EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING
RICK WILLIAMS Mechanical engineering senior lecturer Rick Williams doesn’t let his students use their cellphones in class. Break the rule one too many times, and he’ll even ask you to leave. It’s a strict policy. And they love him for it. Williams, director of Auburn University’s Nuclear Power Generation Systems program, has become a fixture at faculty recognition ceremonies in recent years thanks in large part to the mutual respect he’s able to foster in the classroom. In 2018, he won Auburn Engineering’s Outstanding Faculty Award. The following year, he received the William F. Walker Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding faculty achievement in the education of engineering students. Williams says he’s built his approach to instruction around a single maxim: every student matters. “I randomly call on students using an iPad app that I developed, and usually by the end of the semester, I know all of my students by their name,” he said. “I’ve learned that although students do not necessarily like being called on by name to answer questions in class, they do appreciate the fact that it makes them pay attention.”
Listen to our podcast with Rick Williams at eng.auburn.edu/ginning
24
Samuel Ginn College of Engineering
