INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION OF TRANSFORMATIONAL FACULTY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Investment: $480,000
Every year, Notre Dame sees the retirement of distinguished faculty members who have dedicated their lives to inspiring Notre Dame students to be forces for good. Notre Dame is committed to sustaining the tradition of highly qualified faculty teaching students at the intersection of Catholic faith and academic integrity.
As the University responds to a rapidly changing world, breaking down academic silos is essential for bolstering interdisciplinary scholarship, research, and learning. Various University divisions are collaborating in hiring faculty members who can bring Notre Dame’s Catholic mission to the classroom while bridging the gap between adjacent disciplines. Hiring professors who engage with students inside and outside the classroom while inspiring confidence through their mentoring and passion is critical to maintaining Notre Dame’s Catholic character.
FACULTY HIGHLIGHT
As a Notre Dame alum (B.S.‘01, and Ph.D. ‘13), Brian Smith embodies the Notre Dame spirit, serving as a role model to engineering and architecture students alike. As a teaching professor of civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, Brian teaches introductory engineering courses in the First-Year Engineering program as well as upper-level structural design courses for civil engineering and architecture students. He received the College of Engineering’s 2023 Outstanding Teacher Award, and previously won Notre Dame’s Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2017-18). Brian’s teaching philosophy focuses on high student engagement, using cooperative learning strategies to help students apply what they’ve learned to their design projects. His preference for a “flipped classroom model” allows for more interactive and collaborative learning opportunities, which Brian believes are critical when teaching any engineering or architecture course.
