are you going to apply for the junior engineering faculty position at Geneva?” The 15-20-year plan that he’d constructed for himself continually changed in the years after graduating from Geneva. “Sometimes God just makes it pretty obvious,” Shaw laughs.
While earning his master’s and doctoral degrees, Shaw worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and NIST. Though Shaw planned to work in the mechanical engineering field for a few more years before beginning a teaching career, these simple questions from friends and colleagues launched his 35-year teaching career at Geneva College beginning in 1990.
Over his three and a half decades at the College, Shaw has taught a variety of courses, including Fluid Mechanics, Design of Thermal Systems, Air Pollution Control, and his favorite course, MEE 333 Applied Thermal Fluids Engineering. This challenging course rewards its top performing students with the honored “Dr. Stanley Reyle” t-shirt with the former mechanical engineering professor's famous quote, “Without an understanding of thermodynamics one is a barbarian.”
Shaw specializes in thermal and reaction engineering as well as fluid and thermal instrumentation. He developed and implemented a system for measuring thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of methane hydrate deposits in a laboratory environment, which was then being adapted for use in the field.
Shaw has a love of course development, from thermal systems to freshmen design, and co-edited the text Engineering Reformatted for the EGR 100: Calling and Vocation course alongside colleague Murat Tanyel, PhD. For Shaw, the grounding truth of the Gospel is foundationally present in all engineering through the creativity that fuels it.
“Christian engineering is not just about ethics. It is about ethics, but it’s also about creativity,” says Shaw. “[The creativity of an engineer] comes out in the design process and reflects image bearing.”
A distinctive of Geneva’s engineering program is its integration with the core curriculum, which helps to produce strong communicators. The core also includes freshmen introductory courses, such as EGR 100. This course, which takes the place of the general Learning and Transition course taken by non-engineering students, was developed around 2010 by Shaw and Tanyel in tandem with the publication of Engineering Reformatted. This course and accompanying text, which includes contributions from several engineering faculty, is a cornerstone of learning for all engineering students at Geneva.
Shaw praises Geneva’s engineering program for its interdisciplinary model, a distinctive that prepares students of all specialties with a basic understanding of various engineering fields. While other undergraduate programs separate students into factions, creating “little cellular programs” for chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, etc., Geneva’s program welcomes all students into an engineering collective, teaching foundational courses of each track to each student before branching into more nuanced concentrations. This is a benefit to students as it invites creativity in understanding engineering problems/solutions and promotes collaboration. Notably, it helps to develop critical analysis skills for these future engineers.
“A person who has that interdisciplinary background can know what questions to ask,” says Shaw. “[As a mechanical engineer,] I’m not going to do the design work for an electrical engineer, but I can ask better questions than someone who’s had only one course in circuits.”
In his early years of teaching, Shaw worked alongside former department chair James Gidley, PhD, to obtain ABET accreditation for the engineering program in 1994, leading to the additions of biomedical, environmental, and chemical engineering tracks.
Additionally, Shaw has worked alongside the Center for Student Engagement’s Becky Case, PhD, in developing a “teamwork module” for EGR 101: Introduction to Engineering. This module involves active learning and hands-on opportunities for students, at times including work on the hillside “G,” outdoor learning on the rugby field, and use of the Rapp Technical Design Center. Shaw continues to participate in this portion of the course in his emeritus status.
Favorite memories from his Geneva career center around unique learning opportunities with students — such as the Solar Splash and cross-departmental courses.
The engineering program includes a capstone senior design project, which includes various faculty-sponsored projects. The Solar Splash project has been in circulation since 2000 under the guidance of Shaw, who mentors teams as they build solar-powered boats to compete at an annual competition across the U.S. This initiative, as well as other senior design projects, continue to be fostered by Shaw in his retirement.
In previous years, Shaw partnered with humanities professor Paul Kilpatrick, PhD, to teach a portion of a course which culminated in travel to Puerto Rico. The course was an interdisciplinary blend, including Christen Adels on business and economics, John Stein, PhD, on astronomy, and Marjory Tobias on environmental science. The unique make-up of this humanities course, as well as similar courses centered on the history of England and Scotland, showcase the beauty of a liberal arts college.
This blending of disciplines in work and in friendship has left its mark on Shaw, who notes the positive workplace culture he’s experienced at Geneva over the decades.
“This is a small college. In the early days, it was lunches down in the Brig with John Mitchell from business and Elaine Hockenberger from communication disorders ... it's just the informal things [that leave their mark]. It’s the summer workshops and faculty committees where you’ve got a mix of people from all the disciplines.”
As Shaw begins his first fall semester with no faculty workshops to attend and no (or at least fewer) assignments to grade, his focus is on refining his “retirement list” as he adjusts to new rhythms. His list currently includes continued involvement in his church and its music team, volunteering with Child Evangelism Fellowship in Beaver Falls, and work on car projects in his new "dream garage” where he converts old cars into pickup trucks and performed his first engine swap.
David Shaw has been instrumental in the growth of Geneva’s engineering program — through curriculum development, accreditation, and program expansion, as well as a continued emphasis on the biblical foundation that drives it. Shaw will continue to be involved on campus through faculty-sponsored projects and looks with anticipation towards Geneva’s development of its riverfront property, praying for the new generation of faculty members and students who will fill it with creative engineering, interdisciplinary collaboration, and faithful learning.
By Erika Kauffman '20
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