Instructor Spotlight - Joe Haas

What has been your favorite project or research you’ve worked on? Why?

By far the favorite has been teaching and coaching. The whole objective is that other people do well, spur their ideas, get them to ask questions, and build their enthusiasm and confidence. From there, they will take what they have learned, advance themselves and build their career.  

How do you ensure that your students gain practical, hands-on experience with the technical concepts you teach?

First cover the basics, but limit the theory to what is necessary, and bridge from the theory to the design steps. Do increasingly complex design problems, mostly using computer tools. Let them jump into the practice problems. Let them make mistakes because learning from mistakes is often the best way to learn. Find different ways to explain and answer questions as they go through the problems, so they get the feel of how the theory is applied. The objective is not to just to build knowledge but also how to think to solve of problems.

Teaching first requires knowing the subject matter, to keep studying and learning the subject, which happens even while teaching.  Next is think about those who are to learn. Put yourself in their place, listen to them, ask about what they know, their experience, and what problems they have seen.  The training is all about them, and often they will influence the direction of training.  Know the subject well enough and be prepared to change direction to fit the student needs.

What are the latest trends or advancements in your field that you find exciting?

Fractionation is a mature field.  There continues to be advances in column hardware to get more out of a distillation column.  Optimization of distillation schemes are still being made such as heat integration across the full process unit to reduce energy and capital cost, and unit capacity.  The teaching must include these.

What advice would you give to someone looking to develop their technical skills in your field?

Do as many things as possible in the time available.  Ask to work on as many different processes as possible, and a variety of projects, with increasing levels of difficulty.  Don’t be afraid of anything new.  Study, read and listen.  And jump at any chance to coach and teach.  It has always been said that the best way to build your ability and knowledge is to teach the others.

What are your hobbies or interests outside of work?

Playing games with my daughter and son, cooking with them, working out, and trying to relearn German.

Which courses are you scheduled to teach this year? Or what courses are you able to teach on-site?

Besides the Chicago-based Engineering Design Seminar, there are proposals to teach several at customer locations.

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